Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3Pg5GmB
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3AFlMSG
I heard "Poor Boy" on SXM the other night. I'd say it stopped me in my tracks, but I was driving east on Sunset just past Bundy, and it made me feel so good, it connected me with what once was and today.
Split Enz have been forgotten. However Crowded House has been remembered. I always preferred Split Enz, even though I saw Crowded House at Club Lingerie (and Split Enz at the Whisky!)
So I'm lying on the couch trying to entertain myself. I can't slow myself down enough to watch a movie or TV series, so I start reading the news, then the magazines on my iPad, not that they're resonating, I'm reading the news the whole damn day, so I pulled up "Avalon" to listen in hi-res on Amazon Music. And it sounded so good.
And I'm thinking how "Avalon" was a commercial stiff upon release in the U.S. How it took years to gain consciousness in the consumer mind. Then it was a staple, the ultimate soft rock staple if you ask me, even though it's not so soft. For a long time my favorite has been the second side opener, "The Main Thing." But today I got hooked on "To Turn You On." Listen to that on headphones, you'll think you're off Broadway after dark loving the view.
And now I'm thinking how the purpose of an album used to be different.
First and foremost, they were short, Forty minutes was long. They were easily digested. But the goal was different. It was to lay down your statement. Sure, you wanted to exit the studio with one radio track, but the greats never cottoned to commercialism. Now it's all commercialism. Except when practiced by those with no hope of commercialism. Today's music is just one step away, whereas the great records of yore are hermetically sealed, they exist in a parallel universe that you can only visit, only understand if you listen to them.
And in addition to being shorter, there were so many fewer albums. But the paradigm was different, you had to buy them, you didn't get all the music for ten bucks a month. So, inherently you owned few. You'd go to a friend's house and see that album you were curious about, that you wanted to hear, and insist they drop the needle immediately, you couldn't wait. Also, you went to a friend's house, especially a new one, and saw the same relatively obscure album you owned and you felt connected, part of a substratum not recognized by the mainstream, but powerful nonetheless.
That's how I felt when I went to this woman's apartment and she had "Waiata," the first Split Enz album after the breakthrough, "True Colours."
There'd been a skein of albums before this, on Chrysalis, right? I bought 'em as promos at Rhino Records. Can't say that I played them much, but I played "True Colours" incessantly! (And note, I'd purchased three Split Enz albums BEFORE I purchased "True Colours.")
You see it was "I Got You." I heard it on KROQ.
Suddenly, the band was firing on all cylinders.
It's hard to describe a record like "I Got You" today, a band like Split Enz. Because in addition to being from New Zealand, they were not dead center in the game. "I Got You" didn't strike you in the face, it didn't make you pay attention, rather it contained an indescribable magic that drew you to it, that made you buy the album.
On A&M in the States. With a laser-etched disc. Yes, you didn't have to be a platinum act to get a special package, that was part of the sale pitch, even though I never ever bought an album based on the cover, or the disc itself, who would do that?
So "True Colours" became one of my favorite albums. Maybe it was so good because Neil Finn was now fully integrated in the band, a rival to his brother Tim. But Tim did write the second side delectables, "Nobody Takes Me Seriously" and "Poor Boy," absolute killers that sounded like nothing else but nailed you to the ground nonetheless. You see this was the goal, to go on your own hejira and have the public come to you, it's the same thing that happened with "Avalon."
Now my favorite Split Enz track is contained on the 1983 album "Conflicting Emotions," which was a disappointment overall. But "Message to My Girl"? One of the most majestic cuts of all time. As great as the original studio take is, the one with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is TRANSCENDENT! I got it on Napster, wrote about it twenty-odd years ago, and now through the magic of YouTube you can hear it too. There's a whole documentary intro, but the music starts just shy of a minute in, if you're a fan of the song, and you know who you are, you must hear/see this: https://bit.ly/3AzSBAs
But today I was playing "True Colours," and I got stuck on "Poor Boy" but I eventually decided to slip into "Waiata."
"Waiata" was not as good as "True Colours." The song on KROQ was "History Never Repeats," a Neil Finn banger that is really quite palatable, and ultimately memorable, and it got a lot of airplay.
But the other big song from "Waiata," which I don't remember listening to in years, was "One Step Ahead."
And now I'm deep into Split Enz, surfing the web, trying to find out things I don't already know. And what I do find out is there are live albums, but they're not on streaming services, and this is disappointing. But, I think, there have been so many iterations of the "band." Maybe there's some live work under Neil Finn's name.
So I go to Wikipedia and I find this album released in 2020. It's entitled "Solo at the Seymour Centre, 2010."
Now let me see... A ten year old solo concert released ten years later? How good could this be?
Then again, this is what is amazing in the twenty first century, the unearthing of all this live product that we would have salivated over in the pre-internet era that is released without a trace, that you only hear if you stumble upon it.
Now most of these solo concert records are acoustic, a facsimile of the original, for fans only, and usually not to be listened to that many times, so my expectations were low. So I look at the track listing and decide to play "One Step Ahead."
First and foremost he's playing an ELECTRIC GUITAR! Nobody does that solo. And there's this ethereal intro and then Neil starts to sing and I'M FLOORED! I'm tingling writing about it right now. This is so amazing!
Now Neil Finn has gotten a victory lap as a member of the reconstituted Fleetwood Mac. But shy of that, he's a journeyman. In the rearview mirror in popular music, not a streaming giant. But I'm listening to this live version of "One Step Ahead" and it's light years ahead of the Spotify Top 50, it evidences a humanity that they do not. And unlike too many vaunted artists today, great players, Neil Finn can write, being able to play is not enough.
It's the mood. The sound and the lyrics. You can feel nascent love, after the initial infatuation phase, when either you hang on for the ride or absent yourself, unwilling to ride the roller coaster, and it's always bumpy at this stage, up and down.
Earlier I'd been thinking how all the music I was infatuated with was fading, people say it's just a matter of age, that today's music is just as good and important to the younger generation.
NO!
I'm lying on the couch listening to Split Enz and Neil Finn and I start to realize this is how it used to be. Just me and the music. Having the record spin, listening to it, was enough activity for an afternoon, studying the album cover, memorizing the credits, even though you didn't realize you were doing that. Life was slower, there were fewer distractions. And we knew we were only home for a while anyway, we were going to go out that night, to a club, to a movie, to a friend's house, being home alone all day was death.
Today you listen to music while you're doing something else, maybe many things. Music is mostly background. Life moves too fast to slow down and smell the roses, never mind listen to the music.
It's forty years ago, but Neil Finn is still one step ahead.
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Saturday 9 July 2022
Friday 8 July 2022
Washos
1
I haven't washed my car since September.
Tuesday I had to drive to Melrose to drop off my tax information. Sure, I could have mailed it, even FedEx'ed it, but I didn't want to take any risk, as so many of the documents were one of a kind. And as I was sitting in traffic...I said to myself THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME!
Now L.A. has the worst traffic in America. But it wasn't heavy this day. Maybe because it was the July 4th week. But even so, all three map apps said it would take between 27 and 29 minutes to get there, just east of La Cienega.
And I love to drive. And I've got no problem with traffic. And I was flipping the presets on SiriusXM from Howard to music to NPR, and on NPR I found this very interesting story...that I can't really remember right now, but I know it's in there somewhere. I'm not one of the NPR people. Whenever they e-mail to be on, which is not recently, there are few translatable stories in the music business right now, other than sponsorship and greed, they tell me about the outlet's reach, as in it reaches more people than any of the news on TV. And this is true, if you're on NPR people hear you, I always get emails after appearing on NPR, but I can be on TV stations and there are crickets, except for CNN International, which seemingly every American traveler turns on in their hotel room. I'm on at some ungodly hour, late in the evening on the west coast, and I always hear from friends in Asia and Europe that they saw me. Fascinating. So be on NPR. The rest of the outlets? Pretty much a circle jerk.
Like today's L.A. "Times." All the articles in the Calendar section were hype. Sure, there were a few reviews, but the rest of it is endless b.s. from celebrities hawking their new product. I mean who cares at this point? Meanwhile, I read on Twitter that the new Minions movie was set on fire via TikTok. If you've been following the receipts, it got bad reviews, and the last Pixar film released to theatres was a financial disappointment, but this Minions movie, "The Rise of Gru"? It's been doing boffo at the b.o. Meaning that despite all the kiddie product released direct to video during the pandemic, parents will still take their children out to the theatre. What does this mean? I'm not exactly sure, it is summer, do they just want a baby sitter for a while?
So so many of my "commutes" have fallen by the wayside since the pandemic. Doctors? I see them via Zoom. My psychiatrist gave up his office. And now, years later, I can see all the time I've saved.
And, all the action is at home. I can sit in front of my screen and reach the world, never mind take the temperature of the world. This is impossible out. While you're driving you can't pay full attention, as for doing all your work on your phone... Did you ever notice that you read an e-mail on your phone and get all pushed out of shape and then when you read it on the big screen, on your desktop or laptop, it's nowhere near as heinous as you think, sometimes even positive? Has happened to me too many times. Now I'm reluctant to send serious e-mail responses immediately on my phone, I may get the attitude wrong, never mind the response.
And when I'm deep in the heart of the city, I think about everybody going to lunch.
Now in truth, there are a lot of people who go to lunch with a different person every day, it's networking. Funnily enough, they always go to restaurants near their office, they don't burn much time. But their dining companions? You've got to get in the car, drive, park, eat and then repeat. You lose hours. To accomplish? This is very different from a meeting to seal a deal, this is just conversation, is it worth this time investment? Is it worth it to talk live to anybody these days?
This is another thing the boomers can't understand about the Millennials and Gen-Z, I hear it all the time...PICK UP THE PHONE! The younger generation communicates electronically, i.e. e-mail, iMessage, etc. Whereas the boomers work on the phone. They're confounded that the office can be so quiet. But this is the way the world is going. Electronic is so much better. You don't waste so much time, you get to the heart of the matter, and you're not on hold, even worse not waiting for a call back. That's one of the reasons I hate to call, because then I can't relax until the call is returned, which may not even be the same day. I know, in the office this is de rigueur. But in the creative world, you cannot work unless you're in the zone without distractions. If people tell you otherwise...well, I guess there are exceptions, but I don't know any. That's why recording studios are dark, with no windows, you want to remove the act from the real world, create a unique space.
So I'm hiking in the mountains listening to the Pivot podcast. That's basically where Kara Swisher asks questions of Scott Galloway. Ms. Swisher is constantly dropping names and engagements, but as a result she doesn't smear people like her compatriot. Galloway lays down the truth. Like Swisher repeating her take on the Elon Musk Twitter employees meeting. Yes, she had access, very cool. But she drank the kool-aid, Galloway wasn't buying it. Elon Musk has been backing out of the Twitter deal almost since its inception, and Galloway is not letting him off the hook.
But during this podcast, they were talking about working from home. Scott's take was very interesting, if you want to get ahead, if you want to be mentored, go to the office. And that rang true. But most of the younger generation don't want to return, they don't want to waste all that time, just like me!
Now in truth the days of tech wonderment are done. All the new hardware, then the new software. For nearly two decades tech drove the culture, now it's politics. Behind that? Well, there's streaming television and in a distant last place music, which abdicated its power all by itself. Have you been reading all the stories talking about how music sucks?
Well, first let me say if you want to keep up on what is going on in the tech sphere, you'll get hooked on Pivot, this is the episode I was referencing:
"Twitter, Layoffs, and Streaming: Pivot's Q2 Quarterly Review": https://apple.co/3c3CkJX
As for those articles about the decline of music...
One is by political writer Umair Haque:
"Forget the Apocalypse, Let's Talk About What Happened to Music - Why Music doesn't Sound Like Music Anymore": https://bit.ly/3RjiD0O
The other article is in "Inc.":
"Why Music Has Lost Its Charms - There's little doubt that corporations have stifled creativity": https://bit.ly/3InIxwh
This second article is by Howard Tullman, a VC guy.
Do I really care what either of these guys have to say? Especially the one with money? Not at all. I could quibble with their analyses, but once a concept, a wave of information gains hold, you know there's something there. The truth is the recording industry, as practiced by the major labels, skews to an ever smaller slice of the population, and very rarely does it provide cutting edge tracks that impact the culture at large. Like I said, the music business has abdicated its power, no one took it away.
2
So I used to go to the car wash.
And then during Covid, I started washing my car myself, I bought all the equipment, the varying brand name cleaners and shammys and...even a clean bucket!
And the effort was not that major, not that I could get it up to clean my car that often, there's that nasty time factor once again. Never mind I seem categorically unable to wash my car without getting wet myself.
But now we've got a water shortage in Southern California.
Have you been reading about that glacier coming down in Italy? I have, being addicted to skiing, all things mountains. Read this:
"Glacier Tragedy Shows Reach of Europe's New Heat": https://nyti.ms/3uyZXjT
If you're not horrified about global warming reading this, you're probably the CEO of an energy company. As for the Republican party which installed these Supreme Court justices beholden to the energy suppliers, the big story in the news is how the Conservative party revolted against Boris Johnson, a serial liar, never mind bad actor, but the Republicans never revolted against Trump. Johnson didn't want to go, but everybody kept resigning. In other words, the Republicans are wimps. I'm gonna lose a few more subscribers here, but I've got to stand up for the truth a bit, and the Republicans are the sorest winners I've ever encountered. As for Tucker Carlson...
You've got to see this performance. This is what the Tuckster said about Taylor Lorenz:
"She showed up to an interview wearing some sort of face gear, was she going to rob a liquor store? We don't know."
Lorenz's big offense? Interviewing someone in public while she wore a mask, having underlying immune issues.
Check it out: https://bit.ly/3PaFaLX
So, needless to say I can't be seen with a hose in front of my house, cleaning my car, hell, you can only water your lawn once a week.
As for going to the car wash...
Well, I'll spend twenty bucks.
Now wait, I'm not going to go at all, because of my immune issue. I finally have enough B-cells to get the vaccine again, I now have 39.33 antibodies, which is better than none, which had been my total previously. But you want 150. 100 is okay. I just got a second shot, but I could only get a booster, not a full shot, I won't bother you with the rigamarole, I'll be tested again in ten days.
Anyway, my car is a disaster. Completely covered in dirt. Just leave your car out one night in SoCal and it'll be covered in dust. And we only have a one car garage, so it's got to be on the street.
Now I'd say I'd wait for rain, but that won't come until at least September, if not later.
But really, the problem is the sap. These yellow dots all over my damn car. I can take it to the car wash and they don't even make a dent on them.
So Felice sent me a discount coupon for Washos. 15% off!
Well, am I really gonna spend fifty bucks to wash my car?
Well, by time you get through tipping at the car wash you've spent twenty, and it's not even clean.
So I start doing the research.
NEVER EVER GO DEEP! Or at least know how to reject the outliers. Search online and you'll find someone talking crap about everything, listen to them and you won't buy anything. And there was one picture on Reddit of a guy with a brand new Panamera, who bought a detailing package and... The pictures tell it all.
I was horrified.
But I've got a seventeen year old car which came with a crappy paint job to begin with.
Now dig into Washos and you'll find they use this non-water cleaning method. But my car is uber-dirty. So... Can they really clean it this way?
When I decide to jump in (frustrated with a couple of other problems in my life, I figured taking action washing my car would show I had some power), I booked Washos a day later. And did I want a cleaning with water or non-water? But they say if your car is really dirty, they're gonna have to use water. But water is free, and non-water is an extra five bucks. I ended up checking them both. But I'd filled out the form a couple of times and the date reverted to a couple of hours hence so I changed it, canceled, and then started all over.
I booked for one today. Now even amateurs know you shouldn't wash your car in the bright sun. But better to take action than to do nothing.
So the guy came ten minutes late. No biggie, they said to give him fifteen.
And he immediately asked me to move my car to the shade. Which was not all-encompassing, but good enough for him. And I pointed out where the spigot was, and he said HE BROUGHT HIS OWN WATER!
Now the guy pulled up in a car better than mine, a new Dodge.
So I left him to it, he said it would take about an hour and fifteen. And then he'd get me to move the car closer to an outlet so he could vacuum.
So, I go out there to move it and... I'm positively stunned. My car hasn't looked this good in years! All the sap is gone, I'm astounded. However, a couple of the glued-on letters have disappeared from the tailgate. Hmm... He should have mentioned to me they came off. I ended up walking to the shade and finding them. Then again, how pissed can I be? One of the glued-on letters came off when I was washing the car a year ago. And it is a damn old car.
So then, when I'm walking back inside, I notice the wheels are still dirty. I don't know what it is with my car, it's very different from the BMWs I've owned previously. As in you can clean the rims...AND THEY GET CLEAN!
He said he was going to clean them.
About twenty minutes later I came out... And they were!
Now the next thing I have to do is get my car serviced. But because of Covid they no longer give you a wash for free. And your car has to arrive relatively clean to begin with, otherwise they don't respect it, at least that's my thought. But really...
CHALK THIS UP AS A VICTORY!
As for leaving my house to run any kind of errand ever again...
Let's not forget, there's Instacart, and Amazon Prime...
https://www.washos.com
And here's a 20% discount code, supposedly good through November 4th: TIME20
Finally, Washos is not available everywhere and I'm only testifying as to the basic wash, beyond that, re detailing etc...you're on your own.
I haven't washed my car since September.
Tuesday I had to drive to Melrose to drop off my tax information. Sure, I could have mailed it, even FedEx'ed it, but I didn't want to take any risk, as so many of the documents were one of a kind. And as I was sitting in traffic...I said to myself THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME!
Now L.A. has the worst traffic in America. But it wasn't heavy this day. Maybe because it was the July 4th week. But even so, all three map apps said it would take between 27 and 29 minutes to get there, just east of La Cienega.
And I love to drive. And I've got no problem with traffic. And I was flipping the presets on SiriusXM from Howard to music to NPR, and on NPR I found this very interesting story...that I can't really remember right now, but I know it's in there somewhere. I'm not one of the NPR people. Whenever they e-mail to be on, which is not recently, there are few translatable stories in the music business right now, other than sponsorship and greed, they tell me about the outlet's reach, as in it reaches more people than any of the news on TV. And this is true, if you're on NPR people hear you, I always get emails after appearing on NPR, but I can be on TV stations and there are crickets, except for CNN International, which seemingly every American traveler turns on in their hotel room. I'm on at some ungodly hour, late in the evening on the west coast, and I always hear from friends in Asia and Europe that they saw me. Fascinating. So be on NPR. The rest of the outlets? Pretty much a circle jerk.
Like today's L.A. "Times." All the articles in the Calendar section were hype. Sure, there were a few reviews, but the rest of it is endless b.s. from celebrities hawking their new product. I mean who cares at this point? Meanwhile, I read on Twitter that the new Minions movie was set on fire via TikTok. If you've been following the receipts, it got bad reviews, and the last Pixar film released to theatres was a financial disappointment, but this Minions movie, "The Rise of Gru"? It's been doing boffo at the b.o. Meaning that despite all the kiddie product released direct to video during the pandemic, parents will still take their children out to the theatre. What does this mean? I'm not exactly sure, it is summer, do they just want a baby sitter for a while?
So so many of my "commutes" have fallen by the wayside since the pandemic. Doctors? I see them via Zoom. My psychiatrist gave up his office. And now, years later, I can see all the time I've saved.
And, all the action is at home. I can sit in front of my screen and reach the world, never mind take the temperature of the world. This is impossible out. While you're driving you can't pay full attention, as for doing all your work on your phone... Did you ever notice that you read an e-mail on your phone and get all pushed out of shape and then when you read it on the big screen, on your desktop or laptop, it's nowhere near as heinous as you think, sometimes even positive? Has happened to me too many times. Now I'm reluctant to send serious e-mail responses immediately on my phone, I may get the attitude wrong, never mind the response.
And when I'm deep in the heart of the city, I think about everybody going to lunch.
Now in truth, there are a lot of people who go to lunch with a different person every day, it's networking. Funnily enough, they always go to restaurants near their office, they don't burn much time. But their dining companions? You've got to get in the car, drive, park, eat and then repeat. You lose hours. To accomplish? This is very different from a meeting to seal a deal, this is just conversation, is it worth this time investment? Is it worth it to talk live to anybody these days?
This is another thing the boomers can't understand about the Millennials and Gen-Z, I hear it all the time...PICK UP THE PHONE! The younger generation communicates electronically, i.e. e-mail, iMessage, etc. Whereas the boomers work on the phone. They're confounded that the office can be so quiet. But this is the way the world is going. Electronic is so much better. You don't waste so much time, you get to the heart of the matter, and you're not on hold, even worse not waiting for a call back. That's one of the reasons I hate to call, because then I can't relax until the call is returned, which may not even be the same day. I know, in the office this is de rigueur. But in the creative world, you cannot work unless you're in the zone without distractions. If people tell you otherwise...well, I guess there are exceptions, but I don't know any. That's why recording studios are dark, with no windows, you want to remove the act from the real world, create a unique space.
So I'm hiking in the mountains listening to the Pivot podcast. That's basically where Kara Swisher asks questions of Scott Galloway. Ms. Swisher is constantly dropping names and engagements, but as a result she doesn't smear people like her compatriot. Galloway lays down the truth. Like Swisher repeating her take on the Elon Musk Twitter employees meeting. Yes, she had access, very cool. But she drank the kool-aid, Galloway wasn't buying it. Elon Musk has been backing out of the Twitter deal almost since its inception, and Galloway is not letting him off the hook.
But during this podcast, they were talking about working from home. Scott's take was very interesting, if you want to get ahead, if you want to be mentored, go to the office. And that rang true. But most of the younger generation don't want to return, they don't want to waste all that time, just like me!
Now in truth the days of tech wonderment are done. All the new hardware, then the new software. For nearly two decades tech drove the culture, now it's politics. Behind that? Well, there's streaming television and in a distant last place music, which abdicated its power all by itself. Have you been reading all the stories talking about how music sucks?
Well, first let me say if you want to keep up on what is going on in the tech sphere, you'll get hooked on Pivot, this is the episode I was referencing:
"Twitter, Layoffs, and Streaming: Pivot's Q2 Quarterly Review": https://apple.co/3c3CkJX
As for those articles about the decline of music...
One is by political writer Umair Haque:
"Forget the Apocalypse, Let's Talk About What Happened to Music - Why Music doesn't Sound Like Music Anymore": https://bit.ly/3RjiD0O
The other article is in "Inc.":
"Why Music Has Lost Its Charms - There's little doubt that corporations have stifled creativity": https://bit.ly/3InIxwh
This second article is by Howard Tullman, a VC guy.
Do I really care what either of these guys have to say? Especially the one with money? Not at all. I could quibble with their analyses, but once a concept, a wave of information gains hold, you know there's something there. The truth is the recording industry, as practiced by the major labels, skews to an ever smaller slice of the population, and very rarely does it provide cutting edge tracks that impact the culture at large. Like I said, the music business has abdicated its power, no one took it away.
2
So I used to go to the car wash.
And then during Covid, I started washing my car myself, I bought all the equipment, the varying brand name cleaners and shammys and...even a clean bucket!
And the effort was not that major, not that I could get it up to clean my car that often, there's that nasty time factor once again. Never mind I seem categorically unable to wash my car without getting wet myself.
But now we've got a water shortage in Southern California.
Have you been reading about that glacier coming down in Italy? I have, being addicted to skiing, all things mountains. Read this:
"Glacier Tragedy Shows Reach of Europe's New Heat": https://nyti.ms/3uyZXjT
If you're not horrified about global warming reading this, you're probably the CEO of an energy company. As for the Republican party which installed these Supreme Court justices beholden to the energy suppliers, the big story in the news is how the Conservative party revolted against Boris Johnson, a serial liar, never mind bad actor, but the Republicans never revolted against Trump. Johnson didn't want to go, but everybody kept resigning. In other words, the Republicans are wimps. I'm gonna lose a few more subscribers here, but I've got to stand up for the truth a bit, and the Republicans are the sorest winners I've ever encountered. As for Tucker Carlson...
You've got to see this performance. This is what the Tuckster said about Taylor Lorenz:
"She showed up to an interview wearing some sort of face gear, was she going to rob a liquor store? We don't know."
Lorenz's big offense? Interviewing someone in public while she wore a mask, having underlying immune issues.
Check it out: https://bit.ly/3PaFaLX
So, needless to say I can't be seen with a hose in front of my house, cleaning my car, hell, you can only water your lawn once a week.
As for going to the car wash...
Well, I'll spend twenty bucks.
Now wait, I'm not going to go at all, because of my immune issue. I finally have enough B-cells to get the vaccine again, I now have 39.33 antibodies, which is better than none, which had been my total previously. But you want 150. 100 is okay. I just got a second shot, but I could only get a booster, not a full shot, I won't bother you with the rigamarole, I'll be tested again in ten days.
Anyway, my car is a disaster. Completely covered in dirt. Just leave your car out one night in SoCal and it'll be covered in dust. And we only have a one car garage, so it's got to be on the street.
Now I'd say I'd wait for rain, but that won't come until at least September, if not later.
But really, the problem is the sap. These yellow dots all over my damn car. I can take it to the car wash and they don't even make a dent on them.
So Felice sent me a discount coupon for Washos. 15% off!
Well, am I really gonna spend fifty bucks to wash my car?
Well, by time you get through tipping at the car wash you've spent twenty, and it's not even clean.
So I start doing the research.
NEVER EVER GO DEEP! Or at least know how to reject the outliers. Search online and you'll find someone talking crap about everything, listen to them and you won't buy anything. And there was one picture on Reddit of a guy with a brand new Panamera, who bought a detailing package and... The pictures tell it all.
I was horrified.
But I've got a seventeen year old car which came with a crappy paint job to begin with.
Now dig into Washos and you'll find they use this non-water cleaning method. But my car is uber-dirty. So... Can they really clean it this way?
When I decide to jump in (frustrated with a couple of other problems in my life, I figured taking action washing my car would show I had some power), I booked Washos a day later. And did I want a cleaning with water or non-water? But they say if your car is really dirty, they're gonna have to use water. But water is free, and non-water is an extra five bucks. I ended up checking them both. But I'd filled out the form a couple of times and the date reverted to a couple of hours hence so I changed it, canceled, and then started all over.
I booked for one today. Now even amateurs know you shouldn't wash your car in the bright sun. But better to take action than to do nothing.
So the guy came ten minutes late. No biggie, they said to give him fifteen.
And he immediately asked me to move my car to the shade. Which was not all-encompassing, but good enough for him. And I pointed out where the spigot was, and he said HE BROUGHT HIS OWN WATER!
Now the guy pulled up in a car better than mine, a new Dodge.
So I left him to it, he said it would take about an hour and fifteen. And then he'd get me to move the car closer to an outlet so he could vacuum.
So, I go out there to move it and... I'm positively stunned. My car hasn't looked this good in years! All the sap is gone, I'm astounded. However, a couple of the glued-on letters have disappeared from the tailgate. Hmm... He should have mentioned to me they came off. I ended up walking to the shade and finding them. Then again, how pissed can I be? One of the glued-on letters came off when I was washing the car a year ago. And it is a damn old car.
So then, when I'm walking back inside, I notice the wheels are still dirty. I don't know what it is with my car, it's very different from the BMWs I've owned previously. As in you can clean the rims...AND THEY GET CLEAN!
He said he was going to clean them.
About twenty minutes later I came out... And they were!
Now the next thing I have to do is get my car serviced. But because of Covid they no longer give you a wash for free. And your car has to arrive relatively clean to begin with, otherwise they don't respect it, at least that's my thought. But really...
CHALK THIS UP AS A VICTORY!
As for leaving my house to run any kind of errand ever again...
Let's not forget, there's Instacart, and Amazon Prime...
https://www.washos.com
And here's a 20% discount code, supposedly good through November 4th: TIME20
Finally, Washos is not available everywhere and I'm only testifying as to the basic wash, beyond that, re detailing etc...you're on your own.
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Thursday 7 July 2022
Jim Kerr-This Week's Podcast
That's right, Mr. Simple Minds! We cover everything from Bowie to Iovine to Hynde to his hotel in Sicily... Jim is a charismatic raconteur, you're gonna dig this.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/jim-kerr-99138166/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jim-kerr/id1316200737?i=1000569128013
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KiF3kSOszpmbXSFOptz6g?si=-UdznBvTSN2iyJXOxrnTmg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b0e29ec9-3544-44a6-8545-c31a7a2f8f79/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-jim-kerr
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/jim-kerr-204688525
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/jim-kerr-99138166/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jim-kerr/id1316200737?i=1000569128013
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KiF3kSOszpmbXSFOptz6g?si=-UdznBvTSN2iyJXOxrnTmg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b0e29ec9-3544-44a6-8545-c31a7a2f8f79/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-jim-kerr
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/jim-kerr-204688525
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Tuesday 5 July 2022
The Bear
Trailer: https://bit.ly/3ymjHbC
Oliver Platt is SO good in this I'd say to watch it just for him, even though his participation is limited. But during the party scene, watching him switch from angry to amenable, and him telling that story, PRICELESS! He seems like a regular guy, one you would know, like the rest of the characters in "The Bear," not setting the world on fire, just living their lives.
This show got good reviews and excellent RottenTomatoes scores, so I put it on the list. Not that I read much about it, I just read the first and last paragraphs of reviews to see if they're positive, because I like to go in cold, the experience is part of the magic of novels, TV and movies. Like life, you don't know what is going to happen, you just decide to dive in.
But before we did...
I got e-mail. From one person saying he turned it off, because he didn't like any of the people in the show, there was no one he could identify with, no one he could root for. WHEN DID THIS BECOME A THING?
I read a great tweet today by Taylor Lorenz, about there being a business in telling people what they want to hear, being optimistic, giving them hope. Especially in the music business. When I'm honest people hate it, they don't want their dreams trampled upon. Even though in most cases they're just dreams, they're gonna give up long before they get close, because it's just too much work. Why does everybody need to be boosted? And why do you need to identify with characters. Did you ever work in a restaurant, did your brother... It's supposed to be fresh, it's supposed to give you INSIGHT! And if it's all negative, so what, so is so much of life. When people demand inspiration you usually end up with tripe.
And "The Bear" isn't tripe.
But I'm not exactly sure what it is either.
You see it's only four hours long, eight episodes, although the finale is a bit longer. It's just a start. You mean I'm gonna have to wait a whole 'nother year to see where this goes?
And since it's an American show, you can predict the mood of the ending. Not that I'm revealing too much, I thought about this from the very first minute, American shows can't leave you on a downer, I wish they would.
So Carmy takes over his brother's restaurant, his family's restaurant. The twist is Carmy is a legendary chef. Jeremy Allen White, who plays Carmy... I've never seen him before. But this is not the pre-internet era, where you know everybody's backstory. I marvel at some actor's performance, and then people tell me they were in some lowbrow network show... I haven't watched network in decades. Literally. I'm looking for something spicier, more direct, in a narrower vertical. When you're trying to appeal to a broad audience, you inherently lose me.
And what audience is "The Bear" shooting for?
I'm not exactly sure. But I'd say one that is looking for visceral entertainment.
So what you've got here is a deep dive into the workings of a restaurant. And as many shows as there have been about this, I've never seen anything close to this. It's not feel good, pressure is high, nerves are shot, and everybody takes things super-seriously. This seems to be a characteristic of restaurants, they treat it like it's life or death, like world peace hangs in the balance. And speaking of balance, it's a balancing act getting everybody to deliver at the same time.
So it's chaos. And it's fascinating to watch. Is it appealing? To some people, maybe not. But to me? Yes. Because everybody's caught up in their job, too many people work to live, as opposed to the opposite. There's all this hogwash that Americans work too much, take their jobs too seriously, and I'll say that vacations are critical, they rejuvenate you, but when it's all on the line, that's when it gets interesting to me. I've found this over and over again, people don't want to take it as seriously as I do. Furthermore, I want to walk the fine edge. You know, the one if you push it too far you can fall over and fail. The magic for me is in that last one or two percent. That turn good, even very good, into excellent, INCREDIBLE! That's why I buy the top of the line products in areas that are important to me. I use those features no one else does. I read the manuals. Do you know with Focus in the latest Mac OS, Monterey, if you mute your computer, IT AUTOMATICALLY MUTES YOUR iPHONE! May not sound like much, but it is. Assuming you don't want to be interrupted, and when I'm writing, I don't.
That's one of the interesting scenes, at the high end restaurant, the head chef being boorish, having no tolerance for failure, needing it EXACTLY right, stuff you don't think is really important, that most people won't even sense. But it's this little bit that people do sense, even if they don't know what it is, that makes the end result TRANSCENDENT!
Like Oliver Platt's performance. The way he laughs to himself and then laughs with the others. They're two different things, he separates them, gets each of them right.
Then there's Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie, the "cousin" who is not. He's been in a slew of stuff, but I know him as the boyfriend in "Girls," the folk musician. He plays a somewhat similar role here, but here he's a hothead, he's over the top all the time. He's highly strung. And you know people like this, they're constantly screwing up, denying responsibility, biting back, making mistake after mistake, and then they ultimately admit it AND NOTHING CHANGES! As adults people abandon them, they've got fewer and fewer friends, they end up working at piss-poor jobs not because they're dumb, or untalented, it's just that NO ONE CAN GET ALONG WITH THEM!
Tina, the longtime employee who's averse to change. She's been doing it this way for years, and if you want to mess with it, she won't do it, furthermore she'll sabotage you. I don't care how right you might be, getting workers to heed your advice is a huge hurdle.
And the guy who makes the cakes, who dreams of a bigger future as a baker. There are numerous players with different mentalities. You've got a small world here that takes everything and doesn't deliver money so much as being part of a family.
So "The Bear" is kind of a drive-by. We want so much more. There's all this set-up, and we want depth. We've been trained by streaming series. Movies? Two hours and they're done, they're separate from life in almost all cases. But series? You get to know the characters, you see and feel them living, you get much more invested, and you expect more!
Did you see that HBO Max just cut all European production? "Golden Life" was an HBO Max European production. This always happens, a new person comes in, in this case David Zaslav, and they think they know everything when they know so little. About HBO, CNN... When it comes to the arts, music, movies and TV, it can oftentimes be about one album, movie or TV show. No one bats 1,000. You've got to step up to the plate more than everybody else to win. You've got to give your creators free rein, you can't be cheap, Netflix has the winning formula yet is constantly derided by the street, believing like Zaslav that it's all about the money, making the trains run on time. Money is important, but you can balance the books in entertainment and go bankrupt. You can only win if you support artists. Let them do their thing. Where Netflix is king.
But "The Bear" is on Hulu. You should watch it. Like I said above, it's not a huge commitment. Because it will affect you. And isn't that exactly what we're looking for in our entertainment?
Oliver Platt is SO good in this I'd say to watch it just for him, even though his participation is limited. But during the party scene, watching him switch from angry to amenable, and him telling that story, PRICELESS! He seems like a regular guy, one you would know, like the rest of the characters in "The Bear," not setting the world on fire, just living their lives.
This show got good reviews and excellent RottenTomatoes scores, so I put it on the list. Not that I read much about it, I just read the first and last paragraphs of reviews to see if they're positive, because I like to go in cold, the experience is part of the magic of novels, TV and movies. Like life, you don't know what is going to happen, you just decide to dive in.
But before we did...
I got e-mail. From one person saying he turned it off, because he didn't like any of the people in the show, there was no one he could identify with, no one he could root for. WHEN DID THIS BECOME A THING?
I read a great tweet today by Taylor Lorenz, about there being a business in telling people what they want to hear, being optimistic, giving them hope. Especially in the music business. When I'm honest people hate it, they don't want their dreams trampled upon. Even though in most cases they're just dreams, they're gonna give up long before they get close, because it's just too much work. Why does everybody need to be boosted? And why do you need to identify with characters. Did you ever work in a restaurant, did your brother... It's supposed to be fresh, it's supposed to give you INSIGHT! And if it's all negative, so what, so is so much of life. When people demand inspiration you usually end up with tripe.
And "The Bear" isn't tripe.
But I'm not exactly sure what it is either.
You see it's only four hours long, eight episodes, although the finale is a bit longer. It's just a start. You mean I'm gonna have to wait a whole 'nother year to see where this goes?
And since it's an American show, you can predict the mood of the ending. Not that I'm revealing too much, I thought about this from the very first minute, American shows can't leave you on a downer, I wish they would.
So Carmy takes over his brother's restaurant, his family's restaurant. The twist is Carmy is a legendary chef. Jeremy Allen White, who plays Carmy... I've never seen him before. But this is not the pre-internet era, where you know everybody's backstory. I marvel at some actor's performance, and then people tell me they were in some lowbrow network show... I haven't watched network in decades. Literally. I'm looking for something spicier, more direct, in a narrower vertical. When you're trying to appeal to a broad audience, you inherently lose me.
And what audience is "The Bear" shooting for?
I'm not exactly sure. But I'd say one that is looking for visceral entertainment.
So what you've got here is a deep dive into the workings of a restaurant. And as many shows as there have been about this, I've never seen anything close to this. It's not feel good, pressure is high, nerves are shot, and everybody takes things super-seriously. This seems to be a characteristic of restaurants, they treat it like it's life or death, like world peace hangs in the balance. And speaking of balance, it's a balancing act getting everybody to deliver at the same time.
So it's chaos. And it's fascinating to watch. Is it appealing? To some people, maybe not. But to me? Yes. Because everybody's caught up in their job, too many people work to live, as opposed to the opposite. There's all this hogwash that Americans work too much, take their jobs too seriously, and I'll say that vacations are critical, they rejuvenate you, but when it's all on the line, that's when it gets interesting to me. I've found this over and over again, people don't want to take it as seriously as I do. Furthermore, I want to walk the fine edge. You know, the one if you push it too far you can fall over and fail. The magic for me is in that last one or two percent. That turn good, even very good, into excellent, INCREDIBLE! That's why I buy the top of the line products in areas that are important to me. I use those features no one else does. I read the manuals. Do you know with Focus in the latest Mac OS, Monterey, if you mute your computer, IT AUTOMATICALLY MUTES YOUR iPHONE! May not sound like much, but it is. Assuming you don't want to be interrupted, and when I'm writing, I don't.
That's one of the interesting scenes, at the high end restaurant, the head chef being boorish, having no tolerance for failure, needing it EXACTLY right, stuff you don't think is really important, that most people won't even sense. But it's this little bit that people do sense, even if they don't know what it is, that makes the end result TRANSCENDENT!
Like Oliver Platt's performance. The way he laughs to himself and then laughs with the others. They're two different things, he separates them, gets each of them right.
Then there's Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie, the "cousin" who is not. He's been in a slew of stuff, but I know him as the boyfriend in "Girls," the folk musician. He plays a somewhat similar role here, but here he's a hothead, he's over the top all the time. He's highly strung. And you know people like this, they're constantly screwing up, denying responsibility, biting back, making mistake after mistake, and then they ultimately admit it AND NOTHING CHANGES! As adults people abandon them, they've got fewer and fewer friends, they end up working at piss-poor jobs not because they're dumb, or untalented, it's just that NO ONE CAN GET ALONG WITH THEM!
Tina, the longtime employee who's averse to change. She's been doing it this way for years, and if you want to mess with it, she won't do it, furthermore she'll sabotage you. I don't care how right you might be, getting workers to heed your advice is a huge hurdle.
And the guy who makes the cakes, who dreams of a bigger future as a baker. There are numerous players with different mentalities. You've got a small world here that takes everything and doesn't deliver money so much as being part of a family.
So "The Bear" is kind of a drive-by. We want so much more. There's all this set-up, and we want depth. We've been trained by streaming series. Movies? Two hours and they're done, they're separate from life in almost all cases. But series? You get to know the characters, you see and feel them living, you get much more invested, and you expect more!
Did you see that HBO Max just cut all European production? "Golden Life" was an HBO Max European production. This always happens, a new person comes in, in this case David Zaslav, and they think they know everything when they know so little. About HBO, CNN... When it comes to the arts, music, movies and TV, it can oftentimes be about one album, movie or TV show. No one bats 1,000. You've got to step up to the plate more than everybody else to win. You've got to give your creators free rein, you can't be cheap, Netflix has the winning formula yet is constantly derided by the street, believing like Zaslav that it's all about the money, making the trains run on time. Money is important, but you can balance the books in entertainment and go bankrupt. You can only win if you support artists. Let them do their thing. Where Netflix is king.
But "The Bear" is on Hulu. You should watch it. Like I said above, it's not a huge commitment. Because it will affect you. And isn't that exactly what we're looking for in our entertainment?
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Mailbag
From: James Spencer
Subject: Re: Ticket Prices-This Week On SiriusXM
If I had Sirius, I'd SO listen to this!
I do have some tips on how to shop for the "cutout" tickets in the bargain bin..Maybe you can share these with your audience..
I should note that I'm in the Vegas market, which may not be representative of the ecosystem at large..
(1) National Concert Week..
Log on at the opening bell, 7:00 AM, PT
$25 Tix, for many shows..Not exactly front row, but, hey..I logged on a few hours late this year, but seats were still available..
Doobies, Black Keys, Imagine Dragons, Rise Against, John Legend, Randy Rainbow, and many more..
(2) Sign up for emails..AEG Presents, Live Nation, AXS, Ticketmaster,etc..Ditto, "like" the pages of the above companies on your "socials"..Also, like the pages of any venues you enjoy frequenting..You'll also be privy to pre-sales and discounts..
(3) Peruse the Ticketmaster and AXS apps..Sometimes TM will offer a blanket %25, or more, discount..(Usually the final week of a residency.) Also a great way to know what shows are coming..
(4) Peruse the AARP app..The Doobies did a 25% off sale on ALL Vegas dates, before their run..Totally worth the $12 to join!
(5) Craigslist..It's been very scammy lately, so beware..I'd recommend meeting at the venue..You DO get an accurate reading of what a ticket is worth on this site, for a frame of reference..
(6) Look into House Seats..You play a flat fee, and get last minute free show tickets, from undersold shows..Not always concerts, but could be worthwhile..
(7) Groupon..The almighty algorithm knows I'm shopping for events, so my "ad experience" showed me some amazing deals on concert tickets on Groupon..Nothing in MY market, yet, but definitely something to keep an eye on..Could be a godsend in other regions..
(8) Showing up..Yeah, IRL..Like, AT the venue..Old school, right?
But it CAN work when all other avenues have failed..Of course, if ya' DON'T get in, the heartache is even worse..
Here's some recent examples..
An email from AEG Presents Las Vegas
Resorts World is "celebrating" it's first year, and offering 2 for $100 on (slow time of the year) shows..
Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, Journey + orchestra, Enrique Iglesias, David Blaine..
Another email from them..
Summer holiday sale..Encore theater (Wynn)
and Virgin theater (former Hard Rock, Virgin Casino) While supplies last..(Enter code HOLIDAY)
$50- Lionel Richie, Jim Gaffigan, Maxwell, Chris Tucker, David Gray, 3rd Eye Blind, Papa Roach, Leon Bridges, and more
2 for $50 -The Shins, Corrine Bailey Ray, Demitri Martin, the Night sweats, Deon Cole, Sal Vulcano, 80s review package show, etc..
Not too shabby! The deals are THERE, if you're willing to do a little coupon cutting..
Somebody's losing money here, but it ain't ME!
___________________________________________
Subject: Re: Grosses
This is an amazing twitter account:
https://twitter.com/UnderFaceValue
Thought you would enjoy.
___________________________________________
From: Steve Bruns
Subject: Re: Get It Right Next Time
I'm sure you know this one, but I think it pre-dates "Baker Street". Would love to hear your take!
"Half a Heart": https://spoti.fi/3bRZYsP
___________________________________________
From: Marty Bender
Subject: Re: It Don't Matter To Me
After working in an independent record store, as well as both Peaches and Tower Sunset...
I ended up researching and doing the Top 200 Album chart for Cashbox.
In the 70's, it was all done manually using only record store and one-stop "sales" reports.
The reports we received were almost entirely made up of new or recent releases.
Thus the chart reflected that.
(BTW: "Dark Side of the Moon" basically stayed on because we just sorta kept it there)
One day I convinced Cashbox management to let me take a crack at compiling a one-time catalogue LP chart. In addition to their regular sales report---
I asked all the main record stores in America to carefully keep track of the best-selling older/classic albums...
I also requested they include titles that seemed to consistently sell well...as well as constantly sell out.
It was a fascinating list.
The winner?
The number one?
"The Best of Bread"
Marty Bender
___________________________________________
From: ray yslas
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Date: June 21, 2022 at 2:13:09 PM PDT
Hi Bob,
This is Ray with the band Chicago, I play percussion, I got to say it was a thrill and honor to sing Happy Birthday to Brian yesterday backstage, a once in a lifetime for me.
Happy to see BW and the gang kill it every night on our tour. Hope you can see a show..
peace..
___________________________________________
Subject: RE: Brian Wilson 80th Birthday Playlist
Date: June 23, 2022 at 2:34:12 PM PDT
Hi Bob,
Thank you for "Brian's Playlist," and the "Brian Wilson Movie."
I just finished playing and singing through Brian's actual current playlist with him over FaceTime from our studio here in Los Angeles to his hotel room in Dallas. A day off on his tour. He still wanted to work with my husband Seth Riggs and myself, like we do. Seth and I work with Brian on his voice and vocals. Today we vocalized him down to F below low C and up to D above high C in a connected, mixed voice through the whole range. It's more than 2 1/2 octaves. And we did twenty-four songs in our hour together. He sings all of them. I sing harmony - sometimes lead if he sings harmony (Surfer Girl and In My Room.) I play the piano. We do a couple of extra songs that he especially likes that happens to not be in the concert.
This week we did the same Monday, on his 80th birthday, to his hotel room in Kansas City, before he went to sound check and later to do his concert, and Tuesday when he was in Arkansa we did the same. Yesterday was travel. Tomorrow and Saturday we will be at it again, before he takes off for Florida on Sunday.
Brian has challenges - but unlike most people, he doesn't let that stop him. It's not even on his mind. He wants to keep going, and with help he does. I feel we all have a lot to learn from Brian Wilson. He is a true inspiration in many ways. He still brings about optimism and hope not just through his music and the way he communicates complexities in a simple, direct way that hits you like when he sings "Love and Mercy," but through his being. I feel blessed to work with him. Often through a session he says: "Thank you, Margareta." I say: "Thank you, Brian."
Margareta Svensson Riggs
http://www.theriggsvocalstudio.com
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Subject: Re: Ticket Prices-This Week On SiriusXM
If I had Sirius, I'd SO listen to this!
I do have some tips on how to shop for the "cutout" tickets in the bargain bin..Maybe you can share these with your audience..
I should note that I'm in the Vegas market, which may not be representative of the ecosystem at large..
(1) National Concert Week..
Log on at the opening bell, 7:00 AM, PT
$25 Tix, for many shows..Not exactly front row, but, hey..I logged on a few hours late this year, but seats were still available..
Doobies, Black Keys, Imagine Dragons, Rise Against, John Legend, Randy Rainbow, and many more..
(2) Sign up for emails..AEG Presents, Live Nation, AXS, Ticketmaster,etc..Ditto, "like" the pages of the above companies on your "socials"..Also, like the pages of any venues you enjoy frequenting..You'll also be privy to pre-sales and discounts..
(3) Peruse the Ticketmaster and AXS apps..Sometimes TM will offer a blanket %25, or more, discount..(Usually the final week of a residency.) Also a great way to know what shows are coming..
(4) Peruse the AARP app..The Doobies did a 25% off sale on ALL Vegas dates, before their run..Totally worth the $12 to join!
(5) Craigslist..It's been very scammy lately, so beware..I'd recommend meeting at the venue..You DO get an accurate reading of what a ticket is worth on this site, for a frame of reference..
(6) Look into House Seats..You play a flat fee, and get last minute free show tickets, from undersold shows..Not always concerts, but could be worthwhile..
(7) Groupon..The almighty algorithm knows I'm shopping for events, so my "ad experience" showed me some amazing deals on concert tickets on Groupon..Nothing in MY market, yet, but definitely something to keep an eye on..Could be a godsend in other regions..
(8) Showing up..Yeah, IRL..Like, AT the venue..Old school, right?
But it CAN work when all other avenues have failed..Of course, if ya' DON'T get in, the heartache is even worse..
Here's some recent examples..
An email from AEG Presents Las Vegas
Resorts World is "celebrating" it's first year, and offering 2 for $100 on (slow time of the year) shows..
Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, Journey + orchestra, Enrique Iglesias, David Blaine..
Another email from them..
Summer holiday sale..Encore theater (Wynn)
and Virgin theater (former Hard Rock, Virgin Casino) While supplies last..(Enter code HOLIDAY)
$50- Lionel Richie, Jim Gaffigan, Maxwell, Chris Tucker, David Gray, 3rd Eye Blind, Papa Roach, Leon Bridges, and more
2 for $50 -The Shins, Corrine Bailey Ray, Demitri Martin, the Night sweats, Deon Cole, Sal Vulcano, 80s review package show, etc..
Not too shabby! The deals are THERE, if you're willing to do a little coupon cutting..
Somebody's losing money here, but it ain't ME!
___________________________________________
Subject: Re: Grosses
This is an amazing twitter account:
https://twitter.com/UnderFaceValue
Thought you would enjoy.
___________________________________________
From: Steve Bruns
Subject: Re: Get It Right Next Time
I'm sure you know this one, but I think it pre-dates "Baker Street". Would love to hear your take!
"Half a Heart": https://spoti.fi/3bRZYsP
___________________________________________
From: Marty Bender
Subject: Re: It Don't Matter To Me
After working in an independent record store, as well as both Peaches and Tower Sunset...
I ended up researching and doing the Top 200 Album chart for Cashbox.
In the 70's, it was all done manually using only record store and one-stop "sales" reports.
The reports we received were almost entirely made up of new or recent releases.
Thus the chart reflected that.
(BTW: "Dark Side of the Moon" basically stayed on because we just sorta kept it there)
One day I convinced Cashbox management to let me take a crack at compiling a one-time catalogue LP chart. In addition to their regular sales report---
I asked all the main record stores in America to carefully keep track of the best-selling older/classic albums...
I also requested they include titles that seemed to consistently sell well...as well as constantly sell out.
It was a fascinating list.
The winner?
The number one?
"The Best of Bread"
Marty Bender
___________________________________________
From: ray yslas
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Date: June 21, 2022 at 2:13:09 PM PDT
Hi Bob,
This is Ray with the band Chicago, I play percussion, I got to say it was a thrill and honor to sing Happy Birthday to Brian yesterday backstage, a once in a lifetime for me.
Happy to see BW and the gang kill it every night on our tour. Hope you can see a show..
peace..
___________________________________________
Subject: RE: Brian Wilson 80th Birthday Playlist
Date: June 23, 2022 at 2:34:12 PM PDT
Hi Bob,
Thank you for "Brian's Playlist," and the "Brian Wilson Movie."
I just finished playing and singing through Brian's actual current playlist with him over FaceTime from our studio here in Los Angeles to his hotel room in Dallas. A day off on his tour. He still wanted to work with my husband Seth Riggs and myself, like we do. Seth and I work with Brian on his voice and vocals. Today we vocalized him down to F below low C and up to D above high C in a connected, mixed voice through the whole range. It's more than 2 1/2 octaves. And we did twenty-four songs in our hour together. He sings all of them. I sing harmony - sometimes lead if he sings harmony (Surfer Girl and In My Room.) I play the piano. We do a couple of extra songs that he especially likes that happens to not be in the concert.
This week we did the same Monday, on his 80th birthday, to his hotel room in Kansas City, before he went to sound check and later to do his concert, and Tuesday when he was in Arkansa we did the same. Yesterday was travel. Tomorrow and Saturday we will be at it again, before he takes off for Florida on Sunday.
Brian has challenges - but unlike most people, he doesn't let that stop him. It's not even on his mind. He wants to keep going, and with help he does. I feel we all have a lot to learn from Brian Wilson. He is a true inspiration in many ways. He still brings about optimism and hope not just through his music and the way he communicates complexities in a simple, direct way that hits you like when he sings "Love and Mercy," but through his being. I feel blessed to work with him. Often through a session he says: "Thank you, Margareta." I say: "Thank you, Brian."
Margareta Svensson Riggs
http://www.theriggsvocalstudio.com
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Ticket Prices-This Week On SiriusXM
Last week there was a technical snafu and we had to air a rerun.
Tune in today, July 5th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Tune in today, July 5th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
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Monday 4 July 2022
Language Lessons
Trailer (but don't watch it): https://bit.ly/3OFxpNN
I don't have conversations like that anymore.
I don't think anybody my age has conversations like that anymore.
Growing up is weird. Because you don't realize you're doing it. Oh, you're eager, to hit double digits, to be a teenager, to have your twenty first birthday, to graduate from college, but after that it all runs together, the years keep passing, your features change, but you don't realize it. Oh, in retrospect you're aware, but on an everyday basis? No.
Your twenties.
It's about having a real relationship, maybe your first, certainly your first out from under the wings of your parents. You're making your own money, you're living independently, you might be focused on your "career," but really it's all about friendships and love relationships in your twenties.
The first change is when you graduate from high school. So many of those people you never see again, even your best friends fade away. You develop new friends at college, and some of those sustain, but really it's about the new people you know, who you have relationships with for years, maybe not love relationships, but friendships, that may not seem as deep as the ones you had in college, but these people you can depend upon, they come through for you, unless you're a bad picker of friends.
Oh, you can be one of those who accumulates friends, who feels good about themselves because their Rolodex is full, but in truth, one good friend is enough. You know, the one you call when your parent dies. The one who knows who you are. The one who'll be there for you.
But not enough people have this friend.
Or let me say they got older and the game changed and...
People start to get married, they peel off. And if you're not married too, if you're alone, you may still get invited, you may still get calls, but you're an outsider, sometimes you're invited but you don't even want to go, because you don't want to impose, you don't want to feel like a fifth wheel.
And then those people have babies and make a whole new set of friends. And then so many of them get divorced.
Meanwhile, you've found your own path. Or maybe you haven't. You don't want to end up alone. I wish more people knew this. The older you get, the less meaningful the game becomes, it's all about shared experiences, even more that there's someone there for you, who'll listen to you.
Everybody's going through changes, it's rare that people are on the same page as they age, until they get older, truly old. I'll put that at 67. There's no way that number is not old, you can't convince yourself otherwise. For some reason 66 is different. 60 is bad in its own right, because that's when you learn the game is b.s., you've seen the trick, you realize you're going to die and what happens in between birth and death better be important to you, because it's unimportant to everybody else.
There are people who think getting plastic surgery, dressing in young clothing, hanging with young people makes them young, but this is a lie. Because biology doesn't know any of this. You may say forty is the new thirty, or sixty is the new forty, but in truth forty is forty and sixty is sixty.
But the dirty little secret is your perspective changes whether you want it to or not.
So, in your twenties you're free and easy. You dread thirty, which ends up not being that bad, and for a couple of years thereafter you're cool, but then you can see forty on the horizon, do you really want to hit that alone, do you want to have a baby, do you want to..?
But in your twenties you're feeling it out. You stop feeling it it out in your late thirties and by time you hit the fifties, that paradigm starts to truly wither.
You want to get to know people, you want to connect, you want to know what life is about. And this is different from staying up all night b.s.'ing in college. Because now the stakes are real. And since you realize no one is paying attention, no one is keeping score, that there are no more grades, your life is ever more private. Even in the era of social media. What you share with another person... That magic is only between the two of you.
And you know when it happens.
Sometimes you feel the spark but it doesn't catch fire, or the kindling starts to flame but then burns out. Keeping the fire going is not easy, and it's all about sharing, being honest. And if you can't do this, you'll never have a relationship, at least not a satisfying one. Can you appear weak? Can you put forth your hopes and desires? Can you admit your failures...
There's a whole language involved.
It starts with looks, and touch. And I don't mean beauty, what I mean is the look the other person gives you, that they're paying attention to you, that they're connected.
And then you go exploring. And it's a bumpy road. It's dreamy at first, but everybody comes to connection with baggage. You can keep it light for a while, but then when you get down to the real nitty-gritty... A lot of people are hesitant, for the engine of the relationship to continue to purr one person has to continue to push, oftentimes self-consciously, drag the other person forward, keep them involved. And you keep building and building and...
Sometimes it flames out. Sometimes the fire is gone, but you stick together, endure the inertia, because it's too scary to break up and go it alone, try to find someone better.
This sharing, this connection, is life. And you so rarely see it in today's art. This is what the movies USED to be about. And you occasionally see it in streaming TV. This is what music was built upon, but braggadocio and saccharine narratives have superseded songs straight from the heart.
So I mentioned the Duplass brothers last week, and someone e-mailed me that I had to see "Language Lessons," that it was on HBO Max.
We finally finished "Golden Life," and it was too late to start another series, so we dove in.
All the values in today's movies...absent. All the production values, the special effects, the whiz-bang...gone. As a matter of fact, most of the film takes place over the internet, via Skype, or Facetime, it's not exactly clear, but it doesn't make a difference.
I always want to know who someone is. That's the most important thing to me. That's why I prefer to talk to girls, because they'll reveal their story, they're comfortable digging down deep. Guys? WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW? Although you'd be surprised what guys will tell you if you ask and don't interrupt, people love to talk about themselves.
And usually the connection happens when you don't expect it.
This movie is about the connection between Adam and Cariño. It's bumpy, but so is real life, fast and slow. But while you're watching your mind will drift to your own experiences, you'll see your whole life laid out, you'll jump from age to age. I saw my thirtieth, fortieth and fiftieth birthdays. I saw how I was different. I'm different now. If for no other reason than the glass is truly less than half full.
And most people my age...
They don't even want to go out. There's too much traffic, it's a hassle, it's too crowded. Whereas when you're in your twenties, you live to go out. You're dying to meet new people. You're eating up life.
But even if you stay this way, other people do not.
Sure, there are some couples who stick together and appear to cruise, but if you get them to open up, you'll find out that their marriage has been far from smooth, or is laden with problems that one of the partners may not even see.
And then there's tragedy. Not only do your parents die, but sometimes your friends. Everything is so random. And those who don't pay attention and take care of themselves...
You can live without health insurance in your twenties and get away with it. But after that?
And without insurance, without dental appointments, there's attrition on the body, and like Warren Zevon you may find out too late that your demise is imminent. And bodies are like cars, they're not made to last forever. Yours is gonna break down, they all do.
Yes, you wake up one day and you realize life has moved on. Hell, Mark Duplass is now in his forties, he's got gray hair, he's no longer the young sprite. There comes a time when you can no longer be the new thing. There's always someone younger who comes along to replace you. We're all gonna be replaced. And we're gonna take so many of our icons and cultural references with us. You used to care about the stars, now you don't even know who the people on the cover of the magazines are. Then again, in the internet era, most people don't know who they are!
But to watch "Language Lessons" is to feel alive. To feel human. To be optimistic. To know that the loss of a person is so much more devastating than it's usually portrayed, both on screen and off. Because like I said, most people only have one, and when that one person goes, not only are they gone, but so is your main artery of support.
So I'm watching "Language Lessons" and it's not always riveting, then again, neither is real life. And you're not quite sure where it's going, which is also like real life. But the twists and turns tug at you, you become invested, and when it was all over, I turned to Felice and said THAT WAS AMAZING!
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I don't have conversations like that anymore.
I don't think anybody my age has conversations like that anymore.
Growing up is weird. Because you don't realize you're doing it. Oh, you're eager, to hit double digits, to be a teenager, to have your twenty first birthday, to graduate from college, but after that it all runs together, the years keep passing, your features change, but you don't realize it. Oh, in retrospect you're aware, but on an everyday basis? No.
Your twenties.
It's about having a real relationship, maybe your first, certainly your first out from under the wings of your parents. You're making your own money, you're living independently, you might be focused on your "career," but really it's all about friendships and love relationships in your twenties.
The first change is when you graduate from high school. So many of those people you never see again, even your best friends fade away. You develop new friends at college, and some of those sustain, but really it's about the new people you know, who you have relationships with for years, maybe not love relationships, but friendships, that may not seem as deep as the ones you had in college, but these people you can depend upon, they come through for you, unless you're a bad picker of friends.
Oh, you can be one of those who accumulates friends, who feels good about themselves because their Rolodex is full, but in truth, one good friend is enough. You know, the one you call when your parent dies. The one who knows who you are. The one who'll be there for you.
But not enough people have this friend.
Or let me say they got older and the game changed and...
People start to get married, they peel off. And if you're not married too, if you're alone, you may still get invited, you may still get calls, but you're an outsider, sometimes you're invited but you don't even want to go, because you don't want to impose, you don't want to feel like a fifth wheel.
And then those people have babies and make a whole new set of friends. And then so many of them get divorced.
Meanwhile, you've found your own path. Or maybe you haven't. You don't want to end up alone. I wish more people knew this. The older you get, the less meaningful the game becomes, it's all about shared experiences, even more that there's someone there for you, who'll listen to you.
Everybody's going through changes, it's rare that people are on the same page as they age, until they get older, truly old. I'll put that at 67. There's no way that number is not old, you can't convince yourself otherwise. For some reason 66 is different. 60 is bad in its own right, because that's when you learn the game is b.s., you've seen the trick, you realize you're going to die and what happens in between birth and death better be important to you, because it's unimportant to everybody else.
There are people who think getting plastic surgery, dressing in young clothing, hanging with young people makes them young, but this is a lie. Because biology doesn't know any of this. You may say forty is the new thirty, or sixty is the new forty, but in truth forty is forty and sixty is sixty.
But the dirty little secret is your perspective changes whether you want it to or not.
So, in your twenties you're free and easy. You dread thirty, which ends up not being that bad, and for a couple of years thereafter you're cool, but then you can see forty on the horizon, do you really want to hit that alone, do you want to have a baby, do you want to..?
But in your twenties you're feeling it out. You stop feeling it it out in your late thirties and by time you hit the fifties, that paradigm starts to truly wither.
You want to get to know people, you want to connect, you want to know what life is about. And this is different from staying up all night b.s.'ing in college. Because now the stakes are real. And since you realize no one is paying attention, no one is keeping score, that there are no more grades, your life is ever more private. Even in the era of social media. What you share with another person... That magic is only between the two of you.
And you know when it happens.
Sometimes you feel the spark but it doesn't catch fire, or the kindling starts to flame but then burns out. Keeping the fire going is not easy, and it's all about sharing, being honest. And if you can't do this, you'll never have a relationship, at least not a satisfying one. Can you appear weak? Can you put forth your hopes and desires? Can you admit your failures...
There's a whole language involved.
It starts with looks, and touch. And I don't mean beauty, what I mean is the look the other person gives you, that they're paying attention to you, that they're connected.
And then you go exploring. And it's a bumpy road. It's dreamy at first, but everybody comes to connection with baggage. You can keep it light for a while, but then when you get down to the real nitty-gritty... A lot of people are hesitant, for the engine of the relationship to continue to purr one person has to continue to push, oftentimes self-consciously, drag the other person forward, keep them involved. And you keep building and building and...
Sometimes it flames out. Sometimes the fire is gone, but you stick together, endure the inertia, because it's too scary to break up and go it alone, try to find someone better.
This sharing, this connection, is life. And you so rarely see it in today's art. This is what the movies USED to be about. And you occasionally see it in streaming TV. This is what music was built upon, but braggadocio and saccharine narratives have superseded songs straight from the heart.
So I mentioned the Duplass brothers last week, and someone e-mailed me that I had to see "Language Lessons," that it was on HBO Max.
We finally finished "Golden Life," and it was too late to start another series, so we dove in.
All the values in today's movies...absent. All the production values, the special effects, the whiz-bang...gone. As a matter of fact, most of the film takes place over the internet, via Skype, or Facetime, it's not exactly clear, but it doesn't make a difference.
I always want to know who someone is. That's the most important thing to me. That's why I prefer to talk to girls, because they'll reveal their story, they're comfortable digging down deep. Guys? WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW? Although you'd be surprised what guys will tell you if you ask and don't interrupt, people love to talk about themselves.
And usually the connection happens when you don't expect it.
This movie is about the connection between Adam and Cariño. It's bumpy, but so is real life, fast and slow. But while you're watching your mind will drift to your own experiences, you'll see your whole life laid out, you'll jump from age to age. I saw my thirtieth, fortieth and fiftieth birthdays. I saw how I was different. I'm different now. If for no other reason than the glass is truly less than half full.
And most people my age...
They don't even want to go out. There's too much traffic, it's a hassle, it's too crowded. Whereas when you're in your twenties, you live to go out. You're dying to meet new people. You're eating up life.
But even if you stay this way, other people do not.
Sure, there are some couples who stick together and appear to cruise, but if you get them to open up, you'll find out that their marriage has been far from smooth, or is laden with problems that one of the partners may not even see.
And then there's tragedy. Not only do your parents die, but sometimes your friends. Everything is so random. And those who don't pay attention and take care of themselves...
You can live without health insurance in your twenties and get away with it. But after that?
And without insurance, without dental appointments, there's attrition on the body, and like Warren Zevon you may find out too late that your demise is imminent. And bodies are like cars, they're not made to last forever. Yours is gonna break down, they all do.
Yes, you wake up one day and you realize life has moved on. Hell, Mark Duplass is now in his forties, he's got gray hair, he's no longer the young sprite. There comes a time when you can no longer be the new thing. There's always someone younger who comes along to replace you. We're all gonna be replaced. And we're gonna take so many of our icons and cultural references with us. You used to care about the stars, now you don't even know who the people on the cover of the magazines are. Then again, in the internet era, most people don't know who they are!
But to watch "Language Lessons" is to feel alive. To feel human. To be optimistic. To know that the loss of a person is so much more devastating than it's usually portrayed, both on screen and off. Because like I said, most people only have one, and when that one person goes, not only are they gone, but so is your main artery of support.
So I'm watching "Language Lessons" and it's not always riveting, then again, neither is real life. And you're not quite sure where it's going, which is also like real life. But the twists and turns tug at you, you become invested, and when it was all over, I turned to Felice and said THAT WAS AMAZING!
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Sunday 3 July 2022
Until The End Of The World
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3aa6NVY
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3yALDK6
1
I didn't buy "Rattle and Hum." By this time I was burned out by the U2 adoration, by their constant presence in the press, the testimony of Generation X which embraced the band the way their forebears, the baby boomers, embraced the Beatles, and the endless play on MTV. And the reviews were not positive, the backlash had begun, only recently when hit acts are so much smaller have top acts been able to withstand the blowback of being number one. Once you're on top, people are gunning for you. It's hard to remove yourself from the fray, and how you react to this is evidence of your character. To bite back in the press shows signs of weakness. To repeat what you've done before is punting. but to walk into the wilderness, to try and create something new and different, that takes chutzpah, and that's what the greats do. And sometimes they're ahead of not only of the audience, but their bandmates, like Brian Wilson with "Pet Sounds," but that was a different era.
I was a huge fan of U2's first album, "Boy." It came out in the fall of 1980, the same year that radio station in Pasadena, KROQ, decided to retool its format under program director Rick Carroll. The new format maintained the irreverence but now it was a Top Forty station of the alternative, it was the heartbeat of Los Angeles and within a few years the heartbeat of the United States, when its programmers and deejays ended up with prominent positions at MTV.
So previously KROQ had been a free-format station, akin to the late sixties monoliths. It was a club, with a poor signal, and either you were hip to it or you were not, if you believed in the alternative, before that word became a radio format in itself, if you wanted to expand your horizons, KROQ was where you went.
The new KROQ invented alternative. One can say that the first alternative radio was aired on college stations, but those were run by amateurs, and those at KROQ were definitely professionals, worried about advertising, which still drives terrestrial radio. Also college radio stations tended to have weak signals and no formatting, no playlist, and organization can help you ascend the ratings ladder, familiarity can breed contempt, but it can also breed love.
So I first heard "I Will Follow" on KROQ. There was a press buzz. I bought the album and loved it. As bright as the single was, the rest of the album was an exploration, was not bright and sunny, in-your-face, but dark and mysterious. It was great.
But the second LP? "October" was considered to be a dud. There were no good reviews. And there was no airplay, not of any significance in Los Angeles. But "Gloria" did get spins on the nascent MTV, which launched only two months before the LP was released. As for the song being titled "Gloria"... Some songs are so iconic you don't want to employ their monikers. "Gloria" was a Shadows of Knight hit in the U.S., and by this point, more than a decade later, everybody knew it was a Van Morrison original. But Van is Irish...then again, from Belfast, not Dublin. As for employing famous titles... Does anybody even remember that Katy Perry number that employed the title of the iconic Beach Boys song?
But then U2 retooled. They seemed to realize they'd gone in the wrong direction, and once you lose momentum in the music game it's hard to regain it, another disappointment would be a stake in the band's heart.
On "War" the songs were catchy, starting with "New Year's Day," the first single. The darkness was excised, the band decided to evidence its power. "New Year's Day" was a bridge between the seventies and eighties. It had the heaviness and propulsion of seventies rock with modern sounds injected. "New Year's Day" was the kind of song that got your noggin nodding, you couldn't sit still, you were immediately locked into the groove. Then came "Sunday Bloody Sunday." U2 became the biggest band in Los Angeles, almost overnight. "War" was everywhere, even traditional rock stations, as well as the pioneering KROQ.
Now if you refer to U2 lore, the band truly broke through with a performance at Red Rocks wherein Bono ran around the venue with a flag in the fog, and that performance and the video thereof were very powerful, but not news if you lived in Los Angeles, the band was already big, this was at best a cherry on top.
And then the band decided to take a left turn. They turned away from their partner, Steve Lillywhite (who'd they'd ultimately call in again and again as the years passed), but now they worked with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. And everybody was eager for "The Unforgettable Fire," and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" delivered, it was new and different, yet still U2, all the sounds, especially Edge's guitar...it ultimately penetrated every hamlet and burg as a result of MTV airplay and its two listen infection. Yes, "Pride (In the Name of Love)" was just different enough to be unable to get it immediately. Kind of like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" if you were around back then. They both sounded completely different from what was on the airwaves, but both took little time to adjust to, to become your favorite.
"Early morning, April 4
A shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride"
It won't be long before Martin Luther King is excised from the history books, at least in Texas and Florida. False pride is on parade amongst the ignorant doing their best to hold people back, taking away their freedoms one by one. As for one man who can change the course of history in a good way, we've got no MLKs, no one is willing to sacrifice that much.
Except for the more subtle "Bad," the rest of "The Unforgettable Fire" was not as good as "War." You didn't hear as many tracks on the radio. It's not like you forgot about U2, but they didn't sit heads and shoulders above their peers, where they'd resided previously.
Then came "The Joshua Tree."
If you talk to the aforementioned Gen-X'ers, this is the apotheosis, the best album of their generation, to the point where U2 instantly became an oldies act by performing it in its entirety a few years back. In truth, "Joshua Tree" wasn't as accessible as "War," but what had been started with Eno and Lanois on "The Unforgettable Fire" had come to fruition, the songs transcended the sounds, and there was more majesty, it was more obvious.
If anything, the real problem with "The Joshua Tree" was it was too successful. I mean if I have to watch the band plying the streets of Las Vegas one more time in the video for "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"... The title actually became employed in jokes, too often with the band as the butt. But having said that, albeit overplayed, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is one of the great tracks of the eighties, it needed no video, you just had to drop the needle, back when we still bought vinyl, and luxuriate in the sound, the track loped along like a ride on a white stallion in the dark, it both made you smile and set your mind free, you were happy, but not mindlessly so.
U2 had recaptured its mantle as the biggest band in Los Angeles. But now U2 was the biggest band in the land, on the globe. And the band, especially Bono, embraced this. And did we really want to listen to this guy? I mean how experienced was he? And he seemed to have no sense of humor about himself. So he was ripe for taking down. And with the overblown "Rattle and Hum" he and the band were.
2
In reality, "Rattle and Hum" was just the soundtrack for a movie, nearly a throwaway, but the audience was ready to pounce, they wanted to punch back, tear the band down from its throne, enough already!
Nobody was waiting for a U2 album. And the band was not providing one. They went away. We had a bad taste in our mouth. We expected them to fade away, as most acts did after reaching an unfathomable height.
And by time they deigned to return, music had moved on. Hip-hop had made inroads. Attention was elsewhere.
And then came "The Fly."
Because of U2's prior achievements, every rock radio station in the land immediately added the track, and you heard it and scratched your head, HUH? What was this? It certainly wasn't a one listen smash. As a matter of fact, you didn't even need to hear it again, didn't really want to hear it again, it was a button-pusher.
There was no word of mouth. The album came out to little fanfare. Just another band past its peak doing god knows what. And then...
It was Christmas Day, the Clippers were playing the Lakers in the afternoon. My friend John Ellis got tickets, in retrospect amazingly good, just under the basket, well, a few rows back.
And he'd purchased a Q45, back when that was seen as competition for the LS400, before Infiniti fell behind Lexus in the Japanese luxury race.
And by this time, cars had CD players. And I was sitting in the back seat and traffic to a ball game in Los Angeles, anywhere, is always bad. Which meant I had to listen to "Achtung Baby," because it's almost impossible to have a conversation between the front and back seats when the music is playing.
I asked John what album this was, because the music didn't sound like anything I'd heard previously, and when he told me "Achtung Baby," I laughed on the inside, he was still on the U2 train when I'd been smart enough to get off.
But by time the game was over, I was looking forward to the ride back to the Hollywood Hills, listening to "Achtung Baby."
Yes, it was Christmas, but there was no "Achtung Baby" buzz. I immediately bought it and was on the tip, almost no one else had, I started testifying about it, and then other people started too, and then...
Well, Keryn Kaplan from the band's management team insisted I come to the show at the Sports Arena and...
It's one of the three best shows I've ever seen (the other two being the Who performing "Tommy" at the Fillmore East and Prince at Flipper's roller disco).
I mean I could describe it, but...
At this point most people who care have been exposed, but they have no idea what it was really like unless they were there.
Let's see, we walked into the building, milled around before the show began, and there were Trabants in the ceiling, and there were TVs everywhere, the tube-type, this was long before flat screens, and then the house lights lowered, the Trabants flipped to reveal spotlights and it was a visual assault, all to an indelible soundtrack.
Word got out, ultimately there was a stadium tour, but the buzz, all the action, began indoors.
3
Today when people say they're a movie buff that means they've seen all the superhero movies, they know all the directors, like Michael Bay, how have we stooped so low? Then again, we have streaming television.
Anyway, movies used to be religion. Worthy of college study. And the seventies were considered the greatest era since the thirties, still are. You didn't go to the movies so much for entertainment as soul fulfillment. There was a culture, you could keep up, you discussed them regularly.
And sure, you had to see American movies, but real fans also kept up with the foreign flicks. There was Truffaut and the French New Wave. And if you missed them the first time around, you went to the revival house. You clicked the films off your mental list. We were completists.
Which meant we went to the Fox Venice to see Wim Wenders's "Kings of the Road."
I don't recommend it. Then again, if you could pause it... It was, and probably still is, just five minutes shy of three hours, and at the time such long movies were far from de rigueur. And did I say it was SLOW?
But I got a notch in my belt.
And then I got another when I went to see "The American Friend." Such that when Wenders's first American film was released years later, 1984's "Paris, Texas," I could say like with "Stripes" and Tito Puente, I'D BEEN WATCHING HIS MOVIES FOR YEARS! Yes, there used to be bragging rights in being there first. Back when the world was comprehensible, when we were all in it together.
Not that Wim Wenders was a household name. And "Wings of Desire" was not as big as "Paris, Texas," and by time "Until the End of the World" came out in '91, I was done, I skipped it. Then again, I was broke.
And when I looked at the track listing of "Achtung Baby" and saw #4 was entitled "Until the End of the World" I laughed. I mean this was a cheap shot, naming your song after a Wim Wenders movie. Yes, the album came out months subsequent to the film, and there was no internet to tell me the song was actually written for the film, and there was no ink in the rock press telling me so, at this point the music press was getting dumber and dumber, writers didn't know who Wim Wenders was, never mind write about him.
Now at this point most people, at least those conscious thirty years ago, know "Mysterious Way" and "One." But you've got to know, once upon a time "Achtung Baby" was brand new, and got little airplay, so when you purchased it, now on CD, vinyl and tape were passé, you were unfamiliar with it. And you know how it is listening to a new album, you're waiting for it to reveal itself to you. It's usually one track. Quite often the opener, or the second side opener, back when there used to be two sides, maybe even the side closers. The albums didn't come with travel guides. I mean sure, if you were the kind who purchased albums as a value proposition, after they already had a few hits, it was different, but for true fans, every album was an adventure.
And I'd like to tell you that "Zoo Station," the band's opener, is inviting, but if anything it's a warning to stay away. Yes, U2 was almost pulling a Neil Young, defying people's expectations, going rough and scaring away all but those truly interested, willing to spend the time to dig deep.
And the opening of "Even Better Than the Real Thing" is rough and raucous too, more like "The Fly" than "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."
And I don't remember getting hooked by "One" right away, but "Until the End of the World"...
Sure, there's the screaming intro, so many of "Achtung Baby"'s tracks started off scary, off-putting.
But then there was that buzzsaw guitar. Back when guitars were the hooks, before it became beats.
"Until the End of the World" hearkened back to the old, but was still positively new, it was Edge's guitar, in a more palatable song than "The Fly." And Bono's voice, going up and down the notes, the track is hypnotic, and just when you're starting to fade away, here comes Edge once again to wake you up.
And the instrumental break was like space lasers popping around inside your brain, you were just a pawn in the game, a definitely futuristic one you wanted to participate in.
But you were always brought back by those guitars, and Bono's exclamations.
All this is to say "Until the End of the World" broke "Achtung Baby" open for me. It got me started. I had to hear it again and again. I started with it and let the CD play thereafter. To the point where I ended up loving "The Fly," which also depended on an Edge lick, more driving and intense, less hooky, more out there, but therefore you were ultimately levitated even higher.
I peeled the layers of "Achtung Baby" away from the middle, track by track, jumping from one song to another, discovering new favorites, realizing this was definitely not what had come before, this was a revelation, a great leap forward, the biggest band in the land had reclaimed its throne, DID EVERYBODY KNOW?
I'm still not sure they do. They keep talking about "The Joshua Tree." But the audience certainly did warm up to "Achtung Baby," the live performances helped.
4
And then came "Pop."
Everybody was waiting for the next statement, for their minds to be blown, "Zooropa" was not seen as a real album. But "Pop"...
You see rock is a meat and potatoes format, driven from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. If you appeal only to the top you become a critics' band, you might even get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but most people don't know your music, and with the Hall gone pop, and even hip-hop, good luck getting Television into the Hall of Fame, never mind Bad Company. Which is all to say that the audience couldn't understand "Pop," U2 had pushed too far. Was Edge gay? There's no humor in rock, right? I mean maybe there's Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl," but...
In other words, U2 was smart and the audience was dumb. And the audience moved on. They were interested in a new U2 album, but by 1997 hip-hop was firmly established, grunge was even long in the tooth, the public was ready if U2 delivered, but perception amongst the hoi polloi was it did not. The "Discotheque" video turned off more people than it turned on, they were not ready for a new Village People.
One could say the "Discotheque" video, the entire album, was a misstep, but this was not Billy Squier listening to outsiders tell him what to do, ruining his career overnight with one video, this was planned cheekiness, this was humorous intentionally, but once again, most of the audience had no sense of humor.
Then U2 blinked. 2000's "Beautiful Day" seemed like nothing other than a raw desire to have a hit, to be back atop the charts. Sure, the track was catchy, but the message was obvious, the whole thing stunk, unless you were one of the dumb people who didn't get "Pop."
And then...
The entire world blew apart. No one was interested in what U2 had to say, what any rocker of yore had to say, any rocker at all! The internet blew a hole in the traditional music business, and U2 didn't seem to get the memo. It was still operating on old school rules. The advance publicity, the hype... To a point where the albums were denigrated before they were even released. As for Apple paying them for their new LP and then foisting it upon all its users, what a miscalculation. We live in a pull economy, but Jimmy Iovine, Apple's "guru," was too far from the street, to the point where he's now retreated completely, and the band was so into creating a first when in truth the real first was when Radiohead allowed people to download "In Rainbows" for free, I mean didn't U2 have enough money?
And then Guy Oseary convinced the band to do the "Joshua Tree" tour, which is even worse than "Beautiful Day," once you start giving people what they want you're dead. At least artistically. You don't see Dylan performing "Blood on the Tracks." And he keeps releasing new music. Confounding us with standards and... Sure, many have gotten off the train, but you've got to give him credit, he's still exploring, he's still an artist, when U2 has given up the ghost.
Can U2 reinvent itself? Does anybody even care?
First and foremost they'd have to realize they're smaller. No one has purchase on the worldwide state of mind, NO ONE! Acts will tell you they do, the old school press will tell you they do, but they don't.
So are you a celebrity or an artist?
A hit machine or an explorer?
Are your eyes closed or open?
One thing is for sure, with "Achtung Baby" U2 were artists exploring with their eyes open. Which is why it's legendary, the best album the group ever produced. Will it last until the end of the world? Well, the end of the world seems closer than ever before, so maybe!
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1
I didn't buy "Rattle and Hum." By this time I was burned out by the U2 adoration, by their constant presence in the press, the testimony of Generation X which embraced the band the way their forebears, the baby boomers, embraced the Beatles, and the endless play on MTV. And the reviews were not positive, the backlash had begun, only recently when hit acts are so much smaller have top acts been able to withstand the blowback of being number one. Once you're on top, people are gunning for you. It's hard to remove yourself from the fray, and how you react to this is evidence of your character. To bite back in the press shows signs of weakness. To repeat what you've done before is punting. but to walk into the wilderness, to try and create something new and different, that takes chutzpah, and that's what the greats do. And sometimes they're ahead of not only of the audience, but their bandmates, like Brian Wilson with "Pet Sounds," but that was a different era.
I was a huge fan of U2's first album, "Boy." It came out in the fall of 1980, the same year that radio station in Pasadena, KROQ, decided to retool its format under program director Rick Carroll. The new format maintained the irreverence but now it was a Top Forty station of the alternative, it was the heartbeat of Los Angeles and within a few years the heartbeat of the United States, when its programmers and deejays ended up with prominent positions at MTV.
So previously KROQ had been a free-format station, akin to the late sixties monoliths. It was a club, with a poor signal, and either you were hip to it or you were not, if you believed in the alternative, before that word became a radio format in itself, if you wanted to expand your horizons, KROQ was where you went.
The new KROQ invented alternative. One can say that the first alternative radio was aired on college stations, but those were run by amateurs, and those at KROQ were definitely professionals, worried about advertising, which still drives terrestrial radio. Also college radio stations tended to have weak signals and no formatting, no playlist, and organization can help you ascend the ratings ladder, familiarity can breed contempt, but it can also breed love.
So I first heard "I Will Follow" on KROQ. There was a press buzz. I bought the album and loved it. As bright as the single was, the rest of the album was an exploration, was not bright and sunny, in-your-face, but dark and mysterious. It was great.
But the second LP? "October" was considered to be a dud. There were no good reviews. And there was no airplay, not of any significance in Los Angeles. But "Gloria" did get spins on the nascent MTV, which launched only two months before the LP was released. As for the song being titled "Gloria"... Some songs are so iconic you don't want to employ their monikers. "Gloria" was a Shadows of Knight hit in the U.S., and by this point, more than a decade later, everybody knew it was a Van Morrison original. But Van is Irish...then again, from Belfast, not Dublin. As for employing famous titles... Does anybody even remember that Katy Perry number that employed the title of the iconic Beach Boys song?
But then U2 retooled. They seemed to realize they'd gone in the wrong direction, and once you lose momentum in the music game it's hard to regain it, another disappointment would be a stake in the band's heart.
On "War" the songs were catchy, starting with "New Year's Day," the first single. The darkness was excised, the band decided to evidence its power. "New Year's Day" was a bridge between the seventies and eighties. It had the heaviness and propulsion of seventies rock with modern sounds injected. "New Year's Day" was the kind of song that got your noggin nodding, you couldn't sit still, you were immediately locked into the groove. Then came "Sunday Bloody Sunday." U2 became the biggest band in Los Angeles, almost overnight. "War" was everywhere, even traditional rock stations, as well as the pioneering KROQ.
Now if you refer to U2 lore, the band truly broke through with a performance at Red Rocks wherein Bono ran around the venue with a flag in the fog, and that performance and the video thereof were very powerful, but not news if you lived in Los Angeles, the band was already big, this was at best a cherry on top.
And then the band decided to take a left turn. They turned away from their partner, Steve Lillywhite (who'd they'd ultimately call in again and again as the years passed), but now they worked with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. And everybody was eager for "The Unforgettable Fire," and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" delivered, it was new and different, yet still U2, all the sounds, especially Edge's guitar...it ultimately penetrated every hamlet and burg as a result of MTV airplay and its two listen infection. Yes, "Pride (In the Name of Love)" was just different enough to be unable to get it immediately. Kind of like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" if you were around back then. They both sounded completely different from what was on the airwaves, but both took little time to adjust to, to become your favorite.
"Early morning, April 4
A shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride"
It won't be long before Martin Luther King is excised from the history books, at least in Texas and Florida. False pride is on parade amongst the ignorant doing their best to hold people back, taking away their freedoms one by one. As for one man who can change the course of history in a good way, we've got no MLKs, no one is willing to sacrifice that much.
Except for the more subtle "Bad," the rest of "The Unforgettable Fire" was not as good as "War." You didn't hear as many tracks on the radio. It's not like you forgot about U2, but they didn't sit heads and shoulders above their peers, where they'd resided previously.
Then came "The Joshua Tree."
If you talk to the aforementioned Gen-X'ers, this is the apotheosis, the best album of their generation, to the point where U2 instantly became an oldies act by performing it in its entirety a few years back. In truth, "Joshua Tree" wasn't as accessible as "War," but what had been started with Eno and Lanois on "The Unforgettable Fire" had come to fruition, the songs transcended the sounds, and there was more majesty, it was more obvious.
If anything, the real problem with "The Joshua Tree" was it was too successful. I mean if I have to watch the band plying the streets of Las Vegas one more time in the video for "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"... The title actually became employed in jokes, too often with the band as the butt. But having said that, albeit overplayed, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is one of the great tracks of the eighties, it needed no video, you just had to drop the needle, back when we still bought vinyl, and luxuriate in the sound, the track loped along like a ride on a white stallion in the dark, it both made you smile and set your mind free, you were happy, but not mindlessly so.
U2 had recaptured its mantle as the biggest band in Los Angeles. But now U2 was the biggest band in the land, on the globe. And the band, especially Bono, embraced this. And did we really want to listen to this guy? I mean how experienced was he? And he seemed to have no sense of humor about himself. So he was ripe for taking down. And with the overblown "Rattle and Hum" he and the band were.
2
In reality, "Rattle and Hum" was just the soundtrack for a movie, nearly a throwaway, but the audience was ready to pounce, they wanted to punch back, tear the band down from its throne, enough already!
Nobody was waiting for a U2 album. And the band was not providing one. They went away. We had a bad taste in our mouth. We expected them to fade away, as most acts did after reaching an unfathomable height.
And by time they deigned to return, music had moved on. Hip-hop had made inroads. Attention was elsewhere.
And then came "The Fly."
Because of U2's prior achievements, every rock radio station in the land immediately added the track, and you heard it and scratched your head, HUH? What was this? It certainly wasn't a one listen smash. As a matter of fact, you didn't even need to hear it again, didn't really want to hear it again, it was a button-pusher.
There was no word of mouth. The album came out to little fanfare. Just another band past its peak doing god knows what. And then...
It was Christmas Day, the Clippers were playing the Lakers in the afternoon. My friend John Ellis got tickets, in retrospect amazingly good, just under the basket, well, a few rows back.
And he'd purchased a Q45, back when that was seen as competition for the LS400, before Infiniti fell behind Lexus in the Japanese luxury race.
And by this time, cars had CD players. And I was sitting in the back seat and traffic to a ball game in Los Angeles, anywhere, is always bad. Which meant I had to listen to "Achtung Baby," because it's almost impossible to have a conversation between the front and back seats when the music is playing.
I asked John what album this was, because the music didn't sound like anything I'd heard previously, and when he told me "Achtung Baby," I laughed on the inside, he was still on the U2 train when I'd been smart enough to get off.
But by time the game was over, I was looking forward to the ride back to the Hollywood Hills, listening to "Achtung Baby."
Yes, it was Christmas, but there was no "Achtung Baby" buzz. I immediately bought it and was on the tip, almost no one else had, I started testifying about it, and then other people started too, and then...
Well, Keryn Kaplan from the band's management team insisted I come to the show at the Sports Arena and...
It's one of the three best shows I've ever seen (the other two being the Who performing "Tommy" at the Fillmore East and Prince at Flipper's roller disco).
I mean I could describe it, but...
At this point most people who care have been exposed, but they have no idea what it was really like unless they were there.
Let's see, we walked into the building, milled around before the show began, and there were Trabants in the ceiling, and there were TVs everywhere, the tube-type, this was long before flat screens, and then the house lights lowered, the Trabants flipped to reveal spotlights and it was a visual assault, all to an indelible soundtrack.
Word got out, ultimately there was a stadium tour, but the buzz, all the action, began indoors.
3
Today when people say they're a movie buff that means they've seen all the superhero movies, they know all the directors, like Michael Bay, how have we stooped so low? Then again, we have streaming television.
Anyway, movies used to be religion. Worthy of college study. And the seventies were considered the greatest era since the thirties, still are. You didn't go to the movies so much for entertainment as soul fulfillment. There was a culture, you could keep up, you discussed them regularly.
And sure, you had to see American movies, but real fans also kept up with the foreign flicks. There was Truffaut and the French New Wave. And if you missed them the first time around, you went to the revival house. You clicked the films off your mental list. We were completists.
Which meant we went to the Fox Venice to see Wim Wenders's "Kings of the Road."
I don't recommend it. Then again, if you could pause it... It was, and probably still is, just five minutes shy of three hours, and at the time such long movies were far from de rigueur. And did I say it was SLOW?
But I got a notch in my belt.
And then I got another when I went to see "The American Friend." Such that when Wenders's first American film was released years later, 1984's "Paris, Texas," I could say like with "Stripes" and Tito Puente, I'D BEEN WATCHING HIS MOVIES FOR YEARS! Yes, there used to be bragging rights in being there first. Back when the world was comprehensible, when we were all in it together.
Not that Wim Wenders was a household name. And "Wings of Desire" was not as big as "Paris, Texas," and by time "Until the End of the World" came out in '91, I was done, I skipped it. Then again, I was broke.
And when I looked at the track listing of "Achtung Baby" and saw #4 was entitled "Until the End of the World" I laughed. I mean this was a cheap shot, naming your song after a Wim Wenders movie. Yes, the album came out months subsequent to the film, and there was no internet to tell me the song was actually written for the film, and there was no ink in the rock press telling me so, at this point the music press was getting dumber and dumber, writers didn't know who Wim Wenders was, never mind write about him.
Now at this point most people, at least those conscious thirty years ago, know "Mysterious Way" and "One." But you've got to know, once upon a time "Achtung Baby" was brand new, and got little airplay, so when you purchased it, now on CD, vinyl and tape were passé, you were unfamiliar with it. And you know how it is listening to a new album, you're waiting for it to reveal itself to you. It's usually one track. Quite often the opener, or the second side opener, back when there used to be two sides, maybe even the side closers. The albums didn't come with travel guides. I mean sure, if you were the kind who purchased albums as a value proposition, after they already had a few hits, it was different, but for true fans, every album was an adventure.
And I'd like to tell you that "Zoo Station," the band's opener, is inviting, but if anything it's a warning to stay away. Yes, U2 was almost pulling a Neil Young, defying people's expectations, going rough and scaring away all but those truly interested, willing to spend the time to dig deep.
And the opening of "Even Better Than the Real Thing" is rough and raucous too, more like "The Fly" than "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."
And I don't remember getting hooked by "One" right away, but "Until the End of the World"...
Sure, there's the screaming intro, so many of "Achtung Baby"'s tracks started off scary, off-putting.
But then there was that buzzsaw guitar. Back when guitars were the hooks, before it became beats.
"Until the End of the World" hearkened back to the old, but was still positively new, it was Edge's guitar, in a more palatable song than "The Fly." And Bono's voice, going up and down the notes, the track is hypnotic, and just when you're starting to fade away, here comes Edge once again to wake you up.
And the instrumental break was like space lasers popping around inside your brain, you were just a pawn in the game, a definitely futuristic one you wanted to participate in.
But you were always brought back by those guitars, and Bono's exclamations.
All this is to say "Until the End of the World" broke "Achtung Baby" open for me. It got me started. I had to hear it again and again. I started with it and let the CD play thereafter. To the point where I ended up loving "The Fly," which also depended on an Edge lick, more driving and intense, less hooky, more out there, but therefore you were ultimately levitated even higher.
I peeled the layers of "Achtung Baby" away from the middle, track by track, jumping from one song to another, discovering new favorites, realizing this was definitely not what had come before, this was a revelation, a great leap forward, the biggest band in the land had reclaimed its throne, DID EVERYBODY KNOW?
I'm still not sure they do. They keep talking about "The Joshua Tree." But the audience certainly did warm up to "Achtung Baby," the live performances helped.
4
And then came "Pop."
Everybody was waiting for the next statement, for their minds to be blown, "Zooropa" was not seen as a real album. But "Pop"...
You see rock is a meat and potatoes format, driven from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. If you appeal only to the top you become a critics' band, you might even get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but most people don't know your music, and with the Hall gone pop, and even hip-hop, good luck getting Television into the Hall of Fame, never mind Bad Company. Which is all to say that the audience couldn't understand "Pop," U2 had pushed too far. Was Edge gay? There's no humor in rock, right? I mean maybe there's Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl," but...
In other words, U2 was smart and the audience was dumb. And the audience moved on. They were interested in a new U2 album, but by 1997 hip-hop was firmly established, grunge was even long in the tooth, the public was ready if U2 delivered, but perception amongst the hoi polloi was it did not. The "Discotheque" video turned off more people than it turned on, they were not ready for a new Village People.
One could say the "Discotheque" video, the entire album, was a misstep, but this was not Billy Squier listening to outsiders tell him what to do, ruining his career overnight with one video, this was planned cheekiness, this was humorous intentionally, but once again, most of the audience had no sense of humor.
Then U2 blinked. 2000's "Beautiful Day" seemed like nothing other than a raw desire to have a hit, to be back atop the charts. Sure, the track was catchy, but the message was obvious, the whole thing stunk, unless you were one of the dumb people who didn't get "Pop."
And then...
The entire world blew apart. No one was interested in what U2 had to say, what any rocker of yore had to say, any rocker at all! The internet blew a hole in the traditional music business, and U2 didn't seem to get the memo. It was still operating on old school rules. The advance publicity, the hype... To a point where the albums were denigrated before they were even released. As for Apple paying them for their new LP and then foisting it upon all its users, what a miscalculation. We live in a pull economy, but Jimmy Iovine, Apple's "guru," was too far from the street, to the point where he's now retreated completely, and the band was so into creating a first when in truth the real first was when Radiohead allowed people to download "In Rainbows" for free, I mean didn't U2 have enough money?
And then Guy Oseary convinced the band to do the "Joshua Tree" tour, which is even worse than "Beautiful Day," once you start giving people what they want you're dead. At least artistically. You don't see Dylan performing "Blood on the Tracks." And he keeps releasing new music. Confounding us with standards and... Sure, many have gotten off the train, but you've got to give him credit, he's still exploring, he's still an artist, when U2 has given up the ghost.
Can U2 reinvent itself? Does anybody even care?
First and foremost they'd have to realize they're smaller. No one has purchase on the worldwide state of mind, NO ONE! Acts will tell you they do, the old school press will tell you they do, but they don't.
So are you a celebrity or an artist?
A hit machine or an explorer?
Are your eyes closed or open?
One thing is for sure, with "Achtung Baby" U2 were artists exploring with their eyes open. Which is why it's legendary, the best album the group ever produced. Will it last until the end of the world? Well, the end of the world seems closer than ever before, so maybe!
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