He died.
Shortly after my ex-wife moved out, in the spring of '89, I heard from two people, Daniel Glass and Kevin Sutter. This had nothing to do with my ex being gone, it was serendipitous, but both of these connections served me well over the years, got me through the nineties, which were hell. The fact that I got through them at all was a miracle. I was broke, my dad died, I had an horrific operation...if it weren't for psychotherapy, I never would have made it through, I wouldn't be here right now.
Ironically both Daniel and Kevin had worked together at Chrysalis, but Kevin had moved on to RCA, he was staying at Le Parc, where he always stayed thereafter, at least until his fortunes took a turn for the worse, and I believe we went out for sushi, some kind of meal, and then in the bowels of the building, in the parking garage, he slipped a cassette into the tape deck of his rental car and he played me the new Silencers album, "A Blues for Buddha."
You probably don't know that record, it was their first one that had the semi hit "Painted Moon," but "A Blues for Buddha" is also spectacular, and it begins with the song "Answer Me," which fades in like a pied piper coming over a hill and then lights into a groove and it's undeniable.
Kevin turned me on to other records, I remember one by Slim Dunlap, but that was after he'd moved to Seattle to work with Jim McKeon.
You see Kevin was a promotion man. A salesman. He started off at CBS in Buffalo, after RCA he worked at East West, but then the major label gigs dried up. For a while there, radio promo people were making seven figures, not that Kevin was ever in that league, but even a regional guy did very well in those years, and they were mostly guys, but there have been spectacular female promotion people too.
And once you get the music business bug, you can't let it go. It's very hard to go straight. First you go independent, hoping it's just an interim gig, before you land another major label job. Then you go to work for somebody else on a full time basis, an established indie, and then ultimately you work for yourself, on ever more minor records.
And this was in an era when there were still six major labels. And the casts changed on a regular basis. That's not so true anymore, then again the labels don't have the power they used to, they're sharing it with the promoters.
So Jim McKeon was a radio guy who'd set up an indie shop in Seattle and Kevin moved there. The timing was right, he was just breaking up with his wife. He never got remarried, and neither did Glynnis. Actually, I never heard of another girlfriend. Glynnis called him for a while, from Arizona, where she had a relative, where she'd gone to get a gig in the airline business, but I haven't gotten a report recently, that all dried up.
I got the impression that Glynnis's family always thought Kevin wasn't good enough for her. They'd met in Buffalo. Neither graduated from college. But Glynnis's family was full of high achievers, her father was a doctor. And Kevin was arrested his first night at college.
It was somewhere in the Midwest, Memphis I recall, I can't remember the name of the institution, but it was a wrong place wrong time kind of situation, and college did not stick.
As for Kevin's background, he came from the Island. As in Long Island. And I remember his father was ill, from either a work accident or something from birth, and had passed, and Kevin was flying high in the music business...
And then he was not.
Kevin was doing well in Seattle. Ultimately McKeon left and Kevin ran the operation himself. He had a car, one of those early Acuras with that sloping rear end. And then a boat. And he insisted I come visit him. This I did. In the summer of '93.
You see Kevin called me every week, not to pitch me, but to talk. In an era when my phone did not ring. He introduced me to his pal Jeff Laufer, who'd also worked at Chrysalis, and I fell in with Jeff's family, they were very good to me.
But when my fortunes started to turn, upon the arrival of the new century, I...was ultimately too busy to talk to Kevin for an hour every week. And he did not have a computer at first. You may not remember those days, when everybody was not computer literate, but that was the case in the music business until about ten or twelve years ago, when computers were easier to use and there was no choice.
But then I heard that Kevin had a heart problem.
It's a terrible story. Business had gone bad. Kevin had to sell his boat, and then his car, and then he let his health insurance lapse.
And that's when it happens.
He went for help a little too late, but he made it through and was upbeat. Most of the time Kevin was upbeat.
And he was really into collecting physical product, especially DVDs, that was his idea of a good time, to pull up one of his DVDs and watch a movie. He continued to do that.
And he continued to be an indie promotion man. With ever more obscure indie records.
But last fall he called it quits. Or maybe it was the fall before, I'd have to look at my e-mail to be sure, and I don't feel like doing that, it will wound me further. He said he was fed up, it was too hard, with too little money.
He moved from the city to the suburbs, and ultimately his mother died and I heard he was going to inherit some money, which I felt good about, he'd make it through.
But then when I wrote about not taking Social Security early, he immediately e-mailed me angry. He had to take Social Security. His accountant told him it was the only way he could make it through.
But Kevin continued to e-mail me. Especially when I wrote something political. You see Kevin was a dyed-in-the-wool left winger. A classic liberal. He was pissed off the way things were going and he was not afraid of saying so. And Kevin knew the story, he was not uninformed. It made me feel good to hear from him.
But I won't hear from him anymore.
I remember Kevin was a couple of years younger than I am. He was tallish, slim, never overweight, and always alive, he was optimistic. But he could be intense, almost all promo people can be that way, especially when they feel a favor is not being repaid.
And now Kevin is gone.
The details? I don't know them, I might never know them. I got a text from Jeff, he didn't know them either, just that Kevin's landlord called him, he'd found his number in Kevin's desk. But probing deeper Jeff told me Kevin's health had not been good, and Kevin insisted Jeff not ask him about it when he called.
So another member of the tribe is gone.
Kevin was a rock and roller through and through. Once he got bitten, he never went straight. He still got excited about new records.
People are complicated. Relationships are complicated. They go through changes. But you remember when someone has been good to you, and if you're someone like me you keep repaying that debt, because they helped you make it through.
I don't know why Kevin couldn't make it through. Jeff said he'd been depressed. But he's not the only one. Sell your soul for rock and roll and it can look very ugly at the end. Kevin's not the only one, I know other record company employees who could never go straight, could never accept being on the outside, and lost a hell of a lot in the process.
So I'm off-kilter. Numb.
But life goes on.
It can end any day. Embrace it. If you don't do it now, you're just going to do it one year later as Warren Miller said, or maybe not at all.
And too many people care about unborn babies more than older people down on their luck. Kevin should have been living in Margaritaville or some other retirement village, with people just like himself, not alone.
But now he's alone forever.
It's a tragedy.
--
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-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Saturday 21 May 2022
Capitalism
The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is take a pee. And this makes no sense to me. I mean I've already gotten up to take a leak multiple times during the night, it's the scourge of the enlarged prostate, you'll be familiar with it if you live long enough. And the funny thing is sometimes I've only peed forty five minutes before. You know, when you wake up but it's still too early to get up and you ultimately lie in bed until the appointed time? How can I still have pee less than an hour later? I never wake up dry, I'm flummoxed.
After that I find some clothes. Although I'm cool with walking around the house naked, but that's not Felice's style. And I always debate what I'm going to wear, is it going to last the whole day long? I mean we had a cold streak here in L.A. last week, I broke out the heavy sweatpants and the long-sleeve t-shirts, but if it warms up during the day I might change to a short-sleeve t, and am I going to wear the same clothes later? And then I remember there's a washer and dryer in the house, that I can wear as many clothes as I want and never freak out that the closet is bare, I can just fire up the machines. Yes, that's my idea of living, of making it, when you have your own washer and dryer.
And then I get my phone. I do not keep it by my bed. Then I'd never get to sleep, I get e-mail all through the night. And you know you can't resist that chime. And then there are the people who complain if you e-mail or text them after eleven, sometimes nine or ten, it's a rule, you get old and you must go to bed earlier. Why would you want to wake up when it's dark? Don't these people know you can silence the ringer/chime? But oldsters are not tech-savvy. Now I'll get e-mail from those who are. So this rule doesn't apply to you, nothing is completely black and white, get over it.
And the first thing I do when I pick up my phone is look at the messages on the lock screen. I scroll through them, see if anything's mega-important. And if there is, I open that message immediately, although for some reason I understand messages better on my computer than my phone, maybe because it's all on one screen, I don't have to scroll, end result being I sometimes get all heated up when the truth is I shouldn't be, but I don't know this until I fire up my computer and then...if there are no important messages, I start going to my sites.
There are too many of them. But usually I start with the "New York Times," to see if the world blew up. And then it's the "Washington Post." And then I go to the "Los Angeles Times" and the "Wall Street Journal" and then I start scrolling my Twitter feed, which is in order of posting, I don't believe in the algorithm, there's no algorithm that replicates the needs and wants of a person.
Did I tell you I do all this on the pot?
Yes, that's my secret space. And sometimes I don't even have to go number two but I sit down anyway. And unless I have an obligation, I'm usually on the throne for about half an hour, catching up, before I go into the kitchen and read the newspapers, which are really yesterday's news, some of which I've already seen.
And after scrolling through my Twitter feed, and I use an app with no ads, but I don't want to tell you which one, because then they'll eliminate it, I go back to the "New York Times," to go beyond the headlines, to take the temperature of the country, to get up to speed.
And this morning, they already posted tomorrow's Maureen Dowd column. She nailed it last week, but she usually doesn't. She gets caught up in style and analogy and the ultimate result is blah. And then I see that Kara Swisher wrote about Elon Musk and Twitter. Okay, she's got wider distribution than me, she's gonna trump me, but despite a strong beginning, which Kara is famous for, the piece petered out, made no new points, gave no new insights, so I won that battle. Did I tell you I'm competitive? You probably are too, but the only person you tell is yourself.
And then I find this piece in the Business section entitled:
"How Jack Welch's Reign at G.E. Gave Us Elon Musk's Twitter Feed - The Onetime 'manager of the century' paved the way for C.E.O.s to moonlight as internet trolls.": https://nyti.ms/386Y2Lr
Now I'm sick of reading about Jack Welch, because the truth is he cooked the books at G.E. and after he left the whole enterprise crumbled. Makes me crazy when these self-promoting crooks are lionized. But
'internet troll'? That didn't compute.
Yes, I'd forgotten how Welch supported Trump and was spewing lies about Obama online. But I do remember how his successors couldn't salvage the company, selling one division after another, getting out of the lauded finance business to the point where the G.E. of yore is no longer going to exist.
But I'm reading this article and this is exactly what this guy is saying! No one could hit their projected targets for years without financial shenanigans. Welch used the finance unit to make the numbers right. Forget the underlying business, it was all about keeping Wall Street happy and getting paid, beaucoup bucks, Welch's severance package was $417 million!
But then it got worse. The author started talking about how Welch's proteges had gone on to ruin one company after another. Yes, it was a Welch acolyte who ran Boeing into not only the ground, but trouble. The same guy who operated out of St. Louis instead of Chicago where the previous Welch follower took the company for tax reasons.
Yes, this was the Welch paradigm. Cut costs, make the numbers look right and then pay yourself handsomely. And that's the game being played today.
And then there was that article in the "Wall Street Journal." I found this in the physical copy. Yes, you see things in the printed version you don't see online. They're there online, but you consume the news differently on a screen, you want the headlines, you don't go that deep, after all you have no TIME!
"Mercedes-Benz's Luxury Pitch Needs Tougher Road Testing - Consumers see the German car brand as more luxurious than investors do. Only smooth driving in stormy conditions can bridge the gap.": https://on.wsj.com/39I8o4W
That article is behind a paywall, because only the headlines are available for free, if you want the complete news you've got to pay for it, and most people don't want to, and therefore they're subject to television, which tells you so much less under the pretense you're being told more, and just gets its news from the "Times" anyway. But if you could read it you'd find out that...
People love their MBZ's. The company is making big bucks. It's just that the stock price does not reflect this. So the CEO's solution? He's gonna stop making cheaper cars and change the mix to focus on ever more expensive upscale luxury ones to improve the margins. You know, ones that start at a hundred thousand euros, which is a hundred and six thousand dollars, and you know the euro is tanking against the dollar, don't you? It's a good time to go to the EU, assuming you've already had Omicron and don't venture too close to Ukraine.
This is completely contrary to the MBZ focus of decades. Yes, get people hooked on the brand because then they'll keep on moving up the ladder. That's the game in the car world, hook 'em and keep 'em. And if you lease it's played even harder, they're always trying to get you to re-up, and they'll forgo physical damage and too many miles to get you behind the wheel of a brand new car. But this guy doesn't care about the business, the brand, the cars, he only cares about the MONEY, Wall Street!
But this guy won't be there too long anyway. The people who run these companies are rarely car guys, rarely experts in the field at any company, they're financial engineers, satiating Wall Street. If the company suffers in the process? So be it, that's ultimately somebody else's problem.
Jack Welch is dead. Youngsters probably have no idea who he is. They probably stopped teaching his philosophy at business school, then again that's a problem, people don't want to get an MBA anymore, not in the same numbers.
You makes your money and you keep it! Doesn't matter what happens thereafter. The story on Wall Street is how all the stockholders are voting against corporate pay packages, but that's only symbolic, there are no teeth in that vote under the law.
And one can say Jack Welch is responsible for these insane executive pay packages. Yup, you've got to pay the new guy what his peers are getting, who get what they're getting because some guy who worked at G.E. got overpaid to begin with!
But I'm just sitting by the side of the road observing all this.
You can't criticize anybody who makes big bucks. That's what outsiders don't know about the music business. No one cares about the art, they only care about the money! The acts come and go, the suits remain. The decision is based on money, the exec's pay, not the act's pay. Of course there are exceptions, people give lip service to the opposite take, but don't believe it, people say one thing and do another all day long.
As for the Jack Welch style, of cooking the books, EMI was famous for this, shipping product at the end of the year to make their numbers, so the execs got bonuses, and then the retailers ultimately returned the product, after the execs banked the cash. Guy Hands realized all this, tried to make it news, but the record biz is an inside game, so he was excised, after grossly overpaying for the assets to begin with, based on these cooked numbers. Quick, who was running Capitol, EMI's flagship American label, when Hands bought EMI? You've got no idea, but be sure that person was paid seven figures per annum, at least.
And as opposed to wanting to put a stake in the heart of these business practices, the outsiders, the hoi polloi, just want to get in. That's the goal of a "musician" today, to become a brand. They want that money!
And the GOP stripped the IRS, so your odds of getting audited are higher if you're poor, which makes no sense whatsoever, and in truth there are not enough auditors to go over the returns anyway. So, you hire an expensive lawyer that cooks up a gray scheme and you're never caught and if you are you blame it on the attorneys and accountants, disproving intent, so you don't go to jail. As for payment? If there's one at all, there's a settlement.
Everything I said above is true. Tell yourself otherwise, listen to scuttlebutt, both on the TV and the computer, saying different, but that's either intentional obfuscation or ignorance. If people found out how the game is really played, they'd be up in arms, totally pissed! Instead, they're focused on a "stolen" election with no provable fraud whatsoever. And you're surprised these business people skate?
That's America folks. That's the country you live in. Where who is lauded today is exposed thereafter, but the conveyor belt of news moves so fast the story is buried, or it was too long in the past to worry about, or the perp is now dead, and the big wheel keeps on turnin', and then one day you find out you missed the gravy train or...
You realize it when you're still playing the game, and you form a union. This is Amazon's, Starbucks' and the car companies' worst nightmare. "You can't form a union, it will affect our profits, it will affect our stock!" People are fungible, but the company must carry on. And first and foremost investors must get a return on their money.
And like the record company titans of yore, rather than give workers what they deserve, their royalties, they give them a Cadillac, or some other token that's worth less than what they're entitled to.
And if you expose all this, if you agitate for change, you're excoriated, because no one wants to admit they're a failure, or their career is stalled, they've been sold the American Dream, which George Carlin has labeled a nightmare, and he's right.
But USA! USA! USA!
Make America Great Again?
These are the same leaders who ruined it for everybody but themselves. As for change, it must happen slowly, unless it benefits the rich, like tax cuts.
So these problems will only be resolved when people wake up.
But that's too painful, which is why so many take drugs. I mean how could you work some of these jobs straight? And it's Purdue Pharma and Wall Street who created this mess. Got the public hooked, after the prescriptions ran out they went to heroin, sold by Mexicans, which is now laced with fentanyl, which is killing our youth 24/7.
But it's their fault, they must take personal responsibility.
Well when do these corporations take responsibility, the people making these decisions?
NEVER!
--
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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After that I find some clothes. Although I'm cool with walking around the house naked, but that's not Felice's style. And I always debate what I'm going to wear, is it going to last the whole day long? I mean we had a cold streak here in L.A. last week, I broke out the heavy sweatpants and the long-sleeve t-shirts, but if it warms up during the day I might change to a short-sleeve t, and am I going to wear the same clothes later? And then I remember there's a washer and dryer in the house, that I can wear as many clothes as I want and never freak out that the closet is bare, I can just fire up the machines. Yes, that's my idea of living, of making it, when you have your own washer and dryer.
And then I get my phone. I do not keep it by my bed. Then I'd never get to sleep, I get e-mail all through the night. And you know you can't resist that chime. And then there are the people who complain if you e-mail or text them after eleven, sometimes nine or ten, it's a rule, you get old and you must go to bed earlier. Why would you want to wake up when it's dark? Don't these people know you can silence the ringer/chime? But oldsters are not tech-savvy. Now I'll get e-mail from those who are. So this rule doesn't apply to you, nothing is completely black and white, get over it.
And the first thing I do when I pick up my phone is look at the messages on the lock screen. I scroll through them, see if anything's mega-important. And if there is, I open that message immediately, although for some reason I understand messages better on my computer than my phone, maybe because it's all on one screen, I don't have to scroll, end result being I sometimes get all heated up when the truth is I shouldn't be, but I don't know this until I fire up my computer and then...if there are no important messages, I start going to my sites.
There are too many of them. But usually I start with the "New York Times," to see if the world blew up. And then it's the "Washington Post." And then I go to the "Los Angeles Times" and the "Wall Street Journal" and then I start scrolling my Twitter feed, which is in order of posting, I don't believe in the algorithm, there's no algorithm that replicates the needs and wants of a person.
Did I tell you I do all this on the pot?
Yes, that's my secret space. And sometimes I don't even have to go number two but I sit down anyway. And unless I have an obligation, I'm usually on the throne for about half an hour, catching up, before I go into the kitchen and read the newspapers, which are really yesterday's news, some of which I've already seen.
And after scrolling through my Twitter feed, and I use an app with no ads, but I don't want to tell you which one, because then they'll eliminate it, I go back to the "New York Times," to go beyond the headlines, to take the temperature of the country, to get up to speed.
And this morning, they already posted tomorrow's Maureen Dowd column. She nailed it last week, but she usually doesn't. She gets caught up in style and analogy and the ultimate result is blah. And then I see that Kara Swisher wrote about Elon Musk and Twitter. Okay, she's got wider distribution than me, she's gonna trump me, but despite a strong beginning, which Kara is famous for, the piece petered out, made no new points, gave no new insights, so I won that battle. Did I tell you I'm competitive? You probably are too, but the only person you tell is yourself.
And then I find this piece in the Business section entitled:
"How Jack Welch's Reign at G.E. Gave Us Elon Musk's Twitter Feed - The Onetime 'manager of the century' paved the way for C.E.O.s to moonlight as internet trolls.": https://nyti.ms/386Y2Lr
Now I'm sick of reading about Jack Welch, because the truth is he cooked the books at G.E. and after he left the whole enterprise crumbled. Makes me crazy when these self-promoting crooks are lionized. But
'internet troll'? That didn't compute.
Yes, I'd forgotten how Welch supported Trump and was spewing lies about Obama online. But I do remember how his successors couldn't salvage the company, selling one division after another, getting out of the lauded finance business to the point where the G.E. of yore is no longer going to exist.
But I'm reading this article and this is exactly what this guy is saying! No one could hit their projected targets for years without financial shenanigans. Welch used the finance unit to make the numbers right. Forget the underlying business, it was all about keeping Wall Street happy and getting paid, beaucoup bucks, Welch's severance package was $417 million!
But then it got worse. The author started talking about how Welch's proteges had gone on to ruin one company after another. Yes, it was a Welch acolyte who ran Boeing into not only the ground, but trouble. The same guy who operated out of St. Louis instead of Chicago where the previous Welch follower took the company for tax reasons.
Yes, this was the Welch paradigm. Cut costs, make the numbers look right and then pay yourself handsomely. And that's the game being played today.
And then there was that article in the "Wall Street Journal." I found this in the physical copy. Yes, you see things in the printed version you don't see online. They're there online, but you consume the news differently on a screen, you want the headlines, you don't go that deep, after all you have no TIME!
"Mercedes-Benz's Luxury Pitch Needs Tougher Road Testing - Consumers see the German car brand as more luxurious than investors do. Only smooth driving in stormy conditions can bridge the gap.": https://on.wsj.com/39I8o4W
That article is behind a paywall, because only the headlines are available for free, if you want the complete news you've got to pay for it, and most people don't want to, and therefore they're subject to television, which tells you so much less under the pretense you're being told more, and just gets its news from the "Times" anyway. But if you could read it you'd find out that...
People love their MBZ's. The company is making big bucks. It's just that the stock price does not reflect this. So the CEO's solution? He's gonna stop making cheaper cars and change the mix to focus on ever more expensive upscale luxury ones to improve the margins. You know, ones that start at a hundred thousand euros, which is a hundred and six thousand dollars, and you know the euro is tanking against the dollar, don't you? It's a good time to go to the EU, assuming you've already had Omicron and don't venture too close to Ukraine.
This is completely contrary to the MBZ focus of decades. Yes, get people hooked on the brand because then they'll keep on moving up the ladder. That's the game in the car world, hook 'em and keep 'em. And if you lease it's played even harder, they're always trying to get you to re-up, and they'll forgo physical damage and too many miles to get you behind the wheel of a brand new car. But this guy doesn't care about the business, the brand, the cars, he only cares about the MONEY, Wall Street!
But this guy won't be there too long anyway. The people who run these companies are rarely car guys, rarely experts in the field at any company, they're financial engineers, satiating Wall Street. If the company suffers in the process? So be it, that's ultimately somebody else's problem.
Jack Welch is dead. Youngsters probably have no idea who he is. They probably stopped teaching his philosophy at business school, then again that's a problem, people don't want to get an MBA anymore, not in the same numbers.
You makes your money and you keep it! Doesn't matter what happens thereafter. The story on Wall Street is how all the stockholders are voting against corporate pay packages, but that's only symbolic, there are no teeth in that vote under the law.
And one can say Jack Welch is responsible for these insane executive pay packages. Yup, you've got to pay the new guy what his peers are getting, who get what they're getting because some guy who worked at G.E. got overpaid to begin with!
But I'm just sitting by the side of the road observing all this.
You can't criticize anybody who makes big bucks. That's what outsiders don't know about the music business. No one cares about the art, they only care about the money! The acts come and go, the suits remain. The decision is based on money, the exec's pay, not the act's pay. Of course there are exceptions, people give lip service to the opposite take, but don't believe it, people say one thing and do another all day long.
As for the Jack Welch style, of cooking the books, EMI was famous for this, shipping product at the end of the year to make their numbers, so the execs got bonuses, and then the retailers ultimately returned the product, after the execs banked the cash. Guy Hands realized all this, tried to make it news, but the record biz is an inside game, so he was excised, after grossly overpaying for the assets to begin with, based on these cooked numbers. Quick, who was running Capitol, EMI's flagship American label, when Hands bought EMI? You've got no idea, but be sure that person was paid seven figures per annum, at least.
And as opposed to wanting to put a stake in the heart of these business practices, the outsiders, the hoi polloi, just want to get in. That's the goal of a "musician" today, to become a brand. They want that money!
And the GOP stripped the IRS, so your odds of getting audited are higher if you're poor, which makes no sense whatsoever, and in truth there are not enough auditors to go over the returns anyway. So, you hire an expensive lawyer that cooks up a gray scheme and you're never caught and if you are you blame it on the attorneys and accountants, disproving intent, so you don't go to jail. As for payment? If there's one at all, there's a settlement.
Everything I said above is true. Tell yourself otherwise, listen to scuttlebutt, both on the TV and the computer, saying different, but that's either intentional obfuscation or ignorance. If people found out how the game is really played, they'd be up in arms, totally pissed! Instead, they're focused on a "stolen" election with no provable fraud whatsoever. And you're surprised these business people skate?
That's America folks. That's the country you live in. Where who is lauded today is exposed thereafter, but the conveyor belt of news moves so fast the story is buried, or it was too long in the past to worry about, or the perp is now dead, and the big wheel keeps on turnin', and then one day you find out you missed the gravy train or...
You realize it when you're still playing the game, and you form a union. This is Amazon's, Starbucks' and the car companies' worst nightmare. "You can't form a union, it will affect our profits, it will affect our stock!" People are fungible, but the company must carry on. And first and foremost investors must get a return on their money.
And like the record company titans of yore, rather than give workers what they deserve, their royalties, they give them a Cadillac, or some other token that's worth less than what they're entitled to.
And if you expose all this, if you agitate for change, you're excoriated, because no one wants to admit they're a failure, or their career is stalled, they've been sold the American Dream, which George Carlin has labeled a nightmare, and he's right.
But USA! USA! USA!
Make America Great Again?
These are the same leaders who ruined it for everybody but themselves. As for change, it must happen slowly, unless it benefits the rich, like tax cuts.
So these problems will only be resolved when people wake up.
But that's too painful, which is why so many take drugs. I mean how could you work some of these jobs straight? And it's Purdue Pharma and Wall Street who created this mess. Got the public hooked, after the prescriptions ran out they went to heroin, sold by Mexicans, which is now laced with fentanyl, which is killing our youth 24/7.
But it's their fault, they must take personal responsibility.
Well when do these corporations take responsibility, the people making these decisions?
NEVER!
--
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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Friday 20 May 2022
Musk Self-Immolates
And brings Tesla down in the process.
By the time you read this, "The New York Times" documentary on Tesla will have launched on Hulu. But read here for the main takeaways:
"Company insiders rip Tesla's stance on safety in hard-hitting Elon Musk doc": https://lat.ms/3LyXbki
For months the story has been percolating in the press. How Elon Musk personally chose a self-driving system that everyone but he believe is substandard. This is one case in which the ancient, rearguard companies, may win in the end, by being cautious and thorough, which is hard for a tech company to be, at least one being launched and trying to build a customer base.
Conventional wisdom is all publicity is good publicity. But if you believe that, you're still living in the twentieth century, because that's not how it works these days. Today you can burn up right in front of our very eyes. Remember Charlie Sheen?
What a story that was, with many reveals, like the HIV infection. Now? Charlie Sheen lost his seven figure a week TV contract and has faded from public view. Turns out when the lens was focused upon him the public learned a lot of stuff it wished it hadn't, people can't look at Sheen the same way anymore, and generally speaking they don't want to look at him at all.
Ditto Johnny Depp.
Don't look through the eyes of the public. Look through the eyes of those who pay Depp's bills, i.e. the movie studios. Depp is too high a risk, the business can exist just fine without him, just like the music business can exist just fine without Travis Scott.
One thing we can say about both Musk and Depp is despite being in the public eye, they're completely out of touch with what the public thinks. This is what happens when you get too rich. The doors may open in front of you, but they close behind you, you lose your frame of reference. And when you think you know better, you're just cruisin' for a bruisin'.
Don't forget that big media is still operating by twentieth century standards. Then again, it's social media standards too... Whatever garners eyeballs is published/shown. If it bleeds, it leads. Hell, Don Henley even sang about this forty years ago in "Dirty Laundry."
But that does not mean what they lead with is what the public is interested in.
That's the big story, how everything is niche. Except for a very thin layer of people. We've got Trump, Elon, Kanye...even Biden isn't as big. Hell, most people have no idea what Biden has done in office, they just hear the buzz that he hasn't delivered and buy it. Proving, once again, that facts are fungible and the truth is irrelevant.
The big phrase in the music business used to be "world domination." It started when the Police toured the entire world, places where no rock band had gone before, their manager and agent's father had worked for the CIA, they were aware of the entire world and realized even if you don't make much money on the actual show, just by going to these far-off countries dividends are paid in consumption in the future.
And then every band wanted to do this. So album cycles got longer and longer. Because it took years to tour the world and hoover up all that money. They put out single after single from the album, to keep the fire burning, and the record may have come out when you were in high school, but by time your favorite act released its follow-up, you could be married, even with kids!
But that's done.
You see you have to focus on the bleeding edge.
And the bleeding edge tells us that you must employ the new tools and you must be in the marketplace almost always, not only with new material but social media posts. Oldsters hate this, but this is the job today, you're more than just a singer/writer/player. Sure, you can hire a team to do this for you, but the truth is the public can feel the phoniness, they want honesty, if you didn't write it it usually doesn't resonate and people stop coming back, and you want and need people to come back.
But there are so many more offerings in the channel. Nothing is ubiquitous. The media reports these stories, believing most people care, but most people don't. Rihanna had a baby? When was the last time she put out a record? In other words, all the big stories are not.
And I could go much deeper, but I'd mess with your preconceptions.
One of the biggest acts in the world doesn't go clean, i.e. sell all the tickets. And if you parse the sales and streams the numbers are not too good either. But the media keeps pounding you with contrary information, purveyed by the artist's label and team, so you think it's true, and it's not.
Free Britney. Well, we all learned something about the conservatorship game, but no one has been convinced Spears is not bats__t crazy. And most people don't care about her, her activities, her music, nothing. She's got a very vocal group of fans.
Even BTS. Amazing numbers, but the truth is their fans are zealots. There seems to be a moat around the band and its influence, if you're on the other side you don't know and don't care and can't be converted.
And there's plenty of money in these giant niches. Hell, there's plenty of money in small niches today, but if you have to appeal to everybody?
That's a different game.
Don't compare Tesla with a band. Tesla is a corporation with more money at stake than not only any artist, but any record label. It only works if everything in the food chain is aligned. Not only the supply chain and the cars themselves, but the consumers who Tesla depends upon to buy their automobiles and keep the virtuous circle going.
But if the public finds out that the circle is not so virtuous?
Tesla's got a problem.
Don't compare Elon Musk to Steve Jobs, Jobs died before the social media everybody knows everything culture really gained traction. We didn't know what Jobs was doing minute by minute, he was not smoking a doobie on camera, as a matter of fact, Jobs was very private, he believed in secrecy, not only for himself but his company. You were on a need to know basis, and you only knew what he wanted you to.
This is how the blue bloods did it back in the day. Wore chinos and drove Country Squires and you didn't realize they were rich, but they were. But unlike the rich of old, today's people with uber-money didn't inherit it, they earned it. And they believe they're entitled to it, that they're better than the rest of us, and we can feel it, we know it.
Let's go back to Kanye. For all of the information, all of the news, the grosses for his album release parties, the truth is his audience is getting smaller and smaller. Like I said above, you can be niche and still appeal to enough people to make bank. As for his clothing and other enterprises... This guy is doing his best to undercut those too, which are sold on cool, because Kanye is out of touch and now we all know it, that he's bipolar. Once you start threatening to kill your ex's new boyfriend, that's over the line for just about everybody, other than the small cadre of truly delusional.
As for Trump... The story isn't that his endorsed candidates did so well in the primaries, but how many did not. Even "The Wall Street Journal" had a piece about that. You see the old institutions, the old Republicans, want to wrest control of the party back from Trump, not only because of his power, but because he, like Britney, is bats__t crazy. Sure, some people think he's god, but fewer and fewer every day.
You see Trump has pushed the line too far. He's gotten in trouble with the law. He's only skating because elected officials were afraid of him and he was President, believe me, if it was anybody else they'd be locked up. And don't forget, Roger Stone was.
So you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. You have to take the temperature of your career 24/7. You're the upstart hero, then you're established and then you're the object of hatred. Just look at the English music press if you want an example of the paradigm.
So Elon was one of the PayPal bros, and then there was Tesla and SpaceX and for those paying attention, and believe me it wasn't everybody until very recently, they had hope. Here was one man making a difference. Doing it different, as Apple would say.
But then the light started to shine upon him.
He could never be wrong. He barked back at the press. And at first it looked admirable, standing up for his company, over mileage and other issues, but then it became evidence of his personality. A singular, unlikable one.
Have you ever met any of your heroes? I hope not, because they very rarely measure up to your expectations. Not only musicians, but politicians and corporate executives too. Their images are massaged for the public. And the truth is to make it to the top you've got to be cutthroat and ruthless and usually flawed, you need the success to make you whole, at least that's what you believe. But the public doesn't cotton to people like this. The public is looking for heroes, but not this type. Something more along the lines of Bernie Sanders, who believes in his mission of helping the underdog and can laugh at himself.
Once again, it doesn't matter if you hate Bernie and everything he stands for, he's only got to appeal to enough people to win. And really, his job depends on the people of the state of Vermont, not those outside the hinterlands.
So you can double-down and marginalize yourself. That's what Tucker Carlson has done over at Fox. He had the patina of credibility, at least according to his acolytes, but now he too is seen as bats__t crazy. I mean taking Russia's side? Supporting Orban in Hungary? And he could have taken responsibility for the "replacement theory" uttered by the Buffalo shooter, but he couldn't even do that. I mean he could have weaseled, but also called for calm and change. But he didn't, he just doubled-down on his beliefs appealing to his usual audience. You know if you got him in a room, with no mics, he wouldn't spout this crap, after all Carlson called Hunter Biden to help him get his kid into Georgetown!
And now we know SpaceX paid $250,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim against Musk. Would this have come out if not for the Twitter shenanigans? No. People come out of the woodwork with stories, the media is looking for them, and voila, Musk looks bad.
But not only does Musk look bad, every company he's aligned with looks bad.
Now SpaceX is kept alive by the government and corporations, but Tesla, Elon's spearhead brand, is kept alive by the public. Are you gonna buy a Tesla now?
The drumbeat is getting louder.
Sure, Tesla has the best software, but no one says they have the best interiors, not for that amount of money. And fit and finish has been an issue from day one. To buy a Tesla you have to take a leap of faith, you want to not only be identified with the electric car/low pollution movement, you want to align yourself with a special brand that will rub off on you and your image.
And believe me, there are not enough right wingers to keep Tesla's assembly line churning.
And then Musk comes out and says he's switching political parties, he's now a Republican and will vote such in the upcoming elections. Have you ever seen the head of another Fortune 500 company say who they're voting for and then amplify it? That's anathema, the goal is to appeal to everybody. This is the hot water Disney is now in. It wants to support the LGBTQ community and right wing Florida legislators at the same time. And the company is having a hard time doing it. Why? Because Bob Chapek is a weasel who didn't know you get ahead of the controversy. You see Chapek was a background figure who'd never interacted with the press unlike his predecessor Bob Iger. You can't only play defense, you've got to play offense too. And a corporation can move much faster than the government.
And the government is investigating Tesla crashes.
The Corvair? Ralph Nader killed it, Chevrolet had no choice but to stop making it.
The Ford Explorer? It reigned. But when the rollovers and fires happened... The paradigm shifted, people didn't go back to buying the old Explorer, competitors burgeoned, with a new kind of product, an SUV body on a car frame, as opposed to a truck frame, which is how most SUVs you see out there are constructed today. They may look like a truck, but underneath they're a car.
Never mind the Pinto.
Malcolm Gladwell says the Pinto was safe.
But Gladwell has been so wrong about so much that he's lost his credibility, and his power over the marketplace. He put out an audio book on Paul Simon to crickets. He sold out to Lexus. He took the money and sacrificed his trustworthiness. He used to be on the side of the little person, now he's talking down to us.
Yes, everyone was aware of "The Tipping Point," but ask people what Gladwell's last book was... Most have no idea. And the truth is Gladwell still has a good business, but he too is niche.
Elon Musk is not niche.
Elon Musk is pulling a Charlie Sheen. He's crazed. He's got the public's attention and he doesn't want to let go, he thrives on the spotlight. But when you're in the spotlight forever people don't like it, and they go looking for your flaws.
How many Musk bros are left?
One thing is for sure, their numbers are dwindling.
And now Tesla has competitors. Maybe not as good today, but they're getting closer. And customer service is better elsewhere, especially with the luxury brands.
So beware of trying to be world dominant these days. You'll be subject to the slings and arrows. You may think you're a hero, but assuming anybody's paying attention there will be a huge cadre of people trying to turn you into a zero.
Know that you're probably always going to be niche, so play the game accordingly. When you try to reach everybody you won't, and chances are you'll alienate many.
The game has changed, and you must change with it.
You don't want to be too famous. Especially if you're a behind the scenes person anyway. Like the artist manager, or record company executive. Not everybody is showbiz, not everybody is a rock star, despite the press calling nerds who never went on a date who start tech companies so.
Don't buy the hype. Musk is trying his best to pull out of the Twitter deal and his online activities have hurt Tesla.
Let that be a lesson to you.
--
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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By the time you read this, "The New York Times" documentary on Tesla will have launched on Hulu. But read here for the main takeaways:
"Company insiders rip Tesla's stance on safety in hard-hitting Elon Musk doc": https://lat.ms/3LyXbki
For months the story has been percolating in the press. How Elon Musk personally chose a self-driving system that everyone but he believe is substandard. This is one case in which the ancient, rearguard companies, may win in the end, by being cautious and thorough, which is hard for a tech company to be, at least one being launched and trying to build a customer base.
Conventional wisdom is all publicity is good publicity. But if you believe that, you're still living in the twentieth century, because that's not how it works these days. Today you can burn up right in front of our very eyes. Remember Charlie Sheen?
What a story that was, with many reveals, like the HIV infection. Now? Charlie Sheen lost his seven figure a week TV contract and has faded from public view. Turns out when the lens was focused upon him the public learned a lot of stuff it wished it hadn't, people can't look at Sheen the same way anymore, and generally speaking they don't want to look at him at all.
Ditto Johnny Depp.
Don't look through the eyes of the public. Look through the eyes of those who pay Depp's bills, i.e. the movie studios. Depp is too high a risk, the business can exist just fine without him, just like the music business can exist just fine without Travis Scott.
One thing we can say about both Musk and Depp is despite being in the public eye, they're completely out of touch with what the public thinks. This is what happens when you get too rich. The doors may open in front of you, but they close behind you, you lose your frame of reference. And when you think you know better, you're just cruisin' for a bruisin'.
Don't forget that big media is still operating by twentieth century standards. Then again, it's social media standards too... Whatever garners eyeballs is published/shown. If it bleeds, it leads. Hell, Don Henley even sang about this forty years ago in "Dirty Laundry."
But that does not mean what they lead with is what the public is interested in.
That's the big story, how everything is niche. Except for a very thin layer of people. We've got Trump, Elon, Kanye...even Biden isn't as big. Hell, most people have no idea what Biden has done in office, they just hear the buzz that he hasn't delivered and buy it. Proving, once again, that facts are fungible and the truth is irrelevant.
The big phrase in the music business used to be "world domination." It started when the Police toured the entire world, places where no rock band had gone before, their manager and agent's father had worked for the CIA, they were aware of the entire world and realized even if you don't make much money on the actual show, just by going to these far-off countries dividends are paid in consumption in the future.
And then every band wanted to do this. So album cycles got longer and longer. Because it took years to tour the world and hoover up all that money. They put out single after single from the album, to keep the fire burning, and the record may have come out when you were in high school, but by time your favorite act released its follow-up, you could be married, even with kids!
But that's done.
You see you have to focus on the bleeding edge.
And the bleeding edge tells us that you must employ the new tools and you must be in the marketplace almost always, not only with new material but social media posts. Oldsters hate this, but this is the job today, you're more than just a singer/writer/player. Sure, you can hire a team to do this for you, but the truth is the public can feel the phoniness, they want honesty, if you didn't write it it usually doesn't resonate and people stop coming back, and you want and need people to come back.
But there are so many more offerings in the channel. Nothing is ubiquitous. The media reports these stories, believing most people care, but most people don't. Rihanna had a baby? When was the last time she put out a record? In other words, all the big stories are not.
And I could go much deeper, but I'd mess with your preconceptions.
One of the biggest acts in the world doesn't go clean, i.e. sell all the tickets. And if you parse the sales and streams the numbers are not too good either. But the media keeps pounding you with contrary information, purveyed by the artist's label and team, so you think it's true, and it's not.
Free Britney. Well, we all learned something about the conservatorship game, but no one has been convinced Spears is not bats__t crazy. And most people don't care about her, her activities, her music, nothing. She's got a very vocal group of fans.
Even BTS. Amazing numbers, but the truth is their fans are zealots. There seems to be a moat around the band and its influence, if you're on the other side you don't know and don't care and can't be converted.
And there's plenty of money in these giant niches. Hell, there's plenty of money in small niches today, but if you have to appeal to everybody?
That's a different game.
Don't compare Tesla with a band. Tesla is a corporation with more money at stake than not only any artist, but any record label. It only works if everything in the food chain is aligned. Not only the supply chain and the cars themselves, but the consumers who Tesla depends upon to buy their automobiles and keep the virtuous circle going.
But if the public finds out that the circle is not so virtuous?
Tesla's got a problem.
Don't compare Elon Musk to Steve Jobs, Jobs died before the social media everybody knows everything culture really gained traction. We didn't know what Jobs was doing minute by minute, he was not smoking a doobie on camera, as a matter of fact, Jobs was very private, he believed in secrecy, not only for himself but his company. You were on a need to know basis, and you only knew what he wanted you to.
This is how the blue bloods did it back in the day. Wore chinos and drove Country Squires and you didn't realize they were rich, but they were. But unlike the rich of old, today's people with uber-money didn't inherit it, they earned it. And they believe they're entitled to it, that they're better than the rest of us, and we can feel it, we know it.
Let's go back to Kanye. For all of the information, all of the news, the grosses for his album release parties, the truth is his audience is getting smaller and smaller. Like I said above, you can be niche and still appeal to enough people to make bank. As for his clothing and other enterprises... This guy is doing his best to undercut those too, which are sold on cool, because Kanye is out of touch and now we all know it, that he's bipolar. Once you start threatening to kill your ex's new boyfriend, that's over the line for just about everybody, other than the small cadre of truly delusional.
As for Trump... The story isn't that his endorsed candidates did so well in the primaries, but how many did not. Even "The Wall Street Journal" had a piece about that. You see the old institutions, the old Republicans, want to wrest control of the party back from Trump, not only because of his power, but because he, like Britney, is bats__t crazy. Sure, some people think he's god, but fewer and fewer every day.
You see Trump has pushed the line too far. He's gotten in trouble with the law. He's only skating because elected officials were afraid of him and he was President, believe me, if it was anybody else they'd be locked up. And don't forget, Roger Stone was.
So you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. You have to take the temperature of your career 24/7. You're the upstart hero, then you're established and then you're the object of hatred. Just look at the English music press if you want an example of the paradigm.
So Elon was one of the PayPal bros, and then there was Tesla and SpaceX and for those paying attention, and believe me it wasn't everybody until very recently, they had hope. Here was one man making a difference. Doing it different, as Apple would say.
But then the light started to shine upon him.
He could never be wrong. He barked back at the press. And at first it looked admirable, standing up for his company, over mileage and other issues, but then it became evidence of his personality. A singular, unlikable one.
Have you ever met any of your heroes? I hope not, because they very rarely measure up to your expectations. Not only musicians, but politicians and corporate executives too. Their images are massaged for the public. And the truth is to make it to the top you've got to be cutthroat and ruthless and usually flawed, you need the success to make you whole, at least that's what you believe. But the public doesn't cotton to people like this. The public is looking for heroes, but not this type. Something more along the lines of Bernie Sanders, who believes in his mission of helping the underdog and can laugh at himself.
Once again, it doesn't matter if you hate Bernie and everything he stands for, he's only got to appeal to enough people to win. And really, his job depends on the people of the state of Vermont, not those outside the hinterlands.
So you can double-down and marginalize yourself. That's what Tucker Carlson has done over at Fox. He had the patina of credibility, at least according to his acolytes, but now he too is seen as bats__t crazy. I mean taking Russia's side? Supporting Orban in Hungary? And he could have taken responsibility for the "replacement theory" uttered by the Buffalo shooter, but he couldn't even do that. I mean he could have weaseled, but also called for calm and change. But he didn't, he just doubled-down on his beliefs appealing to his usual audience. You know if you got him in a room, with no mics, he wouldn't spout this crap, after all Carlson called Hunter Biden to help him get his kid into Georgetown!
And now we know SpaceX paid $250,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim against Musk. Would this have come out if not for the Twitter shenanigans? No. People come out of the woodwork with stories, the media is looking for them, and voila, Musk looks bad.
But not only does Musk look bad, every company he's aligned with looks bad.
Now SpaceX is kept alive by the government and corporations, but Tesla, Elon's spearhead brand, is kept alive by the public. Are you gonna buy a Tesla now?
The drumbeat is getting louder.
Sure, Tesla has the best software, but no one says they have the best interiors, not for that amount of money. And fit and finish has been an issue from day one. To buy a Tesla you have to take a leap of faith, you want to not only be identified with the electric car/low pollution movement, you want to align yourself with a special brand that will rub off on you and your image.
And believe me, there are not enough right wingers to keep Tesla's assembly line churning.
And then Musk comes out and says he's switching political parties, he's now a Republican and will vote such in the upcoming elections. Have you ever seen the head of another Fortune 500 company say who they're voting for and then amplify it? That's anathema, the goal is to appeal to everybody. This is the hot water Disney is now in. It wants to support the LGBTQ community and right wing Florida legislators at the same time. And the company is having a hard time doing it. Why? Because Bob Chapek is a weasel who didn't know you get ahead of the controversy. You see Chapek was a background figure who'd never interacted with the press unlike his predecessor Bob Iger. You can't only play defense, you've got to play offense too. And a corporation can move much faster than the government.
And the government is investigating Tesla crashes.
The Corvair? Ralph Nader killed it, Chevrolet had no choice but to stop making it.
The Ford Explorer? It reigned. But when the rollovers and fires happened... The paradigm shifted, people didn't go back to buying the old Explorer, competitors burgeoned, with a new kind of product, an SUV body on a car frame, as opposed to a truck frame, which is how most SUVs you see out there are constructed today. They may look like a truck, but underneath they're a car.
Never mind the Pinto.
Malcolm Gladwell says the Pinto was safe.
But Gladwell has been so wrong about so much that he's lost his credibility, and his power over the marketplace. He put out an audio book on Paul Simon to crickets. He sold out to Lexus. He took the money and sacrificed his trustworthiness. He used to be on the side of the little person, now he's talking down to us.
Yes, everyone was aware of "The Tipping Point," but ask people what Gladwell's last book was... Most have no idea. And the truth is Gladwell still has a good business, but he too is niche.
Elon Musk is not niche.
Elon Musk is pulling a Charlie Sheen. He's crazed. He's got the public's attention and he doesn't want to let go, he thrives on the spotlight. But when you're in the spotlight forever people don't like it, and they go looking for your flaws.
How many Musk bros are left?
One thing is for sure, their numbers are dwindling.
And now Tesla has competitors. Maybe not as good today, but they're getting closer. And customer service is better elsewhere, especially with the luxury brands.
So beware of trying to be world dominant these days. You'll be subject to the slings and arrows. You may think you're a hero, but assuming anybody's paying attention there will be a huge cadre of people trying to turn you into a zero.
Know that you're probably always going to be niche, so play the game accordingly. When you try to reach everybody you won't, and chances are you'll alienate many.
The game has changed, and you must change with it.
You don't want to be too famous. Especially if you're a behind the scenes person anyway. Like the artist manager, or record company executive. Not everybody is showbiz, not everybody is a rock star, despite the press calling nerds who never went on a date who start tech companies so.
Don't buy the hype. Musk is trying his best to pull out of the Twitter deal and his online activities have hurt Tesla.
Let that be a lesson to you.
--
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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To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
Thursday 19 May 2022
Bill Browder-This Week's Podcast
Bill Browder is the author of "Red Notice" and "Freezing Order," which delineate his investments in Russia and the ultimate death of his attorney Sergei Magnitsky after he refuses to back down on his accusation that Russian government officials fraudulently claimed a $230 million tax refund for Browder's company, Hermitage Capital. We cover Browder's history and ultimate investments in Russia as well as Putin's personal vendetta against him and the status of Russia today.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/bill-browder-97123014/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-browder/id1316200737?i=1000562505962
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rx5iBBpYrdI5aaeFjW7nD?si=SA7BzR0kQNuG0-xos5_0rg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/37c9677d-8767-4d84-b1db-2ea49428df9e/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-bill-browder
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/bill-browder-203307554
--
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
--
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/bill-browder-97123014/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-browder/id1316200737?i=1000562505962
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rx5iBBpYrdI5aaeFjW7nD?si=SA7BzR0kQNuG0-xos5_0rg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/37c9677d-8767-4d84-b1db-2ea49428df9e/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-bill-browder
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/bill-browder-203307554
--
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--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Wednesday 18 May 2022
Re-The Skunk Baxter Podcast
Bob, I just wanted to comment on your masterful interview with Jeff. To hear two individuals on such an even playing field intellectually was both heartfelt and "fact felt". Tempo was awesome, not a dull moment. Thank you for spotlighting an amazing musician and genuinely interesting human being. Sincerely, Dann Huff
___________________________________
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Now I know who I'd like to invite to a fantasy dinner or be stuck with in an elevator.
The only negative aspect of this podcast might be, "How will you ever find a more engaging guest for The Lefsetz Podcast than Skunk Baxter?"
Keith Brown
___________________________________
What a fascinating conversation. Not many interviews run a couple of hours and I feel like I could've hung in there for another several hours at least.
Marty Winsch
___________________________________
Your long-form interview with Skunk Baxter was remarkable, thank you. Hearing from him about missile-defense systems and the war in Ukraine blew my mind. Even more so than hearing Ian Anderson talk about Indian cuisine and US politics. I commend you on your long-form approach: ask open-ended questions and then let these cats loose.
I sure would love to hear Brian May talk about astrophysics. Seriously!
Best wishes from New Orleans,
Dave Sharpe
___________________________________
Your podcast with Jeff Baxter is one of the most fascinating conversations I've ever heard.
If it were just about his life as a musician it would be great.
The stuff he can't talk about would be enough to fill a few books.
Regards,
Ray Levin
___________________________________
I very much enjoyed the interview. Fascinating guy. Thanks.
Bill Nelson
___________________________________
Great talk...SHOULD be a movie made about his life .
James Spencer
___________________________________
That was an amazing conversation.....
Donald Bartenstein
___________________________________
A great listen...It was equal parts Meet the Press and Behind the Music (industry edition)....keep up the great work.
Scott Richman
___________________________________
Super Bowl night jan. 26 1986 Capital theater Passaic NJ and we are waiting for James Brown to start his show.An hour goes by no James. They make an announcement they're waiting on a replacement guitar player.Another 45 minutes goes by.Finally James hits the stage and out comes Skunk Baxter in a baby blue tux and carrying a chair which he precedes to sit in for most of the show.Now I know why he sits to play the guitar. What an interesting guy in both his lines of work.Great interview Bob.
Dennis Amrhein
___________________________________
I had to tell you how much I enjoyed your interview with Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. I have long enjoyed his playing and his time with both Steely Dan and the Doobies (and far too many sessions to name) and being a child of the 70s, I fondly recall seeing him on What's Happening in the infamous bootlegging episode.... but I digress.
I was so captivated by Skunk's story about his journey and the way you navigated the storytelling. I have been a long-time listener and reader of yours, but this interview seemed elevated as you were able to really allow Skunk to delve into his thoughts and insights without stopping the flow. Seeing as I am a lifelong musically obsessed music industry nerd, I was wanting to hear more about his tenure with both acts that he was a part of but I simply found the work he has done and continues to do for our government to be just as intriguing. I am so glad you spent so much time slowing him down and digging deeper into his defense work.
It really is rare to find a person so musically talented to have such insight and skills worthy of consulting with the US defense strategy and leadership alike. And can we take a minute and marvel at his work on the 2nd lead of Bodhisattva and Riki Don't Lose That Number? Hell, I am just a drummer but I still marvel at listening to those licks. They touch those magical parts of my soul as great music should.
I will also offer a huge shout-out for your chat with Robert Scovill as his work in live sound should be more well known. His work with Rush was something magical that I was fortunate to witness in person a few times. I had no idea he was part of the team to help design Avid's live products. Touring with artists for the last 12 years, I can tell you how a lot of the work he was innovating has helped change the entire FOH process. That was so interesting to hear from him on that part of his work. And you should never worry about going too far down in the weeds with any guest as it helps shape your conversation into something much more meaningful.
So not meant to be a blow-smoke-up-your-ass note here but these two interviews were just something special Bob!! I simply had to share my thoughts so you know that your interview style and questions for people around the music industry (and beyond) are so entertaining and you keep getting better and better at it. Keep up the fantastic work!
Best regards-
Jay Coyle
Co-Founder/General Manager
Propeller Sound Recordings
___________________________________
Wow, what an incredible interview with a true renaissance man. He personifies his motto: "whoever dies with the most stories wins".
Cliff Keller
--
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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___________________________________
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Now I know who I'd like to invite to a fantasy dinner or be stuck with in an elevator.
The only negative aspect of this podcast might be, "How will you ever find a more engaging guest for The Lefsetz Podcast than Skunk Baxter?"
Keith Brown
___________________________________
What a fascinating conversation. Not many interviews run a couple of hours and I feel like I could've hung in there for another several hours at least.
Marty Winsch
___________________________________
Your long-form interview with Skunk Baxter was remarkable, thank you. Hearing from him about missile-defense systems and the war in Ukraine blew my mind. Even more so than hearing Ian Anderson talk about Indian cuisine and US politics. I commend you on your long-form approach: ask open-ended questions and then let these cats loose.
I sure would love to hear Brian May talk about astrophysics. Seriously!
Best wishes from New Orleans,
Dave Sharpe
___________________________________
Your podcast with Jeff Baxter is one of the most fascinating conversations I've ever heard.
If it were just about his life as a musician it would be great.
The stuff he can't talk about would be enough to fill a few books.
Regards,
Ray Levin
___________________________________
I very much enjoyed the interview. Fascinating guy. Thanks.
Bill Nelson
___________________________________
Great talk...SHOULD be a movie made about his life .
James Spencer
___________________________________
That was an amazing conversation.....
Donald Bartenstein
___________________________________
A great listen...It was equal parts Meet the Press and Behind the Music (industry edition)....keep up the great work.
Scott Richman
___________________________________
Super Bowl night jan. 26 1986 Capital theater Passaic NJ and we are waiting for James Brown to start his show.An hour goes by no James. They make an announcement they're waiting on a replacement guitar player.Another 45 minutes goes by.Finally James hits the stage and out comes Skunk Baxter in a baby blue tux and carrying a chair which he precedes to sit in for most of the show.Now I know why he sits to play the guitar. What an interesting guy in both his lines of work.Great interview Bob.
Dennis Amrhein
___________________________________
I had to tell you how much I enjoyed your interview with Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. I have long enjoyed his playing and his time with both Steely Dan and the Doobies (and far too many sessions to name) and being a child of the 70s, I fondly recall seeing him on What's Happening in the infamous bootlegging episode.... but I digress.
I was so captivated by Skunk's story about his journey and the way you navigated the storytelling. I have been a long-time listener and reader of yours, but this interview seemed elevated as you were able to really allow Skunk to delve into his thoughts and insights without stopping the flow. Seeing as I am a lifelong musically obsessed music industry nerd, I was wanting to hear more about his tenure with both acts that he was a part of but I simply found the work he has done and continues to do for our government to be just as intriguing. I am so glad you spent so much time slowing him down and digging deeper into his defense work.
It really is rare to find a person so musically talented to have such insight and skills worthy of consulting with the US defense strategy and leadership alike. And can we take a minute and marvel at his work on the 2nd lead of Bodhisattva and Riki Don't Lose That Number? Hell, I am just a drummer but I still marvel at listening to those licks. They touch those magical parts of my soul as great music should.
I will also offer a huge shout-out for your chat with Robert Scovill as his work in live sound should be more well known. His work with Rush was something magical that I was fortunate to witness in person a few times. I had no idea he was part of the team to help design Avid's live products. Touring with artists for the last 12 years, I can tell you how a lot of the work he was innovating has helped change the entire FOH process. That was so interesting to hear from him on that part of his work. And you should never worry about going too far down in the weeds with any guest as it helps shape your conversation into something much more meaningful.
So not meant to be a blow-smoke-up-your-ass note here but these two interviews were just something special Bob!! I simply had to share my thoughts so you know that your interview style and questions for people around the music industry (and beyond) are so entertaining and you keep getting better and better at it. Keep up the fantastic work!
Best regards-
Jay Coyle
Co-Founder/General Manager
Propeller Sound Recordings
___________________________________
Wow, what an incredible interview with a true renaissance man. He personifies his motto: "whoever dies with the most stories wins".
Cliff Keller
--
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
Hacks-Season 2
It's got a tone problem. As in whipsawing from believable to farce so two-dimensional you want to shut the damn program down.
But Jean Smart is so GOOD!
How did we get here? Replicating the old TV model with the new?
In case you've been under a rock, it appears that all streaming video outlets are now going to have free or discounted advertising tiers.
So what exactly is different about today's paradigm from that of yesteryear, the one that has dominated for decades?
On demand. You can watch what you want when you want.
Only you can't. You're at the mercy of the outlets dripping out episodes to "build buzz" and to keep you from canceling. What of this reminds you of the modern world? NOTHING!
I mean we already have HBO. And Showtime and Starz and...
If you pay for them, you can watch them live on the flat screen, or on demand via your cable system, or via an app.
Arguably, the average customer is going to pay just as much and end up with less. I mean at least if you paid for the cable bundle you got network, with its local news, and scores of basic cable channels which will disappear without the cable system subsidy/payment. This is progress, ending up with less?
As for the bump in product...expect that to taper off as the players are solidified. Same as it ever was. Or meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Talking Heads or the Who, whichever you prefer, or both. Then again, they ruled in an era where many music fans didn't even have a TV, or if they did didn't turn it on. Today all the action is on the flat screen. As for the live show...I know people want to go, but the experience is different, it used to be exclusive, you had to go to know, now they're just mass gatherings of people who want to shoot photos and say they were there.
So it all comes down to "House of Cards." The first original Netflix series, which was better than anything else being televised. It drew fans, caused word of mouth, added subscriptions.
And in truth HOC took a couple of years to have complete traction. Just like the "Sopranos." There's so much in the channel, it's hard to gain notice. So if you're dripping out new shows week by week you're actually losing instead of winning. Most people don't know and don't care, word of mouth on everything but hard news (well, soft news occasionally too), takes eons to spread. The best example here being "Breaking Bad," which was on AMC for seasons but didn't burgeon until people could binge it on Netflix. Binge, that's the appropriate word. I mean come on, your mother buys half a gallon of ice cream and she tells you you can only have two spoonfuls a day. What! You know as well as I do that when it comes to ice cream and potato chips they truly only satisfy when you can eat them to excess. When you're the one making the decision, when you're the only one establishing limits, if any at all. I must say one of the things in life I enjoy most is sitting in the dark watching streaming television, being taken away. This is wholly different from reality/game shows, this is about narrative, a whole world, and when the mood is broken because I run out of episodes I'm pissed!
So the "backward" music business figured this out. You can get all the music for one low monthly price. And Spotify has a free tier, but that's to combat piracy. Piracy is less of an issue in visual entertainment, if for no other reason than the files are bigger. But if you release all the episodes at once...it's easier to just pay up than steal. Which is the Spotify game. Remember when all the insiders said no one would ever pay for music? What a laugh that turned out to be.
So the whole agency side of "Hacks" sucks. I literally turned off the first episode, it was too long a jump from the drama I'd been watching. But when Jean Smart does her thing...
You're never quite sure exactly what she's going to say.
Ever been around rich or famous people (or both?). There's an inherent pecking order, even if each individual is paying their own freight, the rich/famous person dominates, is in charge, even if they say nothing! You play by their rules. You don't go against them. Which is why you always hear about these same people being out of touch because they're surrounded by yes people.
So, Jean Smart as Deborah Vance is the rich and famous person here. Her star may have faded, but she still drives that Rolls Royce with the suicide doors. Yes, if you're rich and famous you've got to act the part, you've got to live in the right place, drive the latest car and tip well at the best establishments. It's your image! Especially if you're an oldster.
So everybody's afraid of her. But you never know when she'll step down from her pedestal to your level and speak the truth. When she's in the aforementioned electric blue Rolls and tells Hannah Einbinder/Ava the score, when she zeroes in on Ava's personality, WHEW!
You'd be surprised how many rich and famous people are smart, at least street smart, because it's a long way to the top, no matter how much you wanna rock and roll. You're privy to all the lessons the public never sees, what happens on the other side of the curtain, the business. And believe me, it's cutthroat.
As for Hannah Einbinder/Ava, she's noticeably better this year. Because she's grown into the role. She's actually aged a bit, which makes her more believable. The fact that she was a writer with experience in the previous season? I didn't buy it.
But even Hannah/Ava slips into two-dimensionality. When she's constantly worried about that e-mail surfacing. I wish the broad comedy were excised, there's enough real material without all the tropes, the gay assistant, the agency underling who has the hots for Jimmy who is played so broadly that you wince every time she talks, not at her so much as at the writers, what were they thinking, that we were going to buy this?
And in the second episode there's a scene with Polly Draper.
You'll recognize her, it may take a while for you to place her, she was Ellyn Warren on "thirtysomething." But that was over thirty five years ago, and Polly Draper is 66 AND HAS HAD NO PLASTIC SURGERY!
Movie stars do not age, and at this point neither do musicians. Not only women, but men. Speaking of which, when you see Wayne Newton in this show you're only reminded of one thing, that "Twilight Zone" episode "In the Eye of the Beholder," you know, the one with the doctors and nurses with the faces? Newton is the greatest advertisement for stopping plastic surgery extant. Other than the cat lady. But at this point Newton is just as bad. But Draper?
Draper looks like a real person. Much better-looking than the average person, but she's believable.
As for Jean Smart...she's got lines in her face too.
As do I. It goes with the territory. You can keep telling yourself you have the mind and skin of a thirty year old, but inside your body knows different. Nobody here gets out alive and when we see people acting years younger than their age, we wince.
So what you've got here is an adult comedy. Except when it's at the level of a cartoon, the kind of stuff a five or six year old would appreciate. Shows can grow over time, can't this show be adjusted?
Well, it's too late now, I'm sure all the episodes are in the can. But these shows have a long lead time, when you see them they're already planning the following season.
So will what I wrote above get you to watch "Hacks"?
Not the second season. Either you're a fan or you're not. Either you watched the first season or you didn't. If you did, you give the first two episodes of the second season the benefit of the doubt. But if you start there...you're probably not gonna get it. But you could binge the first season and get it completely. That's what happened with "Breaking Bad"!
How did we get here?
If you don't give the people what they want in tech, you're superseded. You have to be constantly innovating or you're left behind. Although oldsters haven't stopped bitching, one thing is for sure, the music industry has cut ties with the past. Sure, labels may still be focused on terrestrial radio, but the public isn't. Hell, the public moved to TikTok and now the labels have too.
But in TV?
The suits think they're still in control. That it can go their way.
And to see how Netflix has reacted to Wall Street's reaction to their numbers...makes me want to puke.
Let me see... You had a business plan, you believed in it, but Wall Street soured on you and you listened to investors? This is like sports teams turning over the coaching to the fans. Sure, they foot the bill, but they're not professionals, they're not in the locker room, it's all surface, and of the moment. They want it all and they want it now, and that's no way to run a business.
People want the content that bad, but the minute they have an option... This is what happened with Napster, the industry was cruising on overpriced CDs and then...
We're sick of the gatekeepers telling us how to consume our content. We want to be in control. Isn't that the message of the online world, have it your way?
But not in the TV world, because these people think they're better than us.
But after two plus decades online we know that is patently untrue. They're delusional.
I'm frustrated. And like John Lennon sang, I'm not the only one.
But Jean Smart is so GOOD!
How did we get here? Replicating the old TV model with the new?
In case you've been under a rock, it appears that all streaming video outlets are now going to have free or discounted advertising tiers.
So what exactly is different about today's paradigm from that of yesteryear, the one that has dominated for decades?
On demand. You can watch what you want when you want.
Only you can't. You're at the mercy of the outlets dripping out episodes to "build buzz" and to keep you from canceling. What of this reminds you of the modern world? NOTHING!
I mean we already have HBO. And Showtime and Starz and...
If you pay for them, you can watch them live on the flat screen, or on demand via your cable system, or via an app.
Arguably, the average customer is going to pay just as much and end up with less. I mean at least if you paid for the cable bundle you got network, with its local news, and scores of basic cable channels which will disappear without the cable system subsidy/payment. This is progress, ending up with less?
As for the bump in product...expect that to taper off as the players are solidified. Same as it ever was. Or meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Talking Heads or the Who, whichever you prefer, or both. Then again, they ruled in an era where many music fans didn't even have a TV, or if they did didn't turn it on. Today all the action is on the flat screen. As for the live show...I know people want to go, but the experience is different, it used to be exclusive, you had to go to know, now they're just mass gatherings of people who want to shoot photos and say they were there.
So it all comes down to "House of Cards." The first original Netflix series, which was better than anything else being televised. It drew fans, caused word of mouth, added subscriptions.
And in truth HOC took a couple of years to have complete traction. Just like the "Sopranos." There's so much in the channel, it's hard to gain notice. So if you're dripping out new shows week by week you're actually losing instead of winning. Most people don't know and don't care, word of mouth on everything but hard news (well, soft news occasionally too), takes eons to spread. The best example here being "Breaking Bad," which was on AMC for seasons but didn't burgeon until people could binge it on Netflix. Binge, that's the appropriate word. I mean come on, your mother buys half a gallon of ice cream and she tells you you can only have two spoonfuls a day. What! You know as well as I do that when it comes to ice cream and potato chips they truly only satisfy when you can eat them to excess. When you're the one making the decision, when you're the only one establishing limits, if any at all. I must say one of the things in life I enjoy most is sitting in the dark watching streaming television, being taken away. This is wholly different from reality/game shows, this is about narrative, a whole world, and when the mood is broken because I run out of episodes I'm pissed!
So the "backward" music business figured this out. You can get all the music for one low monthly price. And Spotify has a free tier, but that's to combat piracy. Piracy is less of an issue in visual entertainment, if for no other reason than the files are bigger. But if you release all the episodes at once...it's easier to just pay up than steal. Which is the Spotify game. Remember when all the insiders said no one would ever pay for music? What a laugh that turned out to be.
So the whole agency side of "Hacks" sucks. I literally turned off the first episode, it was too long a jump from the drama I'd been watching. But when Jean Smart does her thing...
You're never quite sure exactly what she's going to say.
Ever been around rich or famous people (or both?). There's an inherent pecking order, even if each individual is paying their own freight, the rich/famous person dominates, is in charge, even if they say nothing! You play by their rules. You don't go against them. Which is why you always hear about these same people being out of touch because they're surrounded by yes people.
So, Jean Smart as Deborah Vance is the rich and famous person here. Her star may have faded, but she still drives that Rolls Royce with the suicide doors. Yes, if you're rich and famous you've got to act the part, you've got to live in the right place, drive the latest car and tip well at the best establishments. It's your image! Especially if you're an oldster.
So everybody's afraid of her. But you never know when she'll step down from her pedestal to your level and speak the truth. When she's in the aforementioned electric blue Rolls and tells Hannah Einbinder/Ava the score, when she zeroes in on Ava's personality, WHEW!
You'd be surprised how many rich and famous people are smart, at least street smart, because it's a long way to the top, no matter how much you wanna rock and roll. You're privy to all the lessons the public never sees, what happens on the other side of the curtain, the business. And believe me, it's cutthroat.
As for Hannah Einbinder/Ava, she's noticeably better this year. Because she's grown into the role. She's actually aged a bit, which makes her more believable. The fact that she was a writer with experience in the previous season? I didn't buy it.
But even Hannah/Ava slips into two-dimensionality. When she's constantly worried about that e-mail surfacing. I wish the broad comedy were excised, there's enough real material without all the tropes, the gay assistant, the agency underling who has the hots for Jimmy who is played so broadly that you wince every time she talks, not at her so much as at the writers, what were they thinking, that we were going to buy this?
And in the second episode there's a scene with Polly Draper.
You'll recognize her, it may take a while for you to place her, she was Ellyn Warren on "thirtysomething." But that was over thirty five years ago, and Polly Draper is 66 AND HAS HAD NO PLASTIC SURGERY!
Movie stars do not age, and at this point neither do musicians. Not only women, but men. Speaking of which, when you see Wayne Newton in this show you're only reminded of one thing, that "Twilight Zone" episode "In the Eye of the Beholder," you know, the one with the doctors and nurses with the faces? Newton is the greatest advertisement for stopping plastic surgery extant. Other than the cat lady. But at this point Newton is just as bad. But Draper?
Draper looks like a real person. Much better-looking than the average person, but she's believable.
As for Jean Smart...she's got lines in her face too.
As do I. It goes with the territory. You can keep telling yourself you have the mind and skin of a thirty year old, but inside your body knows different. Nobody here gets out alive and when we see people acting years younger than their age, we wince.
So what you've got here is an adult comedy. Except when it's at the level of a cartoon, the kind of stuff a five or six year old would appreciate. Shows can grow over time, can't this show be adjusted?
Well, it's too late now, I'm sure all the episodes are in the can. But these shows have a long lead time, when you see them they're already planning the following season.
So will what I wrote above get you to watch "Hacks"?
Not the second season. Either you're a fan or you're not. Either you watched the first season or you didn't. If you did, you give the first two episodes of the second season the benefit of the doubt. But if you start there...you're probably not gonna get it. But you could binge the first season and get it completely. That's what happened with "Breaking Bad"!
How did we get here?
If you don't give the people what they want in tech, you're superseded. You have to be constantly innovating or you're left behind. Although oldsters haven't stopped bitching, one thing is for sure, the music industry has cut ties with the past. Sure, labels may still be focused on terrestrial radio, but the public isn't. Hell, the public moved to TikTok and now the labels have too.
But in TV?
The suits think they're still in control. That it can go their way.
And to see how Netflix has reacted to Wall Street's reaction to their numbers...makes me want to puke.
Let me see... You had a business plan, you believed in it, but Wall Street soured on you and you listened to investors? This is like sports teams turning over the coaching to the fans. Sure, they foot the bill, but they're not professionals, they're not in the locker room, it's all surface, and of the moment. They want it all and they want it now, and that's no way to run a business.
People want the content that bad, but the minute they have an option... This is what happened with Napster, the industry was cruising on overpriced CDs and then...
We're sick of the gatekeepers telling us how to consume our content. We want to be in control. Isn't that the message of the online world, have it your way?
But not in the TV world, because these people think they're better than us.
But after two plus decades online we know that is patently untrue. They're delusional.
I'm frustrated. And like John Lennon sang, I'm not the only one.
--
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
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Re-The Arista Book
Happy that you read the book and that you mentioned my name. But that's not really necessary or encouraged. A good press agent cedes the spotlight to the client who, in this case, is author Mitchell Cohen. His name wasn't mentioned in your piece so that's what I'm doing now. He is also the editor of and one of the primary contributors to The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Ought to Know
(https://www.amazon.com/White-Label-Promo-Preservation-Society/dp/1735998516).
That book is noteworthy to me insofar as quite a few of my friends/clients/family participated serendipitously (meaning I have nothing to do with it) including Arthur Levy, Gregg Geller, Tammy Faye Starlite. Keith Hartel, Joe McEwen, Tom Vickers, Ben Merlis. David Fricke, Lenny Kaye, Ira Robbins, Marshall Crenshaw, Billy Altman, Dave DiMartino, Susan Whitall, Jeff Tamarkin, Russ Titelman, Jim Farber and maybe some others that have slipped my mind.
At any rate, as they promo guys used to say, "thanks for the spins."
Best,
Bob Merlis
___________________________________
Thanks for giving Steve Backer some much deserved love. I look forward to reading this. He was a music man, a record guy who loved his art-in his case- jazz. Arista Freedom much like Steve's output at Impulse! Records veered toward the avant-garde, making it an even more curious association. Steve cared about the art form, the music and the artists. A really decent human being, who I was privileged to call mentor and friend.
-Ricky Schultz
___________________________________
Steve Backer made so many great jazz records with full investment from the major labels— first for Impulse and then Arista. I remember his visits to the New England Music City store that I managed in Boston, excited that he had made a deal to license Sun Ra records from the musician's El Saturn label, or that he had signed Anthony Braxton. He was a true inspiration who showed me that record labels could be convinced to fund great music, at least when no one was paying all that much attention. Seriously, the idea that you could make records for a modest budget and at least break even on them was once a part of record label consciousness, and many wonderful records were made that way.
Scott Billington
___________________________________
I met Jerry Mangalos back in the mid-2000's. It was at the Cat Club on Sunset. We played there and went the following night when the Starfuckers were playing (Slim Jim wasn't there tho...). We hung out back where the smokers were.
He had some interesting tales about Clive and the whole Milli Vanilli thing. He invited us to a party at Phil Spector's house when Mr. Spector was out on parole. My artist at the time declined saying he didn't want to get shot too... Kinda wish we'd have went.
ajawam2
___________________________________
Thank you for this recommendation. I just pre-ordered. Larry Uttal was my boss at Private Stock. What a dear man !
Kathy Rowe
___________________________________
Having worked directly with Larry Uttal at Private Stock Records from '75-'77, I can attest to the shear genius and humanity of the man. Larry placed a value and faith on the people around him (many times to his detriment).
He also enabled us to speak our true opinions when he legitimately didn't not the course to take in buying a master or signing an act. "Tell me what you really think. Faint heart never won fair maiden, Louis".
He actually took my opinion and bought a $5k master after I back my word with the promise that he could take whatever he didn't make back out of my salary.
"Now you've skin in the game, Louis. I'm going to buy you that master." Oh shit, what have I done? No worries. It was "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy.
Special note here, Larry Uttal (along with Neil Bogart), deserve to be in The Rock &Roll Hall of Fame. Larry Uttal put 45s on almost every turntable in America and should be recognized for that.
Thank for recognizing a true music business innovator.
Louis Lewow
Johns Creek, GA.
___________________________________
All valid commentary on Larry/Bell and Clive/Arista. I would just like to shed some light on David Forman. Yep, his solo album had some hefty hype (he is a great singer) and he went on to form a popular Neo-Do Wop group called Little Isidore and The Inquisitors but the point here is to talk about where I see David these days. With film and television being one of the few music business islands remaining above water and keeping musicians working, I find myself laying down drum tracks for period piece Netflix or HBO type series more and more. If there is music from the 50s through the 70s, David Forman is usually sitting in the control room off to the side of the console as a consultant to the Music Supervisor. David is the go-to pro who informs either the supervisor or the engineer bits like, "tempo is too fast," "guitar sound is too distorted," "more reverb on the Spector era horns" or, "the top harmony would not be a Bb minor." He is a pop music historian and heavily relied on here in New York to keep the music honest. On a somewhat recent session for Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, I hung out after finishing my drum tracks to watch David chime in on period correctness with regard to a Wall of Sound rhythm section, complete with a horn and string type sonic landscape. It's always an education to witness.
Rich Pagano
___________________________________
I have my own little history with Clive. After making Batdorf and Rodney records with Ahmet Ertegun and David Geffen, this was a whole new experience. Ahmet and David nurtured songwriter/artists and tried to build their careers and then we signed with Arista. We were one of the early signings for Arista and Clive loved us but there was a catch, he was more interested in hits and after Manilow's success with Mandy, he thought he had the gift of finding hits for acts that were written by other songwriters. His deal was the band gets 8 and I get 2 and so it was. After our history as an FM act, Clive wanted us to break out with an AM hit single. He made us record You Are A Song and Gentler Time, both written by Jim Weatherly. We didn't really like them but that was the deal but they were not hits for us. About a year later, he rushed us into the studio to record Somewhere In The Night which was released as a single in the fall of 1975. It started out great entering the charts at #80 but Helen Reddy released her version and they both cancelled each other's out and Barry eventually got the hit. Soon after, Mark and I split up and I formed Silver. He made us record a song we all hated, Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang which we all hated but it became a hit single that made it to #16 nationally. We dreaded singing it every night on the road as our "big hit". Ironically, in 2017, the record was picked as one of the songs for the Guardians Of The Galaxy ll movie which got us over 10 million plays on Youtube and made the band some money. So, as much as I didn't love his formula, he did hit magic twice with that one.
John Batdorf
___________________________________
I'm really happy you wrote about this, and I can't wait to read it. Did I miss something, or did you not mention that the book was written by Mitchell Cohen? As you may know, Mitchell started his career as a critic at publications like Film Comment and Creem, and then shifted into A&R and had a long and very successful run at Arista, Columbia, and finally, Verve. He's a brilliant guy and one of the kindest and best people I know. Also: people may be interested to know that it's the first book to be published by Trouser Press Books, a new indie imprint run by Ira Robbins, founder and publisher of the late, great, and highly-influential Trouser Press Magazine.
Wishing you all the best,
Regina Joskow
Rounder Records
___________________________________
Thanks! Happy you enjoyed and shared the read!
Mitchell Cohen did his homework! "Looking for the Magic: New York City, the '70s and the Rise of Arista Records", is so well written and researched! How do I know?
I was at Bell in the early '60s, back in '74 when a friend asked for a favor. The favor, assist Clive Davis at Bell for two weeks as she was going with Larry to Private Stock. So, I said yes because I just left RSO and wanted to hang, but since it was ONLY for two weeks! It was a yes! 26 years later, 2000, I retired from Arista!
To reiterate, Mitchell did his homework and wrote this wonerful book with love, passion, knowledge and respect! I do recommend if you were around! You'll enjoy the read!
Thanks Bob!
Rose Gross-Marino
___________________________________
Oh, Mitchell Cohen! Say no more. He knows his stuff. I will read this. Thanks Bob.
Richard Pachter
___________________________________
Friends have been texting me about your piece on my Arista book, and I want to thank you for picking it up and sticking with it. The Bell and Jazz parts were so much fun to research and write, because those are relatively "untold" stories. I call this book an Arista Records "remix": bringing up things that were always there, but overwhelmed by other more prominent elements.
With much appreciation,
Mitchell Cohen
(https://www.amazon.com/White-Label-Promo-Preservation-Society/dp/1735998516).
That book is noteworthy to me insofar as quite a few of my friends/clients/family participated serendipitously (meaning I have nothing to do with it) including Arthur Levy, Gregg Geller, Tammy Faye Starlite. Keith Hartel, Joe McEwen, Tom Vickers, Ben Merlis. David Fricke, Lenny Kaye, Ira Robbins, Marshall Crenshaw, Billy Altman, Dave DiMartino, Susan Whitall, Jeff Tamarkin, Russ Titelman, Jim Farber and maybe some others that have slipped my mind.
At any rate, as they promo guys used to say, "thanks for the spins."
Best,
Bob Merlis
___________________________________
Thanks for giving Steve Backer some much deserved love. I look forward to reading this. He was a music man, a record guy who loved his art-in his case- jazz. Arista Freedom much like Steve's output at Impulse! Records veered toward the avant-garde, making it an even more curious association. Steve cared about the art form, the music and the artists. A really decent human being, who I was privileged to call mentor and friend.
-Ricky Schultz
___________________________________
Steve Backer made so many great jazz records with full investment from the major labels— first for Impulse and then Arista. I remember his visits to the New England Music City store that I managed in Boston, excited that he had made a deal to license Sun Ra records from the musician's El Saturn label, or that he had signed Anthony Braxton. He was a true inspiration who showed me that record labels could be convinced to fund great music, at least when no one was paying all that much attention. Seriously, the idea that you could make records for a modest budget and at least break even on them was once a part of record label consciousness, and many wonderful records were made that way.
Scott Billington
___________________________________
I met Jerry Mangalos back in the mid-2000's. It was at the Cat Club on Sunset. We played there and went the following night when the Starfuckers were playing (Slim Jim wasn't there tho...). We hung out back where the smokers were.
He had some interesting tales about Clive and the whole Milli Vanilli thing. He invited us to a party at Phil Spector's house when Mr. Spector was out on parole. My artist at the time declined saying he didn't want to get shot too... Kinda wish we'd have went.
ajawam2
___________________________________
Thank you for this recommendation. I just pre-ordered. Larry Uttal was my boss at Private Stock. What a dear man !
Kathy Rowe
___________________________________
Having worked directly with Larry Uttal at Private Stock Records from '75-'77, I can attest to the shear genius and humanity of the man. Larry placed a value and faith on the people around him (many times to his detriment).
He also enabled us to speak our true opinions when he legitimately didn't not the course to take in buying a master or signing an act. "Tell me what you really think. Faint heart never won fair maiden, Louis".
He actually took my opinion and bought a $5k master after I back my word with the promise that he could take whatever he didn't make back out of my salary.
"Now you've skin in the game, Louis. I'm going to buy you that master." Oh shit, what have I done? No worries. It was "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy.
Special note here, Larry Uttal (along with Neil Bogart), deserve to be in The Rock &Roll Hall of Fame. Larry Uttal put 45s on almost every turntable in America and should be recognized for that.
Thank for recognizing a true music business innovator.
Louis Lewow
Johns Creek, GA.
___________________________________
All valid commentary on Larry/Bell and Clive/Arista. I would just like to shed some light on David Forman. Yep, his solo album had some hefty hype (he is a great singer) and he went on to form a popular Neo-Do Wop group called Little Isidore and The Inquisitors but the point here is to talk about where I see David these days. With film and television being one of the few music business islands remaining above water and keeping musicians working, I find myself laying down drum tracks for period piece Netflix or HBO type series more and more. If there is music from the 50s through the 70s, David Forman is usually sitting in the control room off to the side of the console as a consultant to the Music Supervisor. David is the go-to pro who informs either the supervisor or the engineer bits like, "tempo is too fast," "guitar sound is too distorted," "more reverb on the Spector era horns" or, "the top harmony would not be a Bb minor." He is a pop music historian and heavily relied on here in New York to keep the music honest. On a somewhat recent session for Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, I hung out after finishing my drum tracks to watch David chime in on period correctness with regard to a Wall of Sound rhythm section, complete with a horn and string type sonic landscape. It's always an education to witness.
Rich Pagano
___________________________________
I have my own little history with Clive. After making Batdorf and Rodney records with Ahmet Ertegun and David Geffen, this was a whole new experience. Ahmet and David nurtured songwriter/artists and tried to build their careers and then we signed with Arista. We were one of the early signings for Arista and Clive loved us but there was a catch, he was more interested in hits and after Manilow's success with Mandy, he thought he had the gift of finding hits for acts that were written by other songwriters. His deal was the band gets 8 and I get 2 and so it was. After our history as an FM act, Clive wanted us to break out with an AM hit single. He made us record You Are A Song and Gentler Time, both written by Jim Weatherly. We didn't really like them but that was the deal but they were not hits for us. About a year later, he rushed us into the studio to record Somewhere In The Night which was released as a single in the fall of 1975. It started out great entering the charts at #80 but Helen Reddy released her version and they both cancelled each other's out and Barry eventually got the hit. Soon after, Mark and I split up and I formed Silver. He made us record a song we all hated, Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang which we all hated but it became a hit single that made it to #16 nationally. We dreaded singing it every night on the road as our "big hit". Ironically, in 2017, the record was picked as one of the songs for the Guardians Of The Galaxy ll movie which got us over 10 million plays on Youtube and made the band some money. So, as much as I didn't love his formula, he did hit magic twice with that one.
John Batdorf
___________________________________
I'm really happy you wrote about this, and I can't wait to read it. Did I miss something, or did you not mention that the book was written by Mitchell Cohen? As you may know, Mitchell started his career as a critic at publications like Film Comment and Creem, and then shifted into A&R and had a long and very successful run at Arista, Columbia, and finally, Verve. He's a brilliant guy and one of the kindest and best people I know. Also: people may be interested to know that it's the first book to be published by Trouser Press Books, a new indie imprint run by Ira Robbins, founder and publisher of the late, great, and highly-influential Trouser Press Magazine.
Wishing you all the best,
Regina Joskow
Rounder Records
___________________________________
Thanks! Happy you enjoyed and shared the read!
Mitchell Cohen did his homework! "Looking for the Magic: New York City, the '70s and the Rise of Arista Records", is so well written and researched! How do I know?
I was at Bell in the early '60s, back in '74 when a friend asked for a favor. The favor, assist Clive Davis at Bell for two weeks as she was going with Larry to Private Stock. So, I said yes because I just left RSO and wanted to hang, but since it was ONLY for two weeks! It was a yes! 26 years later, 2000, I retired from Arista!
To reiterate, Mitchell did his homework and wrote this wonerful book with love, passion, knowledge and respect! I do recommend if you were around! You'll enjoy the read!
Thanks Bob!
Rose Gross-Marino
___________________________________
Oh, Mitchell Cohen! Say no more. He knows his stuff. I will read this. Thanks Bob.
Richard Pachter
___________________________________
Friends have been texting me about your piece on my Arista book, and I want to thank you for picking it up and sticking with it. The Bell and Jazz parts were so much fun to research and write, because those are relatively "untold" stories. I call this book an Arista Records "remix": bringing up things that were always there, but overwhelmed by other more prominent elements.
With much appreciation,
Mitchell Cohen
--
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--
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--
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Tuesday 17 May 2022
The Arista Book
"Looking for the Magic: New York City, the '70s and the Rise of Arista Records": https://amzn.to/3woKdBs
1
I wasn't interested. Another testimonial to self-aggrandizing Clive Davis.
But that's not what it is.
Bob Merlis sent the hype and at first I ignored it, but then I said "what the hell" and asked him to send a copy. Got to say Merlis doesn't bug me if I don't write about what he sends, but I don't want him to send that which I'll never partake of, and Felice is constantly complaining about the overflowing towers of books in the garage. I tell her it's a garage! As long as she can get the car in... Most of these books will never see print again, they will be forgotten. But I have them.
So I opened the paperback when it came, and was stunned to find out it's not about the Arista Records everybody talks about, the house that Whitney built, but what happened before. The book ENDS with the first Whitney Houston album. What came before?
Larry Uttal. Bell Records. That's the best part of the book, the delineation of the trials and tribulations of an indie label back in the sixties. You see the record business hadn't been formalized, it wasn't mature, it was still being figured out. And don't forget, in the mid to late sixties the business completely flipped, from singles to albums. And then came consolidation. Which wasn't really complete...well, until very recently. There are only four producers of baby formula? Well there are only three major labels. And I'd say that's heinous, and it is on one level, primarily that they own their catalogs of the greatest music in history, essentially all the music in recorded history, and they wield undo power as a result, but the truth is the barrier to entry is nearly nonexistent. And...
I was thinking about how technology changed the business. In the sixties it was FM radio. Eighties MTV. Today?
Don't think the internet hasn't changed the sound we hear. Hip-hop is dominant on the hit parade because it embraced the internet. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, one of the reasons rock is dying is because the bands keep labeling Spotify and streaming the devil. Which is like bitching about electric cars, after they dominate, which they will. You can't fight lost battles. Not that the artists know what battle they are fighting. Do they really want to go back to the pre-internet era, when most acts couldn't get a deal, when the barrier to entry, to making a record and getting it distributed, was so high? I don't think so, but...
Ultimately we're in a fertile era. And it's about software as opposed to hardware. I.e. the music as opposed to distribution. Then again, we now have TikTok crossover stars. Which is good, it takes the power away from the major labels. The majors don't control TikTok, they have so much less power over ByteDance's platform than they do Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal...although too many acts jump into the majors' hands after establishing a beachhead. I'm going to tell you what you should already know. The label doesn't care about you, not whatsoever, it only cares about itself. And when you're done producing revenue you're kicked to the curb, so you'd better be prepared, even better don't take the major label bait, unless you can write the deal on your terms.
But that's today. We're in the midst of change.
Like we were in the sixties.
2
So Larry Uttal had a unique philosophy, rather than employ A&R people (I should say men, that's reinforced in the book, how all the label employees were men), Uttal made deals with producers, and then did his best to blow up the records they delivered. And he worked with names and they produced hits and if you lived through the era you know them all. But it is a bygone era. Akin to the first twenty years of the internet, if that, when it was all about renegade individuals, when the landscape was still fluid, before the ascension of the FAANG companies...Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google. You don't want to play anywhere near their lane, because you're going to hit a roadblock...they'll either compete with you or buy you, and it will be on their terms.
In other words, the sixties was the era of independents. And that era faded out over the ensuing decades, there was a renaissance in the indie rock world in the nineties, but Nirvana signed to a major and...
There used to be independent distribution. Young 'uns have got no idea of that, just like they've got no idea of a dial phone. The fact that you were dependent upon regional outfits to sell your records... Branch ruled starting in the early seventies, when WEA was formed, and at the end of the decade, even A&M went branch, with RCA, and then Arista followed in the eighties. The business was on the road to consolidation.
Then again, there was a ton of dough being generated, more than ever before. But really the business remained the same, you threw it up against the wall and saw if it stuck, and usually it didn't.
Most of Arista's albums didn't make it. Not that any other label was much better. It was one stiff after another, you couldn't truly predict what would hit, at least not on a regular basis. The press still had power, but even positive reviews couldn't push an act over the line, otherwise Willie Nile would be a household name. I bought that album, based on the hype.
But times were changing, Bell couldn't conquer the albums market, Clive Davis got fired by CBS, and ultimately Columbia Pictures, which had acquired Bell, replaced Uttal with Davis, not that Uttal was done, he formed Private Stock and signed Blondie and... If you have more than one hit, you know how to do it, the faces change but the business remains the same. Although most people never ever have a hit, on either side of the fence, artistic or business. If you make it and sustain you're somebody in the music business, and there aren't that many somebodies. You may have dreams, you may make it to the big top for a short while... Staying in? Uber-difficult. As a matter of fact, almost everybody in this book is done, then again, some of them are dead, and all of them are old.
3
So Clive takes over Bell, renames it Arista, signs Patti Smith, but...when Columbia Pictures ultimately unloads the label to Ariola in '79, the movie company says it's a wash, the debts were just that high, Clive Davis was never known for making money, he always spent, and if any came in he'd blow it on parties and other image promotion, not only of the acts, but himself too. That's Clive's greatest production, his greatest artist development, himself. Then again, he won't be remembered. But how many of the lightweight Milli Vanilli, Ace of Base songs will either? Larry Uttal's sixties Bell output supersedes that of Clive, but no one has a sense of history.
That's plain wrong. Those who grew up when music blew up are into this stuff. Ergo this book. Published by the Trouser Press, whose magazine we all got back in the day. And if you didn't, you probably won't find this book interesting.
It's deep history.
So Arista was New York-centric. It signed New York acts. And when it ventured out to the coast, signing the Pop, which I also bought, it failed. Arista had three towers...pop, rock and jazz. Pop was Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester and Dionne Warwick. Rock was Patti Smith, Lou Reed, the Outlaws and the Grateful Dead, and jazz...that's the most interesting story in the book.
All the credit goes to Steve Backer. I knew Backer, he unfortunately passed in 2014, I don't know if this is a rewrite of history, but he is credited here with forming and running the jazz operation (along with Michael Cuscuna), which was first class when most of the other stuff on the label was not. This was old school record business... Don't try for a hit, make the albums on a budget, knowing how many they would sell to the ready, eager audience. This business has been completely superseded by the hits business, but this was the essence of the record business way back when. And then it evolved into the throw it against the wall paradigm, and now it's about winnowing chances, choosing priorities and promoting the hell out of them. So your odds of getting lucky if you're not one of those priorities? Close to nil.
So if you were around back then you'll know almost every name in the book. Because we used to know everybody and everything, when the business was still small enough to achieve that. Today a record goes to number one and you've never heard of it, never mind heard it. The trades focus on employees you don't know and don't need to. Touring has replaced the labels as the driver of the business. That's where the money is. The promoters are the banks the labels used to be.
I mean this was a long time ago. Nearly fifty years! Clive Davis himself is ninety, and if it weren't for his Grammy party, his name would never be mentioned. As it is, he has no power, but few ninety year olds do.
4
So should you read this book?
It's really well-written and really good. I don't understand the economics whatsoever, it's a labor of love. If the advance broke into five figures, it wasn't by much. And what is the market for this book, who wants to know this information?
Certainly not youngsters. It's all these aged city denizens...David Forman (another album I bought on the hype), does anybody care about him today? Not even those who were aware back then care. And maybe not even Eric Carmen, who created one of Arista's first hits.
You see at first Arista was cool and hip. You wanted to go with a boutique run by a professional with a track record. But then Lou Reed went back to RCA, word got out that Clive wanted to mess with your music, tell you what to record, pick singles, and then he had his big breakthrough with Whitney and nobody with any credibility or who wanted credibility would sign with Arista, it ended up all pop all the time, and the word on pop used to be there were no legs, it didn't last.
But today nothing lasts. Everything's momentary.
So what I'm going to say is I decided to read a bit to tell Merlis I had, if he asked, but then I got hooked, I went down the rabbit hole, this was my life, there's a good chance it was your life too. Addicted to the radio and the record store, looking for more information. And this book provides it, closes some loops you always wondered about and puts it all in order.
And illustrates that if you think these labels and their employees know what they are doing, you're wrong.
I mean there are skilled marketing and promotion people, mostly the latter, but the landscape keeps changing, the type of music that hits and how it's promoted, and the label has to adjust, by the seat of its pants. From the outside it all looks linear. Inside, it's akin to chaos.
So this book goes deep into the New York scene. Not the Seymour Stein scene, not the alternative scene, but New York nonetheless. Seymour was on the cutting edge, he found what needed to be exposed and then did. He took chances. Society benefited. Clive's skill was ultimately A&R, the old school way, matching songs to acts, in an era where any act worth its salt only wanted to do its own material, and the material it chose. Clive had the pop world to himself. It wasn't cool. But then Donnie Ienner left Arista, promoted Mariah Carey at Columbia and pop was everything. Still is, well, it's the scraps left over from hip-hop, and sometimes the two merge. But back in the sixties and seventies it was about surprising us. The acts weren't me-too, in many cases they were sui generis. And if you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you listened to a record.
You'll feel the breeze reading "Looking for the Magic." You know if you want it, and if you do you won't be disappointed.
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1
I wasn't interested. Another testimonial to self-aggrandizing Clive Davis.
But that's not what it is.
Bob Merlis sent the hype and at first I ignored it, but then I said "what the hell" and asked him to send a copy. Got to say Merlis doesn't bug me if I don't write about what he sends, but I don't want him to send that which I'll never partake of, and Felice is constantly complaining about the overflowing towers of books in the garage. I tell her it's a garage! As long as she can get the car in... Most of these books will never see print again, they will be forgotten. But I have them.
So I opened the paperback when it came, and was stunned to find out it's not about the Arista Records everybody talks about, the house that Whitney built, but what happened before. The book ENDS with the first Whitney Houston album. What came before?
Larry Uttal. Bell Records. That's the best part of the book, the delineation of the trials and tribulations of an indie label back in the sixties. You see the record business hadn't been formalized, it wasn't mature, it was still being figured out. And don't forget, in the mid to late sixties the business completely flipped, from singles to albums. And then came consolidation. Which wasn't really complete...well, until very recently. There are only four producers of baby formula? Well there are only three major labels. And I'd say that's heinous, and it is on one level, primarily that they own their catalogs of the greatest music in history, essentially all the music in recorded history, and they wield undo power as a result, but the truth is the barrier to entry is nearly nonexistent. And...
I was thinking about how technology changed the business. In the sixties it was FM radio. Eighties MTV. Today?
Don't think the internet hasn't changed the sound we hear. Hip-hop is dominant on the hit parade because it embraced the internet. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, one of the reasons rock is dying is because the bands keep labeling Spotify and streaming the devil. Which is like bitching about electric cars, after they dominate, which they will. You can't fight lost battles. Not that the artists know what battle they are fighting. Do they really want to go back to the pre-internet era, when most acts couldn't get a deal, when the barrier to entry, to making a record and getting it distributed, was so high? I don't think so, but...
Ultimately we're in a fertile era. And it's about software as opposed to hardware. I.e. the music as opposed to distribution. Then again, we now have TikTok crossover stars. Which is good, it takes the power away from the major labels. The majors don't control TikTok, they have so much less power over ByteDance's platform than they do Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal...although too many acts jump into the majors' hands after establishing a beachhead. I'm going to tell you what you should already know. The label doesn't care about you, not whatsoever, it only cares about itself. And when you're done producing revenue you're kicked to the curb, so you'd better be prepared, even better don't take the major label bait, unless you can write the deal on your terms.
But that's today. We're in the midst of change.
Like we were in the sixties.
2
So Larry Uttal had a unique philosophy, rather than employ A&R people (I should say men, that's reinforced in the book, how all the label employees were men), Uttal made deals with producers, and then did his best to blow up the records they delivered. And he worked with names and they produced hits and if you lived through the era you know them all. But it is a bygone era. Akin to the first twenty years of the internet, if that, when it was all about renegade individuals, when the landscape was still fluid, before the ascension of the FAANG companies...Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google. You don't want to play anywhere near their lane, because you're going to hit a roadblock...they'll either compete with you or buy you, and it will be on their terms.
In other words, the sixties was the era of independents. And that era faded out over the ensuing decades, there was a renaissance in the indie rock world in the nineties, but Nirvana signed to a major and...
There used to be independent distribution. Young 'uns have got no idea of that, just like they've got no idea of a dial phone. The fact that you were dependent upon regional outfits to sell your records... Branch ruled starting in the early seventies, when WEA was formed, and at the end of the decade, even A&M went branch, with RCA, and then Arista followed in the eighties. The business was on the road to consolidation.
Then again, there was a ton of dough being generated, more than ever before. But really the business remained the same, you threw it up against the wall and saw if it stuck, and usually it didn't.
Most of Arista's albums didn't make it. Not that any other label was much better. It was one stiff after another, you couldn't truly predict what would hit, at least not on a regular basis. The press still had power, but even positive reviews couldn't push an act over the line, otherwise Willie Nile would be a household name. I bought that album, based on the hype.
But times were changing, Bell couldn't conquer the albums market, Clive Davis got fired by CBS, and ultimately Columbia Pictures, which had acquired Bell, replaced Uttal with Davis, not that Uttal was done, he formed Private Stock and signed Blondie and... If you have more than one hit, you know how to do it, the faces change but the business remains the same. Although most people never ever have a hit, on either side of the fence, artistic or business. If you make it and sustain you're somebody in the music business, and there aren't that many somebodies. You may have dreams, you may make it to the big top for a short while... Staying in? Uber-difficult. As a matter of fact, almost everybody in this book is done, then again, some of them are dead, and all of them are old.
3
So Clive takes over Bell, renames it Arista, signs Patti Smith, but...when Columbia Pictures ultimately unloads the label to Ariola in '79, the movie company says it's a wash, the debts were just that high, Clive Davis was never known for making money, he always spent, and if any came in he'd blow it on parties and other image promotion, not only of the acts, but himself too. That's Clive's greatest production, his greatest artist development, himself. Then again, he won't be remembered. But how many of the lightweight Milli Vanilli, Ace of Base songs will either? Larry Uttal's sixties Bell output supersedes that of Clive, but no one has a sense of history.
That's plain wrong. Those who grew up when music blew up are into this stuff. Ergo this book. Published by the Trouser Press, whose magazine we all got back in the day. And if you didn't, you probably won't find this book interesting.
It's deep history.
So Arista was New York-centric. It signed New York acts. And when it ventured out to the coast, signing the Pop, which I also bought, it failed. Arista had three towers...pop, rock and jazz. Pop was Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester and Dionne Warwick. Rock was Patti Smith, Lou Reed, the Outlaws and the Grateful Dead, and jazz...that's the most interesting story in the book.
All the credit goes to Steve Backer. I knew Backer, he unfortunately passed in 2014, I don't know if this is a rewrite of history, but he is credited here with forming and running the jazz operation (along with Michael Cuscuna), which was first class when most of the other stuff on the label was not. This was old school record business... Don't try for a hit, make the albums on a budget, knowing how many they would sell to the ready, eager audience. This business has been completely superseded by the hits business, but this was the essence of the record business way back when. And then it evolved into the throw it against the wall paradigm, and now it's about winnowing chances, choosing priorities and promoting the hell out of them. So your odds of getting lucky if you're not one of those priorities? Close to nil.
So if you were around back then you'll know almost every name in the book. Because we used to know everybody and everything, when the business was still small enough to achieve that. Today a record goes to number one and you've never heard of it, never mind heard it. The trades focus on employees you don't know and don't need to. Touring has replaced the labels as the driver of the business. That's where the money is. The promoters are the banks the labels used to be.
I mean this was a long time ago. Nearly fifty years! Clive Davis himself is ninety, and if it weren't for his Grammy party, his name would never be mentioned. As it is, he has no power, but few ninety year olds do.
4
So should you read this book?
It's really well-written and really good. I don't understand the economics whatsoever, it's a labor of love. If the advance broke into five figures, it wasn't by much. And what is the market for this book, who wants to know this information?
Certainly not youngsters. It's all these aged city denizens...David Forman (another album I bought on the hype), does anybody care about him today? Not even those who were aware back then care. And maybe not even Eric Carmen, who created one of Arista's first hits.
You see at first Arista was cool and hip. You wanted to go with a boutique run by a professional with a track record. But then Lou Reed went back to RCA, word got out that Clive wanted to mess with your music, tell you what to record, pick singles, and then he had his big breakthrough with Whitney and nobody with any credibility or who wanted credibility would sign with Arista, it ended up all pop all the time, and the word on pop used to be there were no legs, it didn't last.
But today nothing lasts. Everything's momentary.
So what I'm going to say is I decided to read a bit to tell Merlis I had, if he asked, but then I got hooked, I went down the rabbit hole, this was my life, there's a good chance it was your life too. Addicted to the radio and the record store, looking for more information. And this book provides it, closes some loops you always wondered about and puts it all in order.
And illustrates that if you think these labels and their employees know what they are doing, you're wrong.
I mean there are skilled marketing and promotion people, mostly the latter, but the landscape keeps changing, the type of music that hits and how it's promoted, and the label has to adjust, by the seat of its pants. From the outside it all looks linear. Inside, it's akin to chaos.
So this book goes deep into the New York scene. Not the Seymour Stein scene, not the alternative scene, but New York nonetheless. Seymour was on the cutting edge, he found what needed to be exposed and then did. He took chances. Society benefited. Clive's skill was ultimately A&R, the old school way, matching songs to acts, in an era where any act worth its salt only wanted to do its own material, and the material it chose. Clive had the pop world to himself. It wasn't cool. But then Donnie Ienner left Arista, promoted Mariah Carey at Columbia and pop was everything. Still is, well, it's the scraps left over from hip-hop, and sometimes the two merge. But back in the sixties and seventies it was about surprising us. The acts weren't me-too, in many cases they were sui generis. And if you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you listened to a record.
You'll feel the breeze reading "Looking for the Magic." You know if you want it, and if you do you won't be disappointed.
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Which Band Would You Like To Join-This Week On SiriusXM
Tune in today, May 17th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
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Twitter/Musk
Free speech!
That's already out of the headlines, we're back to Russia/Ukraine all the time.
Did you know there were anti-abortion protests over the weekend?
I only knew because of a very short article deep into the pages of the "Wall Street Journal" and a slightly longer piece in the "New York Times." I hope the participants feel good about themselves, because their efforts had no effect whatsoever. You see protests like that, organized, not spontaneous, were built for the last century, when we all watched network news, when we were all aware of the same news, not today.
So over the weekend there was a mass shooting in Buffalo. The big news, beyond the deaths, was that the shooter acted in the name of "replacement theory," something mentioned 400 times by Tucker Carlson in the past few years, never mind his Fox cronies and elected officials. This has been the story everywhere but on Fox and in the right wing news. Because if they don't talk about it, their audience is unaware of it. So all you lefties out there, testifying about our country going down the toilet, I hope it makes you feel good to complain, because you're not helping your cause a whit. Complaining ain't worth it, never mind protesting, action must take a different form.
First and foremost the Dems need a leader. One who can reach everybody. They no longer have that. Even Biden can't reach everybody. And he's been tarred as a loser, ineffective with bad ratings. Not that I can exactly see why. The Afghanistan withdrawal was destined to be ugly and inflation reigns all over the world. But the Let's Go Brandon campaign has the left on its heels. You cannot win when you only play defense, you've got to score some points. And the only elected official who made a run for the goal line in the wake of the Alito leak was Gavin Newsom, and this was for criticizing his brethren in D.C., the members of his party, for being asleep at the wheel.
The only person who can reach everybody is Elon Musk. And the base of his operations? Twitter!
Don't focus on Trump. I mean focus on Trump politically, but his words and efforts don't reach everybody, despite the constant debate about the effectiveness of his political endorsements in the straight media. You see Twitter is where the journalists live. And they take the temperature of the country there. And that is where Elon is king.
Twitter can never be ubiquitous, most people are never going to use Twitter. That's like trying to make calculus cool. They don't want the news, they don't want to look at the issues, they just want to know which side to be on, right or left, they're all team players, and then they want to go to TikTok or Instagram to flaunt their bodies or look at the lifestyles of friends and foes, for tips, or to feel inadequate. Did you see that TikTok exceeds the traffic of Facebook and Instagram combined? Asking the question...are the Chinese more powerful than Zuckerberg? I'll let you ponder that.
But in a world where money is the most powerful art form, the entire world is paying attention to Elon Musk's shenanigans on Twitter.
Come on, you don't think music runs the world, do you? Last year Robinhood was bigger than any band. It was cutting edge, and tuned for the twenty first century, i.e. it let its customers PARTICIPATE! As for this year, it's all about crypto. Will crypto die a sudden death? That's possible, everybody not in it wants it to, but my point here is the young and hip are all invested, paying attention, the Bored Apes are bigger than any musical act, any!
So Elon Musk has a few hit records. First, with his old band at PayPal, now with Tesla and SpaceX. This is his moment. He's hit critical mass. And the products are good, but really it's about his status as the world's richest man, or at least westerner. He made all that money! Used to be rock stars were rich, and lived an unfettered lifestyle, those days are through. Today a musician's goal is to sell out. To get those higher up the food chain to make a deal, for sponsorships, for manufacture of their perfume or clothing...it may be their face in the ads, but believe me, there's a whole host of usual suspects behind it, in distribution if nothing else.
So Elon's got all this money. And he thinks the rules don't apply to him. Breaks the SEC code and then makes noise he wants to undo the penalty deal he made. He's whipsawing the public consciousness, like the rock stars of the seventies, bouncing from side to side.
And then there's this Twitter deal.
It's just like a music publicity stunt of yore. Everybody on the inside knew the score, that it was untrue, or there was an explanation. Kind of like Van Halen saying no brown M&Ms. We all know today that was to make sure promoters read the rider, but back then it was seen as a story of excess, the power of the band. Or Frank Zappa taking a crap on stage, that didn't even happen but many people believed it did. And the financiers, playing the role of the record industry insiders of yesteryear, knew that Musk would never close the Twitter deal, FOR FINANCIAL REASONS! The public, although intrigued by money, still doesn't get it. Hell, why play on Robinhood , don't they know Wall Street is a rigged game?
But for a month we've watched the greatest show on earth, now that the circus is gone, now that musicians are sold out, Elon Musk's "purchase" of Twitter. What did it cost him? A billion dollars. That's the breakup fee. That's worth it to Musk, the publicity value, the mindshare alone. And if Tesla stock continued to go up, it'd be free! Now the stock has gone down, which Musk didn't foresee, no one has ever been able to predict the movement of the stock market accurately, after all it's legalized gambling, not necessarily reflective of the value of the underlying companies, and that's put a major crimp in his ability to buy Twitter. Because his Tesla stock is already pledged for other financial activities and...I could explain the entire story but people aren't interested, they want to watch the movie, they don't care how it was created.
So like any weasel, Musk realized he was in too deep and now he's going on about fake accounts, bots. Like there's any news here. We all know they're on Twitter, but how many there are does not really affect the economics, it's kind of a red herring. It's just an excuse, a sideshow, a distraction to get out of the deal.
So will he or won't he?
He won't. But the devil is in the details, which once again the public doesn't care about. You see Twitter may be able to force him to do the deal. Yes, it's happened. But I'm sure Musk would fight that in court. Too much is at stake.
So what we are seeing here is negotiation as entertainment. And it's much more interesting than the bloviations of those in the Spotify Top 50, boasting about lifestyles that don't even compete with those of Musk and his billionaire brethren. Musk has more baby mamas than most NBA players, never mind "musicians." He's got enough money to take care of everybody, he can do whatever he wants. And what will he do?
That's the story here. And it's dominating the news cycle. It's consistent. Neck and neck with the Russia/Ukraine war for our attention. And that's the reason Putin started this conflagration, for mindshare, to rally his troops, to deflect their attention from their lives at home.
And you think replacement theory has a chance to compete?
Absolutely not. Because everybody concerned about it has no idea how the media works in the twenty first century, only the perpetrators of this heinous concept do.
Truth doesn't matter anymore. Trump taught us that. It's all about reach! You've got to play and sustain. Hear Dems in D.C. going on about abortion today? No, that's yesterday's news, they took a vote last week and now it's in the hands of the voters. But if the roles were reversed, the Trump team would be going on about it each and every day. And it's a team. The rugged individual leads, and then everybody gets in line behind him or her. How come the Democrats don't know this? Nothing is hidden today, the strategies are in plain sight, the lessons are there to be learned.
The public certainly knows this. Which is why everybody is polishing their personal brand each and every day on social media. They're laying the groundwork for the future. The oldsters talk about too much time on the internet, the faux pas that will ruin the participants' careers as adults. Meanwhile, you can have a neck tattoo and get a job no problem. Things change, and if you don't change with them, or acknowledge the change...
We live in the era of the train-wreck. That's what it takes to get attention, to get above the fold, or the equivalent online, where most people consume their news, albeit second-hand, from the hoi polloi. And you've got to crash that train or that car every day, you've got to make news every day to be effective. The punter sits at home and marvels that Hollywood trashed a Ferrari. And if it's not a fake, Hollywood is laughing all the way to the bank, knowing that a couple of hundred thousand dollars is nothing when it helps secure a billion dollar gross.
So I'm sorry to tell you how the movie turns out, that Elon pulls the plug, but I'm just like the rest of the reviewers online these days. Read a review and you don't have to go to the movie. Then again, you know what is involved in Space Mountain and the rest of the world's famous roller coasters and you go on them anyway, because it's about the ride. Yes, the cheap thrill that is over fast. And what do you say when the train of cars pulls back into the station? LET'S DO THAT AGAIN! Musk knows the paradigm. The old school left wing politicians in D.C? They're still too scared to go on the ride to begin with.
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That's already out of the headlines, we're back to Russia/Ukraine all the time.
Did you know there were anti-abortion protests over the weekend?
I only knew because of a very short article deep into the pages of the "Wall Street Journal" and a slightly longer piece in the "New York Times." I hope the participants feel good about themselves, because their efforts had no effect whatsoever. You see protests like that, organized, not spontaneous, were built for the last century, when we all watched network news, when we were all aware of the same news, not today.
So over the weekend there was a mass shooting in Buffalo. The big news, beyond the deaths, was that the shooter acted in the name of "replacement theory," something mentioned 400 times by Tucker Carlson in the past few years, never mind his Fox cronies and elected officials. This has been the story everywhere but on Fox and in the right wing news. Because if they don't talk about it, their audience is unaware of it. So all you lefties out there, testifying about our country going down the toilet, I hope it makes you feel good to complain, because you're not helping your cause a whit. Complaining ain't worth it, never mind protesting, action must take a different form.
First and foremost the Dems need a leader. One who can reach everybody. They no longer have that. Even Biden can't reach everybody. And he's been tarred as a loser, ineffective with bad ratings. Not that I can exactly see why. The Afghanistan withdrawal was destined to be ugly and inflation reigns all over the world. But the Let's Go Brandon campaign has the left on its heels. You cannot win when you only play defense, you've got to score some points. And the only elected official who made a run for the goal line in the wake of the Alito leak was Gavin Newsom, and this was for criticizing his brethren in D.C., the members of his party, for being asleep at the wheel.
The only person who can reach everybody is Elon Musk. And the base of his operations? Twitter!
Don't focus on Trump. I mean focus on Trump politically, but his words and efforts don't reach everybody, despite the constant debate about the effectiveness of his political endorsements in the straight media. You see Twitter is where the journalists live. And they take the temperature of the country there. And that is where Elon is king.
Twitter can never be ubiquitous, most people are never going to use Twitter. That's like trying to make calculus cool. They don't want the news, they don't want to look at the issues, they just want to know which side to be on, right or left, they're all team players, and then they want to go to TikTok or Instagram to flaunt their bodies or look at the lifestyles of friends and foes, for tips, or to feel inadequate. Did you see that TikTok exceeds the traffic of Facebook and Instagram combined? Asking the question...are the Chinese more powerful than Zuckerberg? I'll let you ponder that.
But in a world where money is the most powerful art form, the entire world is paying attention to Elon Musk's shenanigans on Twitter.
Come on, you don't think music runs the world, do you? Last year Robinhood was bigger than any band. It was cutting edge, and tuned for the twenty first century, i.e. it let its customers PARTICIPATE! As for this year, it's all about crypto. Will crypto die a sudden death? That's possible, everybody not in it wants it to, but my point here is the young and hip are all invested, paying attention, the Bored Apes are bigger than any musical act, any!
So Elon Musk has a few hit records. First, with his old band at PayPal, now with Tesla and SpaceX. This is his moment. He's hit critical mass. And the products are good, but really it's about his status as the world's richest man, or at least westerner. He made all that money! Used to be rock stars were rich, and lived an unfettered lifestyle, those days are through. Today a musician's goal is to sell out. To get those higher up the food chain to make a deal, for sponsorships, for manufacture of their perfume or clothing...it may be their face in the ads, but believe me, there's a whole host of usual suspects behind it, in distribution if nothing else.
So Elon's got all this money. And he thinks the rules don't apply to him. Breaks the SEC code and then makes noise he wants to undo the penalty deal he made. He's whipsawing the public consciousness, like the rock stars of the seventies, bouncing from side to side.
And then there's this Twitter deal.
It's just like a music publicity stunt of yore. Everybody on the inside knew the score, that it was untrue, or there was an explanation. Kind of like Van Halen saying no brown M&Ms. We all know today that was to make sure promoters read the rider, but back then it was seen as a story of excess, the power of the band. Or Frank Zappa taking a crap on stage, that didn't even happen but many people believed it did. And the financiers, playing the role of the record industry insiders of yesteryear, knew that Musk would never close the Twitter deal, FOR FINANCIAL REASONS! The public, although intrigued by money, still doesn't get it. Hell, why play on Robinhood , don't they know Wall Street is a rigged game?
But for a month we've watched the greatest show on earth, now that the circus is gone, now that musicians are sold out, Elon Musk's "purchase" of Twitter. What did it cost him? A billion dollars. That's the breakup fee. That's worth it to Musk, the publicity value, the mindshare alone. And if Tesla stock continued to go up, it'd be free! Now the stock has gone down, which Musk didn't foresee, no one has ever been able to predict the movement of the stock market accurately, after all it's legalized gambling, not necessarily reflective of the value of the underlying companies, and that's put a major crimp in his ability to buy Twitter. Because his Tesla stock is already pledged for other financial activities and...I could explain the entire story but people aren't interested, they want to watch the movie, they don't care how it was created.
So like any weasel, Musk realized he was in too deep and now he's going on about fake accounts, bots. Like there's any news here. We all know they're on Twitter, but how many there are does not really affect the economics, it's kind of a red herring. It's just an excuse, a sideshow, a distraction to get out of the deal.
So will he or won't he?
He won't. But the devil is in the details, which once again the public doesn't care about. You see Twitter may be able to force him to do the deal. Yes, it's happened. But I'm sure Musk would fight that in court. Too much is at stake.
So what we are seeing here is negotiation as entertainment. And it's much more interesting than the bloviations of those in the Spotify Top 50, boasting about lifestyles that don't even compete with those of Musk and his billionaire brethren. Musk has more baby mamas than most NBA players, never mind "musicians." He's got enough money to take care of everybody, he can do whatever he wants. And what will he do?
That's the story here. And it's dominating the news cycle. It's consistent. Neck and neck with the Russia/Ukraine war for our attention. And that's the reason Putin started this conflagration, for mindshare, to rally his troops, to deflect their attention from their lives at home.
And you think replacement theory has a chance to compete?
Absolutely not. Because everybody concerned about it has no idea how the media works in the twenty first century, only the perpetrators of this heinous concept do.
Truth doesn't matter anymore. Trump taught us that. It's all about reach! You've got to play and sustain. Hear Dems in D.C. going on about abortion today? No, that's yesterday's news, they took a vote last week and now it's in the hands of the voters. But if the roles were reversed, the Trump team would be going on about it each and every day. And it's a team. The rugged individual leads, and then everybody gets in line behind him or her. How come the Democrats don't know this? Nothing is hidden today, the strategies are in plain sight, the lessons are there to be learned.
The public certainly knows this. Which is why everybody is polishing their personal brand each and every day on social media. They're laying the groundwork for the future. The oldsters talk about too much time on the internet, the faux pas that will ruin the participants' careers as adults. Meanwhile, you can have a neck tattoo and get a job no problem. Things change, and if you don't change with them, or acknowledge the change...
We live in the era of the train-wreck. That's what it takes to get attention, to get above the fold, or the equivalent online, where most people consume their news, albeit second-hand, from the hoi polloi. And you've got to crash that train or that car every day, you've got to make news every day to be effective. The punter sits at home and marvels that Hollywood trashed a Ferrari. And if it's not a fake, Hollywood is laughing all the way to the bank, knowing that a couple of hundred thousand dollars is nothing when it helps secure a billion dollar gross.
So I'm sorry to tell you how the movie turns out, that Elon pulls the plug, but I'm just like the rest of the reviewers online these days. Read a review and you don't have to go to the movie. Then again, you know what is involved in Space Mountain and the rest of the world's famous roller coasters and you go on them anyway, because it's about the ride. Yes, the cheap thrill that is over fast. And what do you say when the train of cars pulls back into the station? LET'S DO THAT AGAIN! Musk knows the paradigm. The old school left wing politicians in D.C? They're still too scared to go on the ride to begin with.
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