He played live when everybody else was canned.
Only Netflix seems to have it right tonight, with their roast of 2024, albeit launched days before. This is the irreverence MTV traded on, but we haven't had that spirit here since...
1989.
You could see the endless parade of hitmakers on various channels. Dancing in the rain. Believing this one performance will put them over the top, after all where else can you reach so many people?
If you had a hit, you got a slot.
Or you could be tuned into CNN where Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper were doing an act so tired, I wondered who was actually tuning in. Enough with the inside jokes, it was like watching a bad podcast live.
As for Ryan Seacrest... Talk about white bread, if he offended anybody he'd die. This guy is so bland, so perfect for an America that doesn't exist, that network executives hire him to play it safe. Eegads.
And they still call it "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve"? Well, there ain't much rock and Dick's been six feet under for years. Who is tuning in because it's got Dick Clark's name/imprimatur? The people who remember "American Bandstand" are already asleep, or turning their hearing aids down when they hear this modern music.
But on the Nashville show...
They had to pair Keith Urban with someone from ET. That's "Entertainment Tonight" for all of you not conscious in the eighties. Talk about buying insurance that will never pay off. I had no idea who that woman was, I had to look it up.
And if you knew every act on every channel you probably work for a major label, you're the only one who cares.
And then they throw it to Chris Stapleton.
Why does Nashville's most credible artist deign to appear on this dreckathon?
Well, he got away with it by doing it his way.
Chris started "White Horse"...picking out notes on his guitar. You could see it, but even more you could hear it, because live sounds different from canned, for the same reason that Netflix's "Torching 2024" doesn't work tonight, it's canned.
So Chris and his wife and his band are playing in a bar and it sounds imperfect. But you get it, the vibe, because you've been there, at the show. Therefore, it resonated, it was human. Everybody else was playing with a net, afraid to fail, but not Stapleton.
Even if they sing live, like at the Super Bowl, they mix it in with a prerecorded track, you can't risk a screw up when everybody's paying attention.
Or can you?
I mean I heard/saw a few hits tonight. That Teddy Swims song, it's a banger. And Zach Top connected too. But no one on the flat screen connected like Chris Stapleton.
Call it country, but it's really rock and roll. It's got the ethos the hair bands gave up on in the eighties, there was no spandex, no Ozempic, just humanity.
It looked like Chris was having a beer and then popped on stage. He concentrated on the music, not the camera, because after all, that's what it's all about, THE MUSIC!
Stapleton didn't have the best sounding performance, but he had the most honest, the most credible, so he won the night.
This is what happens when you listen to your inner tuning fork as opposed to what the suits tell you, when you ignore conventional wisdom and do it your way.
What did the producers of "Seinfeld" say, "No hugging, no learning"?
And that's why "Seinfeld" was a blockbuster, turning Jerry and his offbeat compatriot Larry David into billionaires.
There were only a handful of episodes the first year, the series was called "The Seinfeld Chronicles." The suits were dubious. But then the audience caught on...
Just like they did with "Breaking Bad." It had been on TV for years, but then when it moved to Netflix, the general public caught on.
Chris Stapleton is 46. He's been around the block. And it's not like he's ever denied his roots, started dancing, making disco music. It just took this long for the public to catch on.
You can also argue it took this long for Stapleton to find his groove.
In a business where if you're over thirty and haven't had a hit you're not even considered.
So Stapleton's performance tonight contained no show business, no climax, no flourish, it was straightforward, with peaks. It was the same one you get at the arena or the stadium...where Stapleton now gigs, that's how big the demand is.
When Spotify Top 50 acts can barely sell a ticket.
Stapleton is the way out.
But it's too difficult for most people. They don't want to put in the time to learn how to play and they don't have the pipes and they can't write...
But they want to be stars, they want to be brands, they want all the perks.
And the intermediaries, the middlemen, they've got narrow criteria. In the sixties the acts took the power from the labels, in the nineties, with so much money at risk, Tommy Mottola took back the power. As for the self-promoting huckster Clive Davis...all those hits, how many are forever, NOT MANY!
I know you're a believer, I know you're looking for something that speaks directly to you, straight into your heart. And you listen and listen and can't find it.
Well, just tune in Chris Stapleton. No flash, just music.
Stapleton did it his way tonight and won.
He got out on the high wire without a net and didn't blink, and therefore we were entranced.
More like this PLEASE!
--
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Tuesday, 31 December 2024
Chinese Cars
The biggest business story of the past year is not artificial intelligence, but the success and proliferation of the Chinese car industry.
If you're following the latest AI news... The industry is running out of data to train its systems on. Promised breakthroughs are being pushed into the future. AI is a sexy subject, whose mania is primarily based on fear (isn't it funny that we no longer hear about restricting AI?) Are the machines here to replace us? Well, right now they can't always get it right and there are debates as to how much they will aid productivity and...
Chinese cars have obliterated their competitors in their home country and are now invading the rest of the world, decimating other companies in their wake.
Meanwhile, all we hear from western governments is protection, taxes, but the auto manufacturers themselves want to compete, it's the only way they can survive. Many have invested heavily in electric cars and if the public doesn't start buying them in quantity, they're in trouble.
So, electric cars are kinda like digital photography. It was coming, it was coming, but it never arrived, Kodak continue to triumph and then in what seemed no longer than a year, the switch flipped. Ditto on personal computers... They were around for years, no one saw the need for them, and then the killer app came along known as AOL and everybody had to own a computer to play online.
Note. Nothing is forever. All those independent computer manufacturers of the late nineties, the kids in the basement constructing PCs out of parts, that's history. Just like the hardware rage of the first decade of this century, with the iPod and iPhone and... Today it's all about software. As Marc Andreessen claimed, software is eating the world.
And software is running your car. And VW, with a head start, still can't get its software right.
Now there are some that say Chinese car manufacturers got incentives and support from their government. The devil is in the details. I read something in the WSJ claiming the opposite. But that's all history, now the cars have arrived.
And sure, western manufacturers had their technology "stolen" as the price of entering China, they had to operate with Chinese corporations, and now China knows how to build cars, but when it comes to EVs, they're ahead of the pack. We can debate whether Tesla has better software, but in truth Chinese manufacturers update their models at light speed, oftentimes in a year, whereas we're still purchasing (or not purchasing), Elon Musk's S3XY originals to this day (along with the loved/hated Cybertruck, which has not met sales expectations).
Now America may ultimately be saved because of Musk's power over Trump. Trump flipped on H-1B visas, as he should have. In truth, by restricting immigration, America has fostered tech innovation in Asia. All those South Asian engineers who couldn't stay in America, they've become entrepreneurs in India. So maybe Musk will have Trump proselytizing about electric cars.
But right now myopic Americans are unaware of how good Chinese cars are. However if you're on the dreaded social media, you'll see them. And wow!
And it's not only EVs, it's hybrids too. You'd want one, if one were available.
It's akin to the Japanese car invasion of the seventies. Seen as junk in the late sixties, by the end of the decade the perception had flipped. Japanese cars were more reliable than those from Detroit, they lasted longer. Remember when the debate was whether Toyota would eclipse General Motors as the world's biggest car producer? Well, that battle is long in the rearview mirror.
But the difference here is Japan just did a better job of what Detroit was already doing, whereas China is doing something brand new.
As a matter of fact, Toyota is behind the 8-ball. In pursuit of profits Toyota pushed EV development down the line, and now the company is playing catch-up.
And the big news recently is the merger of Honda and Nissan. Honda? One of the most revered automakers in America? People swear by their Hondas. Nissan might have issues, but Honda?
They both have issues, they can't compete with the Chinese. They're combining for efficiency and the resources needed to create the cars of the future.
And the Honda Nissan tie-up has been all over the business pages of the mainstream media.
However the mainstream media has been excoriated to the point where most of the public is uninformed on major issues, they're in their silos, only hearing news that makes them feel good.
Saving coal? It's already been decimated. Energy companies have moved on.
And sure, the libs were the first to buy electric cars, but all the negative press about EVs in America is only hurting us.
We cannot go backward, we can only go forward to compete. Never mind that China has so many people. And the EU is on the forefront of tech regulation, and they don't always get it right, but at least they're looking at the problem.
We've become moribund in America, involved in our petty wars. About language, labels, DEI... And I'm not saying these are not important issues, but our population agrees on more than it disagrees on, and we need to be brought together so we can fight the challenges of the twenty first century.
Our nation needs to invest, support big tech and other industrial companies. Otherwise, our companies are going to be decimated, like the steel industry in the last century. We can whine all day long about Chinese government incentives, but you can't argue with reality, the juggernaut that is the Chinese car industry, based on EVs and hybrids.
We need to return to the days of the space program that put a man on the moon, with its attendant technological breakthroughs.
We might need more government, not less. In order to compete.
You'll be driving an electric car, it's just a matter of when. As a matter of fact, if you truly wanted to support America, you'd buy an electric car today, hopefully from GM or Ford, who don't want the Trump government to go back to the past with gas mileage rules, they can see the future, and it's turning Chinese!
America may be the greatest country in the world, but it's not the only country in the world, and it's not number one in every category.
If we truly want to make America great again we will forgo that canard of returning to the past and take a great leap forward.
Otherwise, you'll soon be driving a BYD.
Which most people have never even heard of.
But they've heard of Warren Buffett, who invested in the company.
We need a national reset of the mind. We can't be afraid of the future, we've got to embrace it. ALL OF US!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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If you're following the latest AI news... The industry is running out of data to train its systems on. Promised breakthroughs are being pushed into the future. AI is a sexy subject, whose mania is primarily based on fear (isn't it funny that we no longer hear about restricting AI?) Are the machines here to replace us? Well, right now they can't always get it right and there are debates as to how much they will aid productivity and...
Chinese cars have obliterated their competitors in their home country and are now invading the rest of the world, decimating other companies in their wake.
Meanwhile, all we hear from western governments is protection, taxes, but the auto manufacturers themselves want to compete, it's the only way they can survive. Many have invested heavily in electric cars and if the public doesn't start buying them in quantity, they're in trouble.
So, electric cars are kinda like digital photography. It was coming, it was coming, but it never arrived, Kodak continue to triumph and then in what seemed no longer than a year, the switch flipped. Ditto on personal computers... They were around for years, no one saw the need for them, and then the killer app came along known as AOL and everybody had to own a computer to play online.
Note. Nothing is forever. All those independent computer manufacturers of the late nineties, the kids in the basement constructing PCs out of parts, that's history. Just like the hardware rage of the first decade of this century, with the iPod and iPhone and... Today it's all about software. As Marc Andreessen claimed, software is eating the world.
And software is running your car. And VW, with a head start, still can't get its software right.
Now there are some that say Chinese car manufacturers got incentives and support from their government. The devil is in the details. I read something in the WSJ claiming the opposite. But that's all history, now the cars have arrived.
And sure, western manufacturers had their technology "stolen" as the price of entering China, they had to operate with Chinese corporations, and now China knows how to build cars, but when it comes to EVs, they're ahead of the pack. We can debate whether Tesla has better software, but in truth Chinese manufacturers update their models at light speed, oftentimes in a year, whereas we're still purchasing (or not purchasing), Elon Musk's S3XY originals to this day (along with the loved/hated Cybertruck, which has not met sales expectations).
Now America may ultimately be saved because of Musk's power over Trump. Trump flipped on H-1B visas, as he should have. In truth, by restricting immigration, America has fostered tech innovation in Asia. All those South Asian engineers who couldn't stay in America, they've become entrepreneurs in India. So maybe Musk will have Trump proselytizing about electric cars.
But right now myopic Americans are unaware of how good Chinese cars are. However if you're on the dreaded social media, you'll see them. And wow!
And it's not only EVs, it's hybrids too. You'd want one, if one were available.
It's akin to the Japanese car invasion of the seventies. Seen as junk in the late sixties, by the end of the decade the perception had flipped. Japanese cars were more reliable than those from Detroit, they lasted longer. Remember when the debate was whether Toyota would eclipse General Motors as the world's biggest car producer? Well, that battle is long in the rearview mirror.
But the difference here is Japan just did a better job of what Detroit was already doing, whereas China is doing something brand new.
As a matter of fact, Toyota is behind the 8-ball. In pursuit of profits Toyota pushed EV development down the line, and now the company is playing catch-up.
And the big news recently is the merger of Honda and Nissan. Honda? One of the most revered automakers in America? People swear by their Hondas. Nissan might have issues, but Honda?
They both have issues, they can't compete with the Chinese. They're combining for efficiency and the resources needed to create the cars of the future.
And the Honda Nissan tie-up has been all over the business pages of the mainstream media.
However the mainstream media has been excoriated to the point where most of the public is uninformed on major issues, they're in their silos, only hearing news that makes them feel good.
Saving coal? It's already been decimated. Energy companies have moved on.
And sure, the libs were the first to buy electric cars, but all the negative press about EVs in America is only hurting us.
We cannot go backward, we can only go forward to compete. Never mind that China has so many people. And the EU is on the forefront of tech regulation, and they don't always get it right, but at least they're looking at the problem.
We've become moribund in America, involved in our petty wars. About language, labels, DEI... And I'm not saying these are not important issues, but our population agrees on more than it disagrees on, and we need to be brought together so we can fight the challenges of the twenty first century.
Our nation needs to invest, support big tech and other industrial companies. Otherwise, our companies are going to be decimated, like the steel industry in the last century. We can whine all day long about Chinese government incentives, but you can't argue with reality, the juggernaut that is the Chinese car industry, based on EVs and hybrids.
We need to return to the days of the space program that put a man on the moon, with its attendant technological breakthroughs.
We might need more government, not less. In order to compete.
You'll be driving an electric car, it's just a matter of when. As a matter of fact, if you truly wanted to support America, you'd buy an electric car today, hopefully from GM or Ford, who don't want the Trump government to go back to the past with gas mileage rules, they can see the future, and it's turning Chinese!
America may be the greatest country in the world, but it's not the only country in the world, and it's not number one in every category.
If we truly want to make America great again we will forgo that canard of returning to the past and take a great leap forward.
Otherwise, you'll soon be driving a BYD.
Which most people have never even heard of.
But they've heard of Warren Buffett, who invested in the company.
We need a national reset of the mind. We can't be afraid of the future, we've got to embrace it. ALL OF US!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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Monday, 30 December 2024
The Eve Babitz Book
"Hollywood's Eve - Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.": https://shorturl.at/edrI7
1
I wish this was a movie, for it it was I'd tell you to run out and see it immediately.
And although there might ultimately be a flick, it could never capture Eve completely.
I know, I know, you're burned out on her story, ever since the 2014 "Vanity Fair" update it's been all Eve all the time, even though her production was slight and a lot of it not so great.
But I knew who she was because she wrote "Slow Days, Fast Company."
I'm infatuated with Los Angeles. You've got to know, California was a dream in the sixties, I used to beg my mother to move there on a regular basis. All the TV shows were made there, and there was surfing and Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys.
But Los Angeles was always considered to be déclassé, a place where there was no there there, a location where Woody Allen said the "only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light."
A New Yorker comes to Los Angeles and says they don't get it, there's no city center, that New York City is the greatest city in the world.
An Angeleno goes to New York City and says...greatest city in the world, but I'd rather live in Los Angeles.
L.A. is very livable. It's a giant suburb, you can have a single family dwelling with a yard and be only a short drive from where you want to go.
And the burbs are different from the city. It's less flash, less ego, it's inherently middle class. L.A. is not about inherited wealth, finance (not that there are not nepo-babies), it's a place where everybody starts from the same line and everybody can make it. Where everything that's meaningful in the east is irrelevant...where you went to school, who your parents are... The titans of the music industry didn't even go to college! The business was built by scrappy entrepreneurs. And this unique vision, not being hobbled by the past, enabled the growth of Silicon Valley. Everybody in the east would have told the inventors they were delusional dreamers or to wait their turn, that they didn't deserve it. And as goes Silicon Valley, so goes America.
2
But the sixties were different from the twenty first century, if for no other reason than there were no smartphones with cameras. All the stories you've heard of groupies, the sex, drugs and rock and roll...it was right there for the taking, hiding in plain sight in Los Angeles.
And Eve Babitz was there.
She hung out at Barney's Beanery. Which the news tells me is hip again. However, if you went there late, in the last half-century, you asked yourself what it was all about.
As for the Troubadour bar, where the Eagles had their genesis, that lasted a little longer, I remember bumping into Alice Cooper and Keith Moon and having a bit of conversation. That doesn't happen anymore, everyone's behind closed doors, or they have bodyguards.
But once upon a time...
Eve was an L.A. native. And she traded in sex. She was liberated before the women's revolution. She would go to Barney's and pick up men and...
Eve had relationships with so many, so many married, some household names, like Jim Morrison, whom she ultimately excoriated in print.
As for Jim's leather pants... They were made by Eve's sister Mirandi and her husband Clem, who beat her. Mirandi was the true groupie... Eve was ultimately an outsider, a typical artist.
Eve wasn't always the center of attention, but she was there, making her own way...
Until it all fell apart in the eighties.
But before that...
I thought I knew rock and roll history. But I never knew Tom Dowd was unfaithful to his wife. And you'll get some of the true Ahmet Ertegun here, as opposed to the sanitized version in the mainstream press. Ahmet was a ladies' man... But he could be cruel. If you knew Ahmet, he was aware of his surroundings, the landscape which he helped build. Today's labels are run by functionaries who never had skin in the game. But to build something from scratch, that takes a special talent, that's what Hollywood is really all about. Ahmet could talk sh*t, he was a good hang, he might disdain others, but he would embrace you warmly if you too had attitude, if you too could poke fun at the games. Which after all they are, you don't want to take the business too seriously, but you do want to take the art.
Yes, you get Ed Ruscha, and his brother Paul. The start of the explosion of west coast art at the Ferus Gallery.
And, of course, you get Eve's picture with Marcel Duchamp, the two playing chess, with Eve sans clothing. Showing her...
Big t*ts.
Oh, she was quite proud of her big boobs. She wrote to Joseph Heller, saying she was a writer and she was "stacked."
Eve was the kind of girl you screwed, but never married. Possibly because you were married already, but mostly because Eve moved on, she didn't want to build a family with you, she wanted to be footloose and fancy free.
And she makes collages, and giving Stephen Stills a ride home from the South Bay, she gets him to promise her the ability to create the new Buffalo Springfield album cover, which she does, "Buffalo Springfield Again."
Yes Eve made album covers, before she was a writer. Work petered out and she needed a new game.
That's what people don't understand today, that your heyday is very brief, certainly in retrospect, oftentimes only a couple of years, then you have to reinvent yourself.
After reinventing herself as a writer, Eve spent a decade doing coke. Which eats up all your money.
That's what we never hear about, how these people survive. As my father always said...there are no miracles.
You can be famous, yet broke.
Eve gets money from the sale of her parents' house, and then a settlement after she sets herself on fire (a weak case, but a strong attorney). And Eve's sister insists she take the money as an annuity, otherwise she'll blow it all and be SOL.
And Eve was hiding in plain sight in the heart of Hollywood, completely forgotten until the "Vanity Fair" story, written by the author of this book, Lili Anolik.
They're all around, assuming they didn't die early of misadventure. O.D. or die in a car crash and you're a legend, continue to live and you're a mere mortal, like the rest of us.
3
So we've got the Eagles... Eve is hired to write a screenplay that she never completes.
And Earl McGrath, who heretofore was known as an executive at Atlantic Records, but in truth he was a connector, a bon vivant whom everybody like to have around.
Eve touched all these people, or should I say they touched her.
Holes in history are filled here. Assuming you're interested.
Most aren't, they'd rather buy the legend as opposed to investigate the personalities, the identities of those involved.
And the more famous you are, usually the more compromised you are. In that you have holes in your personality. The well-adjusted don't take these risks, but with the risks come the rewards.
Not that Eve wanted to be famous, or be in the movies, but she did want to be part of the scene.
So...
"Hollywood's Eve" is written in a highfalutin' style. This is not a celebrity memoir, this is the work of an Ivy League graduate, written for the same class, one that favors analysis and theory more than facts, where the bigger the words, the denser the prose, the better your writing is considered to be.
Meaning I can't wholeheartedly recommend this book, it is not long, but it is a bit of a slog.
However, some of Anolik's insights are refreshing, she says that the height of writing is now journalism, akin to the new journalism of yore, with the writer invested and revealed as opposed to novels. I'll buy that.
But having said that...
The reason I read this book is...
Anolik has a new book, "Didion and Babitz," wherein she cuts Joan down to size. I loved "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," but it's good to know that I'm not the only who who is not on the Didion train. Didion worked it, like Susan Sontag. If you're sitting at home wondering why you're not anointed a public intellectual...know that your marketing skills are substandard, if in evidence at all.
And in the endless hype about "Didion and Babitz" I read that Anolik had a podcast, released in 2021, entitled "Once Upon a Time...At Bennington College," an in-depth analysis of the lives and work of Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Lethem and...Donna Tartt.
Tartt has carefully manicured her image. But the truth is "The Secret History" was to a great degree based on fact, as was "Less Than Zero." These famous novels...are so often thinly fictionalized truth. One of my favorite books of the nineties was Pam Houston's "Cowboys Are My Weakness." Billed as fiction, Houston ultimately revealed it was real.
As are all of Eve Babitz's writings.
And listening to the Bennington podcast, I was moved to read "Hollywood's Eve."
Anolik is involved in hagiography here. In truth Babitz was not the sainted writer Lili keeps telling us she was. Babitz nailed some of Southern California culture, but her output was very thin, and mixed.
But the life she led...
We know about the stars. But those adjacent to the stars, those who are in relationships with them, who partake of the lifestyle, we really don't know much about.
You don't want to be Eve Babitz.
Then again, everybody today thinks they can be a star from their own home. And unlike most people my age, I am not down on internet culture, but the truth is when there were no smartphone cameras, when publicity was strictly controlled...there was a lot going on we didn't know about, and Eve was there and a lot is revealed in this book.
So...
If you're a rock and roll aficionado, looking for more SoCal information, step right up, there's stuff here that appears nowhere else.
But even more interesting is the arc of Babitz's life. Beneath the flash, the peaks...
Some people become stars and sustain. Sometimes they get ripped-off by advisors, but they can ultimately go on the road and make that money back, at least some of it.
And it all comes down to music. Because the people from this era, they were writing and singing their truth, unedited by the machine.
As for the movies...
Turns out Harrison Ford was a crappy carpenter, he survived by being a dope dealer. For almost fifty years we've been sold the legend that he was a carpenter to the rich and famous...yeah, one who took the money and never finished.
And Eve told Steve Martin to wear a white suit, and he ultimately gifted her with a Volkswagen and...
Anolik constantly marvels that Eve's tales are true. Especially in an era where everybody makes up their own story, where you can't trust nearly anything a celebrity or hanger-on says.
And it all starts at Hollywood High in the late fifties/early sixties. Where the students were movie stars, where society was fluid, where the rest of us were completely out of the loop.
You had to be there.
And Eve Babitz was.
--
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--
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1
I wish this was a movie, for it it was I'd tell you to run out and see it immediately.
And although there might ultimately be a flick, it could never capture Eve completely.
I know, I know, you're burned out on her story, ever since the 2014 "Vanity Fair" update it's been all Eve all the time, even though her production was slight and a lot of it not so great.
But I knew who she was because she wrote "Slow Days, Fast Company."
I'm infatuated with Los Angeles. You've got to know, California was a dream in the sixties, I used to beg my mother to move there on a regular basis. All the TV shows were made there, and there was surfing and Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys.
But Los Angeles was always considered to be déclassé, a place where there was no there there, a location where Woody Allen said the "only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light."
A New Yorker comes to Los Angeles and says they don't get it, there's no city center, that New York City is the greatest city in the world.
An Angeleno goes to New York City and says...greatest city in the world, but I'd rather live in Los Angeles.
L.A. is very livable. It's a giant suburb, you can have a single family dwelling with a yard and be only a short drive from where you want to go.
And the burbs are different from the city. It's less flash, less ego, it's inherently middle class. L.A. is not about inherited wealth, finance (not that there are not nepo-babies), it's a place where everybody starts from the same line and everybody can make it. Where everything that's meaningful in the east is irrelevant...where you went to school, who your parents are... The titans of the music industry didn't even go to college! The business was built by scrappy entrepreneurs. And this unique vision, not being hobbled by the past, enabled the growth of Silicon Valley. Everybody in the east would have told the inventors they were delusional dreamers or to wait their turn, that they didn't deserve it. And as goes Silicon Valley, so goes America.
2
But the sixties were different from the twenty first century, if for no other reason than there were no smartphones with cameras. All the stories you've heard of groupies, the sex, drugs and rock and roll...it was right there for the taking, hiding in plain sight in Los Angeles.
And Eve Babitz was there.
She hung out at Barney's Beanery. Which the news tells me is hip again. However, if you went there late, in the last half-century, you asked yourself what it was all about.
As for the Troubadour bar, where the Eagles had their genesis, that lasted a little longer, I remember bumping into Alice Cooper and Keith Moon and having a bit of conversation. That doesn't happen anymore, everyone's behind closed doors, or they have bodyguards.
But once upon a time...
Eve was an L.A. native. And she traded in sex. She was liberated before the women's revolution. She would go to Barney's and pick up men and...
Eve had relationships with so many, so many married, some household names, like Jim Morrison, whom she ultimately excoriated in print.
As for Jim's leather pants... They were made by Eve's sister Mirandi and her husband Clem, who beat her. Mirandi was the true groupie... Eve was ultimately an outsider, a typical artist.
Eve wasn't always the center of attention, but she was there, making her own way...
Until it all fell apart in the eighties.
But before that...
I thought I knew rock and roll history. But I never knew Tom Dowd was unfaithful to his wife. And you'll get some of the true Ahmet Ertegun here, as opposed to the sanitized version in the mainstream press. Ahmet was a ladies' man... But he could be cruel. If you knew Ahmet, he was aware of his surroundings, the landscape which he helped build. Today's labels are run by functionaries who never had skin in the game. But to build something from scratch, that takes a special talent, that's what Hollywood is really all about. Ahmet could talk sh*t, he was a good hang, he might disdain others, but he would embrace you warmly if you too had attitude, if you too could poke fun at the games. Which after all they are, you don't want to take the business too seriously, but you do want to take the art.
Yes, you get Ed Ruscha, and his brother Paul. The start of the explosion of west coast art at the Ferus Gallery.
And, of course, you get Eve's picture with Marcel Duchamp, the two playing chess, with Eve sans clothing. Showing her...
Big t*ts.
Oh, she was quite proud of her big boobs. She wrote to Joseph Heller, saying she was a writer and she was "stacked."
Eve was the kind of girl you screwed, but never married. Possibly because you were married already, but mostly because Eve moved on, she didn't want to build a family with you, she wanted to be footloose and fancy free.
And she makes collages, and giving Stephen Stills a ride home from the South Bay, she gets him to promise her the ability to create the new Buffalo Springfield album cover, which she does, "Buffalo Springfield Again."
Yes Eve made album covers, before she was a writer. Work petered out and she needed a new game.
That's what people don't understand today, that your heyday is very brief, certainly in retrospect, oftentimes only a couple of years, then you have to reinvent yourself.
After reinventing herself as a writer, Eve spent a decade doing coke. Which eats up all your money.
That's what we never hear about, how these people survive. As my father always said...there are no miracles.
You can be famous, yet broke.
Eve gets money from the sale of her parents' house, and then a settlement after she sets herself on fire (a weak case, but a strong attorney). And Eve's sister insists she take the money as an annuity, otherwise she'll blow it all and be SOL.
And Eve was hiding in plain sight in the heart of Hollywood, completely forgotten until the "Vanity Fair" story, written by the author of this book, Lili Anolik.
They're all around, assuming they didn't die early of misadventure. O.D. or die in a car crash and you're a legend, continue to live and you're a mere mortal, like the rest of us.
3
So we've got the Eagles... Eve is hired to write a screenplay that she never completes.
And Earl McGrath, who heretofore was known as an executive at Atlantic Records, but in truth he was a connector, a bon vivant whom everybody like to have around.
Eve touched all these people, or should I say they touched her.
Holes in history are filled here. Assuming you're interested.
Most aren't, they'd rather buy the legend as opposed to investigate the personalities, the identities of those involved.
And the more famous you are, usually the more compromised you are. In that you have holes in your personality. The well-adjusted don't take these risks, but with the risks come the rewards.
Not that Eve wanted to be famous, or be in the movies, but she did want to be part of the scene.
So...
"Hollywood's Eve" is written in a highfalutin' style. This is not a celebrity memoir, this is the work of an Ivy League graduate, written for the same class, one that favors analysis and theory more than facts, where the bigger the words, the denser the prose, the better your writing is considered to be.
Meaning I can't wholeheartedly recommend this book, it is not long, but it is a bit of a slog.
However, some of Anolik's insights are refreshing, she says that the height of writing is now journalism, akin to the new journalism of yore, with the writer invested and revealed as opposed to novels. I'll buy that.
But having said that...
The reason I read this book is...
Anolik has a new book, "Didion and Babitz," wherein she cuts Joan down to size. I loved "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," but it's good to know that I'm not the only who who is not on the Didion train. Didion worked it, like Susan Sontag. If you're sitting at home wondering why you're not anointed a public intellectual...know that your marketing skills are substandard, if in evidence at all.
And in the endless hype about "Didion and Babitz" I read that Anolik had a podcast, released in 2021, entitled "Once Upon a Time...At Bennington College," an in-depth analysis of the lives and work of Bret Easton Ellis, Jonathan Lethem and...Donna Tartt.
Tartt has carefully manicured her image. But the truth is "The Secret History" was to a great degree based on fact, as was "Less Than Zero." These famous novels...are so often thinly fictionalized truth. One of my favorite books of the nineties was Pam Houston's "Cowboys Are My Weakness." Billed as fiction, Houston ultimately revealed it was real.
As are all of Eve Babitz's writings.
And listening to the Bennington podcast, I was moved to read "Hollywood's Eve."
Anolik is involved in hagiography here. In truth Babitz was not the sainted writer Lili keeps telling us she was. Babitz nailed some of Southern California culture, but her output was very thin, and mixed.
But the life she led...
We know about the stars. But those adjacent to the stars, those who are in relationships with them, who partake of the lifestyle, we really don't know much about.
You don't want to be Eve Babitz.
Then again, everybody today thinks they can be a star from their own home. And unlike most people my age, I am not down on internet culture, but the truth is when there were no smartphone cameras, when publicity was strictly controlled...there was a lot going on we didn't know about, and Eve was there and a lot is revealed in this book.
So...
If you're a rock and roll aficionado, looking for more SoCal information, step right up, there's stuff here that appears nowhere else.
But even more interesting is the arc of Babitz's life. Beneath the flash, the peaks...
Some people become stars and sustain. Sometimes they get ripped-off by advisors, but they can ultimately go on the road and make that money back, at least some of it.
And it all comes down to music. Because the people from this era, they were writing and singing their truth, unedited by the machine.
As for the movies...
Turns out Harrison Ford was a crappy carpenter, he survived by being a dope dealer. For almost fifty years we've been sold the legend that he was a carpenter to the rich and famous...yeah, one who took the money and never finished.
And Eve told Steve Martin to wear a white suit, and he ultimately gifted her with a Volkswagen and...
Anolik constantly marvels that Eve's tales are true. Especially in an era where everybody makes up their own story, where you can't trust nearly anything a celebrity or hanger-on says.
And it all starts at Hollywood High in the late fifties/early sixties. Where the students were movie stars, where society was fluid, where the rest of us were completely out of the loop.
You had to be there.
And Eve Babitz was.
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Hit Records
A hit record is something that someone hears once, maybe twice, and can't get out of their head.
Or as Ahmet Ertegun said... A hit record is something you hear on late night radio that causes you to get out of bed, get dressed and go to the all night record shop to buy.
A hit record can be a chart success, but not necessarily.
The Dave Matthews Band's first hit record was "Ants Marching," which showed up nowhere on the hit parade, but when you played it for someone they wanted to play it themselves and then turned everybody they knew on to it.
Going back further we've got "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, with its indelible riff. Part of "Disraeli Gears," Cream not only had not had a Top 40 hit previously, underground FM radio, which played the track, was still only in a few cities. But the track was so undeniable that it ultimately crossed over.
And then you've got "Purple Haze," released even earlier. Top 40 was not ready, but that was the track you played to turn people on to Hendrix.
As for this century, we've got Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," which didn't even have to finish for me to love it, to immediately go home and download it.
But sans context "Crazy" was just a single. There's a business in singles, but it's a hard one. What you want is a culture, a whole belief system, surrounding music, so that someone can be involved in the song.
Culture... Think about it. I write that Billy Strings hasn't written a hit song, but he does have culture. If he wrote a hit, he'd no longer be underground, but everywhere (you can be underground and play arenas today, that's how narrow the niches can be).
As for writing hit songs...
Maybe work with Dan Wilson, who doesn't compromise your culture in order for you to have a hit. Your hit must be "on brand," must sound like you.
A great example is "Whole Lotta Love." The first Led Zeppelin album as amazing, it penetrated society for nearly a year, and then came "Whole Lotta Love," which AM radio embraced and the rest is history.
As for "Stairway to Heaven"... It was never a single. But it was the number one rock track for decades in the Memorial 500 of AOR stations, and still would be if any of those stations were still active.
Oh, let's comb the past once more. Def Leppard was not new, but you only had to hear half of "Photograph" to love it.
Today everybody has it backward. They think that the hit comes first. But that is very rare. It worked for the Eagles and Sam Smith, but when all you have is the hit...you're screwed, few are coming to your shows, you have no career.
Now just because you're a fan of a band, that does not mean they have a hit. You love them, you've seen them multiple times, you stream their music, but the act's base doesn't grow, because there's not that instant track.
Acts need that instant track.
I loved Dawes's second album. But they could never come up with a hit and ultimately band members left, they were sick of the grind.
How do you write a hit?
It's best if it's organic, within your oeuvre.
Traffic had written hits covered by others, but the band broke through with "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys," which sounded like them, sounded like a stretch, but sounded like nothing else.
That's what we're missing. Acts that go on their own hejira, are not me-too, that when ultimately embraced become legendary.
That was the paradigm in the late sixties and seventies, until me-too corporate rock and disco killed it. MTV made stars, they rocketed you to the moon, but many of those acts immediately fell back to earth, because there was no culture.
Same today. A track is embraced and after it fades...nothing.
Today's paradigm is akin to the movie business, which wants only blockbusters, and therefore relies on sequels and superhero flicks. All the innovation is on streaming television, that's where risks are taken, supported by subscriber revenue.
And, in truth, the major labels are supported by subscriber revenue, they call it "catalog." Endless income with almost no costs. Allowing the labels to...
Put out me-too wannabe blockbuster product.
That's why the scene is moribund. There's no there there. No innovation. Either you've got dreck just like the previous dreck, or left field stuff sans the essential building blocks of success...instrumental dexterity, melody, changes and a good voice. You can play in today's music business, you can put your music up on Spotify, but you won't truly go anywhere unless you have a hit.
And then there are bands that do boffo at the b.o. who can't write a hit. Tedeschi Trucks... Doesn't anybody in that act know the formula?
It's like it's a lost art. Acts have no idea what a hit is.
As for acts that have one big hit and go on a big tour and are given hosannas by the press... There are 100 million more people in America than in the seventies. Oftentimes it's a large niche with no trailing effect.
So...
It's actually easy. Play your music for someone, if they don't want to tell everybody about it, if they just say they like it, it's not a hit.
And a hit can take many forms. And it doesn't need to be on the chart.
But hits are the heart and soul of this business.
There's example after example. Metallica was big before "Enter Sandman," after the track they were legendary, can sell out stadiums to this day.
We've got too many acts with too few knowing how the game truly works, never mind not many having talent. Everybody's got their heads in the clouds, detached from reality.
The truth is the public is hungry for new music. But you've got to make it easy for them, you've got to write a hit.
That's your assignment.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Or as Ahmet Ertegun said... A hit record is something you hear on late night radio that causes you to get out of bed, get dressed and go to the all night record shop to buy.
A hit record can be a chart success, but not necessarily.
The Dave Matthews Band's first hit record was "Ants Marching," which showed up nowhere on the hit parade, but when you played it for someone they wanted to play it themselves and then turned everybody they knew on to it.
Going back further we've got "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, with its indelible riff. Part of "Disraeli Gears," Cream not only had not had a Top 40 hit previously, underground FM radio, which played the track, was still only in a few cities. But the track was so undeniable that it ultimately crossed over.
And then you've got "Purple Haze," released even earlier. Top 40 was not ready, but that was the track you played to turn people on to Hendrix.
As for this century, we've got Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," which didn't even have to finish for me to love it, to immediately go home and download it.
But sans context "Crazy" was just a single. There's a business in singles, but it's a hard one. What you want is a culture, a whole belief system, surrounding music, so that someone can be involved in the song.
Culture... Think about it. I write that Billy Strings hasn't written a hit song, but he does have culture. If he wrote a hit, he'd no longer be underground, but everywhere (you can be underground and play arenas today, that's how narrow the niches can be).
As for writing hit songs...
Maybe work with Dan Wilson, who doesn't compromise your culture in order for you to have a hit. Your hit must be "on brand," must sound like you.
A great example is "Whole Lotta Love." The first Led Zeppelin album as amazing, it penetrated society for nearly a year, and then came "Whole Lotta Love," which AM radio embraced and the rest is history.
As for "Stairway to Heaven"... It was never a single. But it was the number one rock track for decades in the Memorial 500 of AOR stations, and still would be if any of those stations were still active.
Oh, let's comb the past once more. Def Leppard was not new, but you only had to hear half of "Photograph" to love it.
Today everybody has it backward. They think that the hit comes first. But that is very rare. It worked for the Eagles and Sam Smith, but when all you have is the hit...you're screwed, few are coming to your shows, you have no career.
Now just because you're a fan of a band, that does not mean they have a hit. You love them, you've seen them multiple times, you stream their music, but the act's base doesn't grow, because there's not that instant track.
Acts need that instant track.
I loved Dawes's second album. But they could never come up with a hit and ultimately band members left, they were sick of the grind.
How do you write a hit?
It's best if it's organic, within your oeuvre.
Traffic had written hits covered by others, but the band broke through with "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys," which sounded like them, sounded like a stretch, but sounded like nothing else.
That's what we're missing. Acts that go on their own hejira, are not me-too, that when ultimately embraced become legendary.
That was the paradigm in the late sixties and seventies, until me-too corporate rock and disco killed it. MTV made stars, they rocketed you to the moon, but many of those acts immediately fell back to earth, because there was no culture.
Same today. A track is embraced and after it fades...nothing.
Today's paradigm is akin to the movie business, which wants only blockbusters, and therefore relies on sequels and superhero flicks. All the innovation is on streaming television, that's where risks are taken, supported by subscriber revenue.
And, in truth, the major labels are supported by subscriber revenue, they call it "catalog." Endless income with almost no costs. Allowing the labels to...
Put out me-too wannabe blockbuster product.
That's why the scene is moribund. There's no there there. No innovation. Either you've got dreck just like the previous dreck, or left field stuff sans the essential building blocks of success...instrumental dexterity, melody, changes and a good voice. You can play in today's music business, you can put your music up on Spotify, but you won't truly go anywhere unless you have a hit.
And then there are bands that do boffo at the b.o. who can't write a hit. Tedeschi Trucks... Doesn't anybody in that act know the formula?
It's like it's a lost art. Acts have no idea what a hit is.
As for acts that have one big hit and go on a big tour and are given hosannas by the press... There are 100 million more people in America than in the seventies. Oftentimes it's a large niche with no trailing effect.
So...
It's actually easy. Play your music for someone, if they don't want to tell everybody about it, if they just say they like it, it's not a hit.
And a hit can take many forms. And it doesn't need to be on the chart.
But hits are the heart and soul of this business.
There's example after example. Metallica was big before "Enter Sandman," after the track they were legendary, can sell out stadiums to this day.
We've got too many acts with too few knowing how the game truly works, never mind not many having talent. Everybody's got their heads in the clouds, detached from reality.
The truth is the public is hungry for new music. But you've got to make it easy for them, you've got to write a hit.
That's your assignment.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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Saturday, 28 December 2024
What To Expect In 2025
The media will focus on a handful of pop acts when the true action will be in smaller acts outside the national consciousness who focus on touring and merch as opposed to bitching about Spotify payouts.
Country will grow and grow. Country is the new hip-hop, but the northern elite controlled media continues to look down upon it, hating the same people who they believe are ignorant and voted for Trump. Country is rock in sheep's clothing. Rock devolved into Active Rock, a marginalized format that you need a decoder and a deep knowledge of history to understand while country took the big guitars of rock anthems, added choruses and gained mindshare. Furthermore, to this day country acts, unlike pop acts, are not dependent upon hits, they are building careers, and careers are forever.
Acts will continue to bitch about Spotify. Believing we still live in the physical era and everybody who makes music is entitled to a living. No one is stopping you from selling CDs at your gig, never mind overpriced vinyl oftentimes to fans who don't even own a turntable. If few are listening, why should you get paid? There's a lot to complain about with major corporations but they and their practices are not always the reason you're unsuccessful.
Spotify will be forced to respond to Liz Pelly's new book "The Ghosts in the Machine." You know Pelly's accusations are true by the lack of Spotify's response. Spotify denied Drake's accusations... When the book finally comes out Spotify...will have a hard time defending itself, and if the major labels come down hard enough they'll eliminate the practice. However, never forget most people do not get turned on to new music via playlists, playlists are mostly used as background music, which is why Spotify can get away with this program. However, every bogus stream does take away money from the overall pool. But don't believe if you're a marginal artist the elimination of this game will show up in your bank account.
The public will still believe that Spotify pays a per stream rate. And will state that Apple pays more per stream, not knowing that's because Apple subscribers are less active listeners. Once again, it's a pool of money that's divided based on overall listens. Everybody does it the same way, but Spotify gets the heat because it's the dominant service, active listeners are on Spotify.
The public will continue to misunderstand ticket fees, believing they all go to Ticketmaster and that the acts are completely innocent. The business is built on faith in the acts, and almost nothing can undercut that. Having said that, acts need to beware of their image, one false move can hurt you, assuming it's big enough. Then again, everybody is ultimately forgiven, except for maybe R. Kelly, but his music still streams! If the track is good enough, it doesn't matter who the artist is or what they have done, people will listen.
Classic rockers will continue to die. If you want to see them, see them now.
Club business will continue to decline.
EDM is forever, but it's just a very big niche, which will peak again, but not soon.
The acts selling tickets in the clubs that still exist and theatres are completely unlike the pop stuff dominating the Spotify Top 50. Despite all the hype for these charting acts, the acts winning on the road actually know how to play their instruments and don't dance to hard drive. What sells at this level is skill, songwriting, credibility and an ultimate bond with the audience.
Billy Strings shows that the public is hungry for skilled players. Imagine if Strings could actually write a great song! It always comes down to the song, and no matter how good a player you are, sans a great song you will always be hobbled.
Writing the songs yourself will continue to grow and be a badge of honor. The public is looking for honesty, this is the essence of Zach Bryan. Songs written by committee will be for the pop charts, and unless you're a pop act, if you use Jack Antonoff it's going to work against you, even if your song has some success, fans are sophisticated, they want their act to be unique, not just the latest work by the producer du jour.
The major labels will continue to believe they can buy anything successful. But the tools in their box continue to decline. Radio, TV and print mean less than ever before. But, having said that, if you dangle a big enough check, artists have a hard time resisting this.
The major labels will have no new competitors. In recorded music, that is. Because the majors sustain on catalog, which represents not only easy revenue, but power. Sans catalog and the revenue it generates no new label can truly compete. Having said that, publishers are the major labels' big competitors today. Primary Wave is better for legacy acts than any label. And Primary Wave operates like a label, with product managers, not even doing the administration like most publishers. This is the wave of the future. As for Merck and Hipgnosis... The problem was interest rates, they went up and the investment in Hipgnosis looked bad. When it comes to publishing you don't want a hypesters running your business, but someone with experience as a CFO.
Acts will continue to sell their catalogs and then wake up one day angry when their song is used in a commercial and they don't get paid. Revenue for copyright is only going up, if you're selling you don't believe in the business...and yourself.
Springsteen selling to Sony undercuts the essence of what built the Boss, truth, justice and the American Way. Music is about the rugged individual speaking truth to power. Once you sell, you're just another business person, ultimately a victim of the corporation. We've seen this movie from Elvis Presley on... You sell your rights, thinking you won, and ultimately you find out you lost. As for Pink Floyd selling...that's a bit different, the members couldn't get along, and David Gilmour has not been coy in speaking his truth, so he gets a pass. As for Roger Waters..?
The touring business will never change. If you can sell out arenas, never mind stadiums, you can write your own deal. As you go to smaller venues the act's leverage is less. If you're complaining about the split in clubs...the onus is on you, you don't have enough leverage, sell more tickets and you'll get more of the money. This business is about growth. Always has been, always will be. Having said that, if you have one hit you can work forever, and even those without hits can do the house concert circuit, which can sustain an act.
Tour deals will only increase in number.
The business has exhausted the post-Covid euphoria, not every act will go clean going forward. Big dreams will oftentimes lead to big disappointments. But ticket prices will not come down. If people want to go to the show, they'll pay the freight, they need to be there.
Terrestrial music radio will continue to decline. Will this be the year the industry admits it? I doubt it.
This is a music driven business. If more young acts are inspired by Zach Bryan as opposed to the paint-by-number hits in the Spotify Top 50, we could see a surge. We are waiting for that one act which will gain the attention of the entire nation, the entire world, that everybody wants to listen to. Having said that, Bryan still has runway. Your market is the whole world today, and most people do not know your music. There is money in niche, but there's more money in conventional songs/records, with melodies the public can sing along to, hooky choruses... But this is seen as uncool by most of the artists and the business, they want false edge (real edge is something different, it grows up from the bottom and is always outside, even when successful), the formula is right in front of us, new acts should be forced to listen Beatle albums to get it. And not only could the Beatles write memorable songs with bridges, they could sing! Unless you're Bob Dylan, the greatest lyricist of all time, you're going to be hobbled unless someone in the act has a great voice.
Country will grow and grow. Country is the new hip-hop, but the northern elite controlled media continues to look down upon it, hating the same people who they believe are ignorant and voted for Trump. Country is rock in sheep's clothing. Rock devolved into Active Rock, a marginalized format that you need a decoder and a deep knowledge of history to understand while country took the big guitars of rock anthems, added choruses and gained mindshare. Furthermore, to this day country acts, unlike pop acts, are not dependent upon hits, they are building careers, and careers are forever.
Acts will continue to bitch about Spotify. Believing we still live in the physical era and everybody who makes music is entitled to a living. No one is stopping you from selling CDs at your gig, never mind overpriced vinyl oftentimes to fans who don't even own a turntable. If few are listening, why should you get paid? There's a lot to complain about with major corporations but they and their practices are not always the reason you're unsuccessful.
Spotify will be forced to respond to Liz Pelly's new book "The Ghosts in the Machine." You know Pelly's accusations are true by the lack of Spotify's response. Spotify denied Drake's accusations... When the book finally comes out Spotify...will have a hard time defending itself, and if the major labels come down hard enough they'll eliminate the practice. However, never forget most people do not get turned on to new music via playlists, playlists are mostly used as background music, which is why Spotify can get away with this program. However, every bogus stream does take away money from the overall pool. But don't believe if you're a marginal artist the elimination of this game will show up in your bank account.
The public will still believe that Spotify pays a per stream rate. And will state that Apple pays more per stream, not knowing that's because Apple subscribers are less active listeners. Once again, it's a pool of money that's divided based on overall listens. Everybody does it the same way, but Spotify gets the heat because it's the dominant service, active listeners are on Spotify.
The public will continue to misunderstand ticket fees, believing they all go to Ticketmaster and that the acts are completely innocent. The business is built on faith in the acts, and almost nothing can undercut that. Having said that, acts need to beware of their image, one false move can hurt you, assuming it's big enough. Then again, everybody is ultimately forgiven, except for maybe R. Kelly, but his music still streams! If the track is good enough, it doesn't matter who the artist is or what they have done, people will listen.
Classic rockers will continue to die. If you want to see them, see them now.
Club business will continue to decline.
EDM is forever, but it's just a very big niche, which will peak again, but not soon.
The acts selling tickets in the clubs that still exist and theatres are completely unlike the pop stuff dominating the Spotify Top 50. Despite all the hype for these charting acts, the acts winning on the road actually know how to play their instruments and don't dance to hard drive. What sells at this level is skill, songwriting, credibility and an ultimate bond with the audience.
Billy Strings shows that the public is hungry for skilled players. Imagine if Strings could actually write a great song! It always comes down to the song, and no matter how good a player you are, sans a great song you will always be hobbled.
Writing the songs yourself will continue to grow and be a badge of honor. The public is looking for honesty, this is the essence of Zach Bryan. Songs written by committee will be for the pop charts, and unless you're a pop act, if you use Jack Antonoff it's going to work against you, even if your song has some success, fans are sophisticated, they want their act to be unique, not just the latest work by the producer du jour.
The major labels will continue to believe they can buy anything successful. But the tools in their box continue to decline. Radio, TV and print mean less than ever before. But, having said that, if you dangle a big enough check, artists have a hard time resisting this.
The major labels will have no new competitors. In recorded music, that is. Because the majors sustain on catalog, which represents not only easy revenue, but power. Sans catalog and the revenue it generates no new label can truly compete. Having said that, publishers are the major labels' big competitors today. Primary Wave is better for legacy acts than any label. And Primary Wave operates like a label, with product managers, not even doing the administration like most publishers. This is the wave of the future. As for Merck and Hipgnosis... The problem was interest rates, they went up and the investment in Hipgnosis looked bad. When it comes to publishing you don't want a hypesters running your business, but someone with experience as a CFO.
Acts will continue to sell their catalogs and then wake up one day angry when their song is used in a commercial and they don't get paid. Revenue for copyright is only going up, if you're selling you don't believe in the business...and yourself.
Springsteen selling to Sony undercuts the essence of what built the Boss, truth, justice and the American Way. Music is about the rugged individual speaking truth to power. Once you sell, you're just another business person, ultimately a victim of the corporation. We've seen this movie from Elvis Presley on... You sell your rights, thinking you won, and ultimately you find out you lost. As for Pink Floyd selling...that's a bit different, the members couldn't get along, and David Gilmour has not been coy in speaking his truth, so he gets a pass. As for Roger Waters..?
The touring business will never change. If you can sell out arenas, never mind stadiums, you can write your own deal. As you go to smaller venues the act's leverage is less. If you're complaining about the split in clubs...the onus is on you, you don't have enough leverage, sell more tickets and you'll get more of the money. This business is about growth. Always has been, always will be. Having said that, if you have one hit you can work forever, and even those without hits can do the house concert circuit, which can sustain an act.
Tour deals will only increase in number.
The business has exhausted the post-Covid euphoria, not every act will go clean going forward. Big dreams will oftentimes lead to big disappointments. But ticket prices will not come down. If people want to go to the show, they'll pay the freight, they need to be there.
Terrestrial music radio will continue to decline. Will this be the year the industry admits it? I doubt it.
This is a music driven business. If more young acts are inspired by Zach Bryan as opposed to the paint-by-number hits in the Spotify Top 50, we could see a surge. We are waiting for that one act which will gain the attention of the entire nation, the entire world, that everybody wants to listen to. Having said that, Bryan still has runway. Your market is the whole world today, and most people do not know your music. There is money in niche, but there's more money in conventional songs/records, with melodies the public can sing along to, hooky choruses... But this is seen as uncool by most of the artists and the business, they want false edge (real edge is something different, it grows up from the bottom and is always outside, even when successful), the formula is right in front of us, new acts should be forced to listen Beatle albums to get it. And not only could the Beatles write memorable songs with bridges, they could sing! Unless you're Bob Dylan, the greatest lyricist of all time, you're going to be hobbled unless someone in the act has a great voice.
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Friday, 27 December 2024
Cleanup Songs-2-SiriusXM This Week
Finishing "Dreams" and "Angels" songs.
Tune in Saturday December 28th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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Tune in Saturday December 28th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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Thursday, 26 December 2024
Bill Hein-This Week's Podcast
Bill Hein started in retail, created Enigma Records, ran Rykodisc and is now pressing vinyl and so much more!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-hein/id1316200737?i=1000681738062
https://open.spotify.com/episode/54nW5I7mzoIsQfVdvr0ybQ?si=hSpakIsIQ6atLM5SGaY4qg
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/bill-hein-251929987/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/1bd7508d-3246-400b-8f99-dc97f76912ac/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-bill-hein
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-hein/id1316200737?i=1000681738062
https://open.spotify.com/episode/54nW5I7mzoIsQfVdvr0ybQ?si=hSpakIsIQ6atLM5SGaY4qg
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/bill-hein-251929987/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/1bd7508d-3246-400b-8f99-dc97f76912ac/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-bill-hein
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Wednesday, 25 December 2024
The Confidante
MAX trailer: https://rb.gy/kjcg8w
This show creeped me out.
It's another from the "Times" best foreign series list.
It's not a huge commitment, only four episodes of just under an hour, but...
It pains me to see delusional people screwing up their lives. Oftentimes their hearts are in the right place, but rather than admit things are not working out they lie/stretch the truth and the reality is most people do not expect this.
So Chris is...
Someone who is too old to be living the rock and roll dream, or wannabe dream. She washed out as a manager, she dresses like an icon, lives on the story of her chance meeting with Iggy Pop and is ultimately delusional.
Unfortunately, I know people like this. Ones everybody loves and when the truth is finally revealed they're disappointed in them and want nothing to do with them.
I know, I know, you're not like this. But the amazing thing is there are people like this in the community. You give people the benefit of the doubt, but then you regret it.
So this is a story inspired by the Bataclan terrorist attack, but it's not true.
Chris, who was not in the venue, becomes infatuated with the survivors and inserts herself into their lives and...
It was oftentimes too painful for me to watch. Because Chris means well, but that's not enough. You're just waiting for her to be found out.
And once you start lying, you have to continue to do this to sustain the enterprise.
But Chris is so likable, so charitable, your best caring friend! She works so hard.
But...
This is a French series, the default is dubbed in English, you'll have to go into the settings for the original French and subtitles in English, assuming you don't know French.
And maybe it's because I don't know the actors, but everybody rang true in their roles. You really believed they were who they were, you didn't see them acting.
And yes, you learn about the fallout of a terrorist attack like Bataclan, how people cope and how they don't, how they come together and how they don't.
Some people in life are suspicious and some ride with the story.
My father was always suspicious. He was looking for the holes in stories, things that don't add up.
And I'm my father's son.
I know, I know there are accepting people who end up having all these opportunities I do not. Then again, some of them get into really bad situations, with drugs, being ripped-off.
Maybe you just can't change who you are. I'm just a middle class suburbanite.
And Chris appears so together, so compassionate, so nice...
I ultimately found the ending of the series a bit of a letdown. Not in terms of what happens, but how Chris is ultimately dealt with. I guess I expected some big confrontation.
Then again, thinking about it now... Leon the leader knows something is up and plays dumb while the authorities do their work and when Chris finally realizes the jig is up she acts appropriately it's just that...
You're watching this show, wondering when Chris will be found out. You learn pretty early she's off her rocker, you know it's just a matter of time, but time keeps going on with no reveal, no consequences, and this is what I found hard to endure, I felt so bad for Chris, then again...she was taking liberties.
There are all kinds of people in this world. And that's what makes up this world, the people. You never know what you'll get, isn't life like a box of chocolates?
But "Forrest Gump" had a different vibe. "The Confidante" is just like real life, you don't see Tom Hanks playing a role, the story is not overwhelmed by stars.
And I wasn't even going to write about "The Confidante," but I was just telling someone about it and I got excited, because of the feelings the show engendered in me and...
Here you go.
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This show creeped me out.
It's another from the "Times" best foreign series list.
It's not a huge commitment, only four episodes of just under an hour, but...
It pains me to see delusional people screwing up their lives. Oftentimes their hearts are in the right place, but rather than admit things are not working out they lie/stretch the truth and the reality is most people do not expect this.
So Chris is...
Someone who is too old to be living the rock and roll dream, or wannabe dream. She washed out as a manager, she dresses like an icon, lives on the story of her chance meeting with Iggy Pop and is ultimately delusional.
Unfortunately, I know people like this. Ones everybody loves and when the truth is finally revealed they're disappointed in them and want nothing to do with them.
I know, I know, you're not like this. But the amazing thing is there are people like this in the community. You give people the benefit of the doubt, but then you regret it.
So this is a story inspired by the Bataclan terrorist attack, but it's not true.
Chris, who was not in the venue, becomes infatuated with the survivors and inserts herself into their lives and...
It was oftentimes too painful for me to watch. Because Chris means well, but that's not enough. You're just waiting for her to be found out.
And once you start lying, you have to continue to do this to sustain the enterprise.
But Chris is so likable, so charitable, your best caring friend! She works so hard.
But...
This is a French series, the default is dubbed in English, you'll have to go into the settings for the original French and subtitles in English, assuming you don't know French.
And maybe it's because I don't know the actors, but everybody rang true in their roles. You really believed they were who they were, you didn't see them acting.
And yes, you learn about the fallout of a terrorist attack like Bataclan, how people cope and how they don't, how they come together and how they don't.
Some people in life are suspicious and some ride with the story.
My father was always suspicious. He was looking for the holes in stories, things that don't add up.
And I'm my father's son.
I know, I know there are accepting people who end up having all these opportunities I do not. Then again, some of them get into really bad situations, with drugs, being ripped-off.
Maybe you just can't change who you are. I'm just a middle class suburbanite.
And Chris appears so together, so compassionate, so nice...
I ultimately found the ending of the series a bit of a letdown. Not in terms of what happens, but how Chris is ultimately dealt with. I guess I expected some big confrontation.
Then again, thinking about it now... Leon the leader knows something is up and plays dumb while the authorities do their work and when Chris finally realizes the jig is up she acts appropriately it's just that...
You're watching this show, wondering when Chris will be found out. You learn pretty early she's off her rocker, you know it's just a matter of time, but time keeps going on with no reveal, no consequences, and this is what I found hard to endure, I felt so bad for Chris, then again...she was taking liberties.
There are all kinds of people in this world. And that's what makes up this world, the people. You never know what you'll get, isn't life like a box of chocolates?
But "Forrest Gump" had a different vibe. "The Confidante" is just like real life, you don't see Tom Hanks playing a role, the story is not overwhelmed by stars.
And I wasn't even going to write about "The Confidante," but I was just telling someone about it and I got excited, because of the feelings the show engendered in me and...
Here you go.
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Skis
"I have a favorite ski construction — for slalom and basically for every event. Through a season, I'll go through probably 80 pairs of skis, including all the events. And that's from the start of the summer to the end of the season. Every ski has a lifetime.
"Our technicians will file the edges down and you just get to a point where you don't have any edge left. The ski, the more you ski it, it kind of loses a little bit of life. Sometimes that's really good. But sometimes you actually want a fresher ski. So it all very much depends on the snow conditions."
Mikaela Shiffrin in "GearJunkie": https://shorturl.at/uwV10
Skis wear out.
Back in the sixties and seventies the issue was integrity, the skis literally fell apart, they delaminated, they warped, but those problems in almost all cases have been eliminated. K2 moved their production to China and the skis actually got better!
But that does not mean they're forever.
Last year I felt my K2 Mindbender 99s had lost something. I had nearly seventy days on them and it seemed to me they just didn't hold as well as they used to, which is one of the main reasons I bought them, I'd been a Dynastar guy forever, but the edge-holding in their latest models was inferior.
I put an expensive tune on them and it still seemed they were lacking.
And then I wondered how many days I truly had left on them. Whether to buy a new pair at discount, which I ultimately did, for less than half price.
You see most ski companies are on three year cycles. So the K2 Mindbenders from 2023, 2024 and 2025 are identical, except for the paint jobs.
Used to be skis maintained their look. Remember the old Rossignol Strato? Never mind the Heads and the Dynamic VR17s?
That's history.
But in truth, there are so many brands and so many models with so many different graphics that unless you're a student of the game you can't tell exactly which year a ski is.
Anyway...
I mounted up the new skis this year and I was positively stunned, it was a complete revelation. This is why I bought the skis to begin with, they were like ice skates, and they had life my old pair did not.
But most people would not have replaced the skis. Because my 2023 skis looked pretty fine.
But inside they were history.
Kind of like running shoes. The foam compresses. They tell you to buy a new pair, which only avid runners do. But when you finally replace your trainers...you're stunned at the cushioning, the bounce in your step.
I wear New Balance 928 V3's. I used to buy running shoes, but then "Consumer Reports" said that if you're walking you should buy walking shoes, and I bought the best Nikes but then they gave up making them and I switched to New Balances and I went to BottleRock last May and didn't bring my new pair, figuring they'd get all dirty and dusty, not knowing the promoters lay down fake grass, and my feet and legs hurt and when I ultimately came home and donned my new pair...it was a revelation.
So, if you have 70 days on your skis, trash them, use them as rock skis. You're doing yourself a disservice using them. You think you're saving money, that it makes no difference, but it does. And why should you sacrifice your enjoyment? And yes, skiing on the right equipment enhances your enjoyment, Barbara just bought new boots and was THRILLED! Her skiing vastly improved.
But boots are another thing.
If you're a skier, the most important piece of equipment is your boots. Rent skis, but buy boots. The rental boots...are wide, made to fit everybody, and soft. And you need to buy your boots at a specialty retail store, from someone who is experienced.
I could give you specific people, but you may not be in that region, so I'm going to point you to Bootfitters.com where you can find a fitter.
Of course there are shops not featured on this list that are of quality, but...there's a cult, a brotherhood (although some of the best fitters are women), and it makes a difference.
Forget the big box store.
And even some of the most famous shops and chains... Employ evanescent help. Most shops have people taking a break before they start their careers, they're full of misinformation. You want a lifer. Someone who lives to fit boots.
As for the boots themselves... The number one mistake is buying them too big, a Masterfit shop from Bootfitters.com will not allow this to happen.
As for Surefoot...
Now in truth, so many of the world class skiers, from World Cup racers to Chris Benchetler, use foam boots.
If you want to see the process done well, by professionals, go here:
https://www.instagram.com/sport_hun/?hl=en
Unfortunately, you'll have to go to Austria to have your foaming done.
As for Surefoot... They'll rave about their insoles, but many of the elite believe in unweighted insoles, the opposite. And the employees at Surefoot...they're not lifers. However, if you come to Vail and your boots are done by Russell Shay, who owns the company with his brother, that's a different issue. (Can you tell I've had bad experiences at Surefoot?)
As for brands...
The number one criterion is fit. Brand is secondary. Buy the boots that fit.
As for stiffness... A regular guy skier, buy a 110 or 120. A regular woman, something in the 90 range. The numbers between brands are not comparable and if you're experienced you probably already know what you want.
Never ever, NEVER EVER, buy boots online. Because it's rare that boots don't need adjustments, you need a shop that will do the work, if for no other reason than you bought your boots there and they've made money and want an ongoing relationship.
And yes, you need insoles, preferably custom.
As for skis...
Ignore the reviews. A complete waste of time. Even the ones from "Ski" magazine, which is now only online. If you want good reviews, go to Jackson Hogen's realskiers.com
However, everybody's got an opinion, everybody's got a style they like.
One of the hot skis is the Nordica Enforcer. I'd heartily recommend not buying them. Because they're STIFF! Which makes the sport more difficult. Some people want stiff skis, and those people probably don't need advice from me, but...
There are two schools of thought, Austrian/German and French. The waters have been muddied, but the concepts still apply. The Austrian/German skis are stiffer, more solid. If you want a planted ride, if you want no squirreliness...these may be for you.
The French style... Is much more lively. Which is what I prefer.
So, I'm going to tell you not to buy the Nordicas, Volkls and men's Blizzards.
WHAT?
Let's go back to the beginning. Do not buy a pair of skis without demoing multiple pairs. Believe me, you'll feel the difference. I can tell in one run, you probably will be able to too. I know people who swear by Nordica and Volkl and men's Blizzards. I've skied them and I prefer a ski that's less work, but you may feel differently.
The eighties, never mind the sixties and seventies, are history. No ski shop has all brands and all models. And most salespeople are full of shi*t. They'll sell what they've got, period.
Visit multiple shops, get different opinions.
And... If you ski fewer than ten or fifteen times a year...DON'T BUY SKIS AT ALL!
Rent them. And rent the best models, not the cheapies. In this case you can ski the latest model, near new, every time you're out there. And if you become a more dedicated skier, you'll have a frame of reference regarding purchase.
But if you are in the market for skis...
Stocklis are incredible, the smoothest skis out there, but I like something more nimble in the bumps. But if you're never in the bumps...
However you pay a premium for Stocklis.
And you pay a premium for Kastles... But they're not as good as they were when they were launched nearly two decades ago. I recommend against them.
The Heads? Great racing skis. The Supershapes are great carving skis. Their Kore skis are too light, I don't recommend any of their all-mountain models.
The Blizzards are not the tanks they used to be. And if you want Nordicas, you're probably better off with Blizzards.
Having said that, the standard for women's skis is the Blizzard Black Pearl. Period. You may like something else, but even the corresponding Mindbenders are stiffer, and you might not prefer that.
Rossignol... There are some great models, but not all of them are great.
Dynastar... I believe they're the best-turning skis out there. I love 'em, the new ones hold better than the old ones, but I'm waiting for them to get even better.
As for Fischer and Salomon... Fischer is coming back, Salomon has never recaptured the greatness, the glory from the turn of the century.
If you want custom skis, the only brand I can recommend heartily is Wagner.
As for the boutique skis... There are more ski companies than ever. If you try 'em and like 'em, great, but don't buy the sales pitch, don't buy the skis without skiing on them first.
As for the Peaks...
I've been skiing on a pair of 88s for about ten days now, because it hasn't snowed.
Which brings us to width.
If you're on the east coast, you want 70 somethings or 80 somethings. If your daily driver on the east coast is in the 90s, you're delusional.
Having said that, the standard ski in Vail is a 90 something. Because you're encountering groomed snow, crud snow and powder and that's a width that can handle all three. (The number is the width of the ski at the narrowest point in millimeters, generally speaking, the narrower the ski, the quicker the turn).
However, if you're a dedicated skier and you ski out west...
You need multiple pairs of skis, period. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. You're doing yourself a disservice only owning one pair of skis.
In Vail... You need a ninetysomething and a powder ski...anything from 108 to 120 depending on the brand and model.
Let's see...
I've got some 72s. They're too narrow and too stiff.
I've got 98s and 99s, these are my daily drivers.
I've got Peak 104s... These are utterly amazing skis. I thought they'd be too wide for everyday, but they're not. ASSUMING YOU'RE IN VAIL OR ANOTHER WESTERN RESORT WITH VARYING DEPTHS OF SNOW!
But if you want something that works in powder... The K2 Mindbender 108 is just an amazing ski, it turns better than the 99, don't ask me why.
If you're a heli-skier... The standard is the Atomic Bent Chetler 120. (As for other Atomic skis, great racing, not so good freeskiing, other than the various Bent Chetlers.)
Oh, I got sidetracked there. Let me just say I own widths from 72 to 116. Do you need as many skis as I do? No. But if you encounter powder you want a ski over 105 to do that...
So back to Peak.
What I like about the Peaks is their turnability. On a dime. The Peaks are akin to French skis, lively and quick-turning.
However, the 88 I'm on... Is the only Peak that is not unique. it's a retool of an Elan model. And this year Bode Miller retooled the Peak 88, you can see his video here:
https://peakskis.com/products/new-peak®-88-by-bode
Bode says it's got a wider tip and is better in crud, and skis like the rest of the line.
I don't know, I don't have a pair. But I will tell you last year's 88s, which I do have, don't ski like my Peak 98, 104 or 110s.
But they've been perfect for the groomers.
But I had to learn how to ski them.
Yes, within brands sometimes models ski differently.
As for Peaks... If you're interested, they have a money back guarantee. Ski them and if you don't like them, even if you've trashed them, you'll get your money back. If you're interested, I recommend trying them out, I truly dig them.
As for bindings...
I'm gonna tell you to get the Look Pivot.
But you may not believe they're worth the premium.
In truth, all bindings are good these days. However, the standard, the biggest seller, is Marker. The Griffon for most men. For most women, the Squier.
This is just a general overview.
I've been thinking about all this riding the lifts these past weeks.
As for skiing itself...
It has never been cheaper. BUT YOU MUST BUY THE TICKETS IN ADVANCE! Whether it be a season's pass or just a number of days, if you buy them before early December, you're going to save a ton. There's nothing like a season's pass... If the weather is crummy, you don't feel obligated to stay out there. And with Epic and Ikon, break even is about five days, so...
People trash Epic/Vail Resorts like they trash Spotify.
But Spotify is the standard with the most market share. And Vail is too.
If you go to a Vail resort, you'll find standardization and quality. will you find crowds? Quite possibly. But I can tell you multiple lifts at Vail never ever have a line at all. But most people never read the map and stay in Mid-Vail, lifts 3 and 4, or lifts 2 and 11.
But that's another story.
One more thing... Many people hate change. Ignore them. There was a brouhaha when Vail wanted to turn the original Back Bowl lift into a high-speed one. The oldsters said it was going to be more crowded and all kinds of hogwash, but now that it's there, there's never a peep. And lines got long so they installed another high speed lift in the original Back Bowls.
As a matter of fact, each and every lift at Vail, other than baby beginner lifts, is a high speed. These people will put down Vail and rave about their local place with slow lifts...
P.S. Be wary of buying skis that are too short. This seems to be more of an issue these days than too long. And don't buy reverse camber skis...unless you know what they are and spend a ton of time in powder!
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"Our technicians will file the edges down and you just get to a point where you don't have any edge left. The ski, the more you ski it, it kind of loses a little bit of life. Sometimes that's really good. But sometimes you actually want a fresher ski. So it all very much depends on the snow conditions."
Mikaela Shiffrin in "GearJunkie": https://shorturl.at/uwV10
Skis wear out.
Back in the sixties and seventies the issue was integrity, the skis literally fell apart, they delaminated, they warped, but those problems in almost all cases have been eliminated. K2 moved their production to China and the skis actually got better!
But that does not mean they're forever.
Last year I felt my K2 Mindbender 99s had lost something. I had nearly seventy days on them and it seemed to me they just didn't hold as well as they used to, which is one of the main reasons I bought them, I'd been a Dynastar guy forever, but the edge-holding in their latest models was inferior.
I put an expensive tune on them and it still seemed they were lacking.
And then I wondered how many days I truly had left on them. Whether to buy a new pair at discount, which I ultimately did, for less than half price.
You see most ski companies are on three year cycles. So the K2 Mindbenders from 2023, 2024 and 2025 are identical, except for the paint jobs.
Used to be skis maintained their look. Remember the old Rossignol Strato? Never mind the Heads and the Dynamic VR17s?
That's history.
But in truth, there are so many brands and so many models with so many different graphics that unless you're a student of the game you can't tell exactly which year a ski is.
Anyway...
I mounted up the new skis this year and I was positively stunned, it was a complete revelation. This is why I bought the skis to begin with, they were like ice skates, and they had life my old pair did not.
But most people would not have replaced the skis. Because my 2023 skis looked pretty fine.
But inside they were history.
Kind of like running shoes. The foam compresses. They tell you to buy a new pair, which only avid runners do. But when you finally replace your trainers...you're stunned at the cushioning, the bounce in your step.
I wear New Balance 928 V3's. I used to buy running shoes, but then "Consumer Reports" said that if you're walking you should buy walking shoes, and I bought the best Nikes but then they gave up making them and I switched to New Balances and I went to BottleRock last May and didn't bring my new pair, figuring they'd get all dirty and dusty, not knowing the promoters lay down fake grass, and my feet and legs hurt and when I ultimately came home and donned my new pair...it was a revelation.
So, if you have 70 days on your skis, trash them, use them as rock skis. You're doing yourself a disservice using them. You think you're saving money, that it makes no difference, but it does. And why should you sacrifice your enjoyment? And yes, skiing on the right equipment enhances your enjoyment, Barbara just bought new boots and was THRILLED! Her skiing vastly improved.
But boots are another thing.
If you're a skier, the most important piece of equipment is your boots. Rent skis, but buy boots. The rental boots...are wide, made to fit everybody, and soft. And you need to buy your boots at a specialty retail store, from someone who is experienced.
I could give you specific people, but you may not be in that region, so I'm going to point you to Bootfitters.com where you can find a fitter.
Of course there are shops not featured on this list that are of quality, but...there's a cult, a brotherhood (although some of the best fitters are women), and it makes a difference.
Forget the big box store.
And even some of the most famous shops and chains... Employ evanescent help. Most shops have people taking a break before they start their careers, they're full of misinformation. You want a lifer. Someone who lives to fit boots.
As for the boots themselves... The number one mistake is buying them too big, a Masterfit shop from Bootfitters.com will not allow this to happen.
As for Surefoot...
Now in truth, so many of the world class skiers, from World Cup racers to Chris Benchetler, use foam boots.
If you want to see the process done well, by professionals, go here:
https://www.instagram.com/sport_hun/?hl=en
Unfortunately, you'll have to go to Austria to have your foaming done.
As for Surefoot... They'll rave about their insoles, but many of the elite believe in unweighted insoles, the opposite. And the employees at Surefoot...they're not lifers. However, if you come to Vail and your boots are done by Russell Shay, who owns the company with his brother, that's a different issue. (Can you tell I've had bad experiences at Surefoot?)
As for brands...
The number one criterion is fit. Brand is secondary. Buy the boots that fit.
As for stiffness... A regular guy skier, buy a 110 or 120. A regular woman, something in the 90 range. The numbers between brands are not comparable and if you're experienced you probably already know what you want.
Never ever, NEVER EVER, buy boots online. Because it's rare that boots don't need adjustments, you need a shop that will do the work, if for no other reason than you bought your boots there and they've made money and want an ongoing relationship.
And yes, you need insoles, preferably custom.
As for skis...
Ignore the reviews. A complete waste of time. Even the ones from "Ski" magazine, which is now only online. If you want good reviews, go to Jackson Hogen's realskiers.com
However, everybody's got an opinion, everybody's got a style they like.
One of the hot skis is the Nordica Enforcer. I'd heartily recommend not buying them. Because they're STIFF! Which makes the sport more difficult. Some people want stiff skis, and those people probably don't need advice from me, but...
There are two schools of thought, Austrian/German and French. The waters have been muddied, but the concepts still apply. The Austrian/German skis are stiffer, more solid. If you want a planted ride, if you want no squirreliness...these may be for you.
The French style... Is much more lively. Which is what I prefer.
So, I'm going to tell you not to buy the Nordicas, Volkls and men's Blizzards.
WHAT?
Let's go back to the beginning. Do not buy a pair of skis without demoing multiple pairs. Believe me, you'll feel the difference. I can tell in one run, you probably will be able to too. I know people who swear by Nordica and Volkl and men's Blizzards. I've skied them and I prefer a ski that's less work, but you may feel differently.
The eighties, never mind the sixties and seventies, are history. No ski shop has all brands and all models. And most salespeople are full of shi*t. They'll sell what they've got, period.
Visit multiple shops, get different opinions.
And... If you ski fewer than ten or fifteen times a year...DON'T BUY SKIS AT ALL!
Rent them. And rent the best models, not the cheapies. In this case you can ski the latest model, near new, every time you're out there. And if you become a more dedicated skier, you'll have a frame of reference regarding purchase.
But if you are in the market for skis...
Stocklis are incredible, the smoothest skis out there, but I like something more nimble in the bumps. But if you're never in the bumps...
However you pay a premium for Stocklis.
And you pay a premium for Kastles... But they're not as good as they were when they were launched nearly two decades ago. I recommend against them.
The Heads? Great racing skis. The Supershapes are great carving skis. Their Kore skis are too light, I don't recommend any of their all-mountain models.
The Blizzards are not the tanks they used to be. And if you want Nordicas, you're probably better off with Blizzards.
Having said that, the standard for women's skis is the Blizzard Black Pearl. Period. You may like something else, but even the corresponding Mindbenders are stiffer, and you might not prefer that.
Rossignol... There are some great models, but not all of them are great.
Dynastar... I believe they're the best-turning skis out there. I love 'em, the new ones hold better than the old ones, but I'm waiting for them to get even better.
As for Fischer and Salomon... Fischer is coming back, Salomon has never recaptured the greatness, the glory from the turn of the century.
If you want custom skis, the only brand I can recommend heartily is Wagner.
As for the boutique skis... There are more ski companies than ever. If you try 'em and like 'em, great, but don't buy the sales pitch, don't buy the skis without skiing on them first.
As for the Peaks...
I've been skiing on a pair of 88s for about ten days now, because it hasn't snowed.
Which brings us to width.
If you're on the east coast, you want 70 somethings or 80 somethings. If your daily driver on the east coast is in the 90s, you're delusional.
Having said that, the standard ski in Vail is a 90 something. Because you're encountering groomed snow, crud snow and powder and that's a width that can handle all three. (The number is the width of the ski at the narrowest point in millimeters, generally speaking, the narrower the ski, the quicker the turn).
However, if you're a dedicated skier and you ski out west...
You need multiple pairs of skis, period. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. You're doing yourself a disservice only owning one pair of skis.
In Vail... You need a ninetysomething and a powder ski...anything from 108 to 120 depending on the brand and model.
Let's see...
I've got some 72s. They're too narrow and too stiff.
I've got 98s and 99s, these are my daily drivers.
I've got Peak 104s... These are utterly amazing skis. I thought they'd be too wide for everyday, but they're not. ASSUMING YOU'RE IN VAIL OR ANOTHER WESTERN RESORT WITH VARYING DEPTHS OF SNOW!
But if you want something that works in powder... The K2 Mindbender 108 is just an amazing ski, it turns better than the 99, don't ask me why.
If you're a heli-skier... The standard is the Atomic Bent Chetler 120. (As for other Atomic skis, great racing, not so good freeskiing, other than the various Bent Chetlers.)
Oh, I got sidetracked there. Let me just say I own widths from 72 to 116. Do you need as many skis as I do? No. But if you encounter powder you want a ski over 105 to do that...
So back to Peak.
What I like about the Peaks is their turnability. On a dime. The Peaks are akin to French skis, lively and quick-turning.
However, the 88 I'm on... Is the only Peak that is not unique. it's a retool of an Elan model. And this year Bode Miller retooled the Peak 88, you can see his video here:
https://peakskis.com/products/new-peak®-88-by-bode
Bode says it's got a wider tip and is better in crud, and skis like the rest of the line.
I don't know, I don't have a pair. But I will tell you last year's 88s, which I do have, don't ski like my Peak 98, 104 or 110s.
But they've been perfect for the groomers.
But I had to learn how to ski them.
Yes, within brands sometimes models ski differently.
As for Peaks... If you're interested, they have a money back guarantee. Ski them and if you don't like them, even if you've trashed them, you'll get your money back. If you're interested, I recommend trying them out, I truly dig them.
As for bindings...
I'm gonna tell you to get the Look Pivot.
But you may not believe they're worth the premium.
In truth, all bindings are good these days. However, the standard, the biggest seller, is Marker. The Griffon for most men. For most women, the Squier.
This is just a general overview.
I've been thinking about all this riding the lifts these past weeks.
As for skiing itself...
It has never been cheaper. BUT YOU MUST BUY THE TICKETS IN ADVANCE! Whether it be a season's pass or just a number of days, if you buy them before early December, you're going to save a ton. There's nothing like a season's pass... If the weather is crummy, you don't feel obligated to stay out there. And with Epic and Ikon, break even is about five days, so...
People trash Epic/Vail Resorts like they trash Spotify.
But Spotify is the standard with the most market share. And Vail is too.
If you go to a Vail resort, you'll find standardization and quality. will you find crowds? Quite possibly. But I can tell you multiple lifts at Vail never ever have a line at all. But most people never read the map and stay in Mid-Vail, lifts 3 and 4, or lifts 2 and 11.
But that's another story.
One more thing... Many people hate change. Ignore them. There was a brouhaha when Vail wanted to turn the original Back Bowl lift into a high-speed one. The oldsters said it was going to be more crowded and all kinds of hogwash, but now that it's there, there's never a peep. And lines got long so they installed another high speed lift in the original Back Bowls.
As a matter of fact, each and every lift at Vail, other than baby beginner lifts, is a high speed. These people will put down Vail and rave about their local place with slow lifts...
P.S. Be wary of buying skis that are too short. This seems to be more of an issue these days than too long. And don't buy reverse camber skis...unless you know what they are and spend a ton of time in powder!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Monday, 23 December 2024
Re-Slim Dunlap
Slimbob Dunlap was one in a million. The outpouring of love for him here in Minneapolis since the news broke is overwhelming. Everyone has a story where he's kind and funny. No one has a bad word to say about him.
I was lucky enough to have Slim take me under his wing and show me the ways of a touring band. In 1997 Slim got a chance to tour as the opening act for Son Volt, but his regular bassist couldn't make the trip. He asked me to do it, never mind that I'd never played bass onstage before in my life. My first gig, after one short rehearsal, was at Irving Plaza in New York. I hope no one noticed me.
Everywhere we went he had what seemed to be close friends. I wondered how is this possible? Could he have met all these people just in the handful of tours he did with the Replacements? I eventually realized that he just had that rare gift of putting everyone at ease and making them feel valued. People adored him everywhere we went.
I watched the faces of the young crowd at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston as Slim started his set with me plunking along on bass, looking over his shoulder. The Son Volt fans started out bored and even a little hostile, but as Slim worked his magic, the faces softened, smiled and laughed. He truly was a master entertainer.
Sadly, since 2012 he's been lying on his back, unable to even hold a guitar. He could barely communicate, but his mind was still sharp. He remembered personal details about his friends, and asked for updates whenever we'd visit.
I'll miss him forever, but I'm glad Slim's magnificent spirit no longer has to be tethered to that crumpled, fragile body. The love between him and Chrissie is lesson for us all.
You're right, he wasn't ever rolling in dough, but he was like Minneapolis' George Bailey - the richest man in town.
Best,
Terry Walsh
_______________________________________
In the 1980s, I played guitar for a loud LA-based post-punk act that
was trying to get signed. However, live mixing and various tech crew
jobs in television production paid my rent.
In December of '87, I was mixing FOH for an act that opened up for the
Replacements at the Palladium in Hollywood. I was a huge fan of the
Replacements -- wore the vinyl out and had seen them perform both
brilliantly and sh*t-faced. And here I was, a kid with a dream and in
the same room as his heroes.
During the interminable sound checks, the 'Mats new guitar player Slim
Dunlap was killing time sitting on his amplifier. I struck up a
conversation and shared a ciggie with the man during what was an
impromptu smoke break. He was affable and demure, and I probably told
him more about my aspirations than he wanted to hear.
While talking about the music business and his new-found fortune as
the lead guitarist for the darlings of College Radio, he cut me off.
He pointed across the stage to his guitar tech.
"See that guy over there?" he asked. I nodded. "He tunes my guitars.
And he makes more money than I do."
I eventually got signed in 1990, but when that went sideways in 1994,
I went back to mixing sound full-time—only in television, not rock and
roll. I got out. Music was too much of a grind and too little of a
return.
Last March, 37 years after my star-struck talk with Slim, I retired as
the Audio Mixer on Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
I took those jobs because I never forgot Slim's lesson on the
Economics of the Music Business.
Godspeed, Slim Dunlap. You were a Gentleman and a Savant. And one f*ck
of a guitar player.
Cole Coonce
_______________________________________
I knew Slim. I represented Slim . I loved Slim.
I met him for the first time when the Mats were touring behind " Pleased To Meet Me " . I was a friend of their then manager and went to see them in Houston . I arrived early with the intent of saying hi to them before the show. When I met Slim, I knew he was the real deal by his shoes. He wore "old man" shoes, beaten to hell lace up black oxfords with white socks and old man trousers. It was about 2 in the afternoon, he was drinking a Heineken out of the bottle, and it was pretty evident it was not his first of the day. We talked for half an hour about this and that and I was taken by not only how comfortable he was in his new roll, but what a perfect fit he was with being a Mat. It was years later when the band imploded and Slim recorded his debut album that we reconnected and I wound up as his booking agent. I told him how much I loved the first track, " Ain't Exactly Good " and how it was the best sounding Stones album they never made. He laughed while casually mentioning that he made the record in a cheap minneapolis home studio in a couple of days for a cost of about 1000.00. His follow up album, " Times like this " was just as easy to listen to. But talk about a frustrating position to be in. Here was a guy who was essentially the midwest version of Keith Richards only he couldn't get arrested. I don't think the guy ever made more than 5k off any one show. But he was a genuinely good unassuming guy who happened to have an average voice, write better than average songs , and could play the rock n roll guitar like very very few.
It was really sad when he had his stroke and just as sad hearing of his passing. It reminds me of when I heard of John Prine passing , and I said " we're all just a little worse off without John in our lives " . Today, we're all a little worse off without Slim Dunlap.
Scott Weiss
_______________________________________
I worked his second solo record Times Like This. Before the Chicago show I introduced myself and said it should be a great show tonight. Slim responded with, "As long as I make enough money to buy cigarettes and cat food I'm good."
The Old New Me is a GREAT record.
Rest Easy Slim
Kenny Schnurstein
_______________________________________
The band I was in at the time, The Casual Ts, opened for The Replacements in 1987 in Tallahassee. While Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson were living up to the 'Mats myth, Slim, who was quite a bit older than the others, was upbeat, very friendly, and seemed to genuinely enjoy our set. After the 'Mats delivered an incendiary set at the roadhouse we played (the long gone Kent's Lounge) we mentioned to Paul how much we thought Slim added to the band, Paul replied, with utter sincerity, that Slim had saved the band, and that they couldn't believe that he was playing with them. Slim was a local legend in Minneapolis, playing for many years with singer Curtiss A. and with other bands in the area. It was a great scene in many areas back then, where the local legend was a big thing. He was a treasure. Rave on, Slim Dunlap.
Bob Anthony
_______________________________________
Appreciate your mentioning Dunlap here. A lot of this is, as I think you're suggesting, about "you had to be there," and there's nothing good or bad about that really.
I grew up in the 1980s and the Mats were important to most everyone I knew. Part of all this was seeing them live, and for a while, not knowing what band you were going to get onstage. I finally did see them during their last tour in 1991, at the Marquee in London no less, and it was utter magic. Didn't matter than Chris Mars wasn't onboard for this one, or that Bob Stinson wasn't either. Slim was great, gracious, and an excellent foil for Westerberg.
Marshall Armintor
_______________________________________
Thanks for your post about Slim Dunlap. As for "getting" the Replacements, well, you kinda had to be there. And by "there" I mean the gigs. You never knew what those guys would or could do at any moment….sometimes blow your mind, sometimes break your heart. But they were always human and always unpredictable and Westerberg's tunes spoke directly to the heart of those of us who were Paul's age and basking in the fun and intensity of the post-punk live rock scene in the 80s. I saw every NYC Replacements show from February 1985 to the final 1991 tour. Those were damn good times. I'm sure Slim and Bob Stinson are jamming, entirely unrehearsed, in the afterlife.
Mitch Goldman
_______________________________________
The Replacements - in all incarnations - were another one of those bands that shifted my early life flight pattern. Seeing Slim play with them numerous times as a late teen was a near-religious experience - they were my dirtbag Beatles.
Godspeed Slim. And thank you.
Timothy J. Smith
_______________________________________
Please check out Songs for Slim, a tribute album consisting predominantly of covers of The Old New me by Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Jeff Tweedy, John Doe, Joe Henry and the Replacements amongst others.
It was to raise funds after Slim had his stroke.
You were far from alone in your love for Slim Dunlap.
Warm regards from Sydney,
David Ryan
https://open.spotify.com/album/3P7rxkTzsJRvXjle2fm1AF?si=heHnUT5LSca2rbE6SEXNqA
_______________________________________
Not forgetting the great "Times Like This" , a great version by Frankie Lee and Steve Earle. " It's times like this that you learn what you really miss " . Simple and timeless wrapped up in a gorgeous melody. RIP Slim
Blair Morgan
Christchurch, New Zealand
_______________________________________
"Don't Tell A Soul" is a fantastic album with great songs. If you still don't get it, that's on you. Listen to "Achin' To Be" and tell me that isn't one of the best songs you've ever heard. Yes, they lost the drunken shambolic edge they had on previous albums, but in my opinion it was for the better. Westerberg's songwriting was maturing and Slim Dunlap brought some much needed professionalism to the proceedings.
Jonathan Lee
_______________________________________
I've read that Westerberg didn't like the final cuts of Don't Tell a Soul or All Shook Down. Now, the earlier mixes are on Spotify. The album is, appropriately, Dead Man's Pop. Maybe it would help you understand.
https://open.spotify.com/album/026UE0OpdLYl0UUWh6npYf?si=hu9NA7NyTB6MQA0T6lVhtQ
Ray Jepson
_______________________________________
Here's the one Replacements song that you should really hear - "Can't Hardly Wait". It's got horns and it's just...indelible. From their last indie album "Pleased To Meet Me".
Give it three seconds, the opening riff might close ya.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0NX14YH2t16bwwlJSfXazr?si=824cddd7e8d84344
Daryl Shawn
_______________________________________
The Slim obituary and observation accurately depict the "working musician," the lineage of the Replacements, and what I would say is a "Sadly Beautiful" reality. However, it hurts and the harsh cold winds of our industries live on.
Michael Manas
_______________________________________
I didn't expect a eulogy for Slim Dunlap from you. I remember he and his band playing The Uptown Bar in South Minneapolis in support of the new record. The song that stuck with me that night and still comes back to me from time to time was "Taken on the Chin." It's a good rock song. Coulda been a hit. In fact I texted my buddy to say that Slim had taken the last one on the chin.
Thanks for writing about him; elevating his status. What he did was good and meaningful to a lot of us.
Jim Holm
_______________________________________
I met Slim in Minneapolis in late 1978 when he was playing guitar for Curtis A. Nice guy, and a great player. He was the perfect 'replacement' for Bob. One of the all time great players in Rock and Roll. A natural, if ever there was one. He didn't have to try.
Kenny Vaughan
_______________________________________
Wow you knew Slim Dunlop's solo work? And you mentioned the 'Mats?
If you ever saw them live you would get it. Sober or not, they "rocked like murder!"
Wileen Dragovan
_______________________________________
In addition to this wonderful piece on Slim, you were able to honor Kevin Sutter again! I miss Kevin every time I speak to someone who was close to him or see their name. He was a great mentor to me early in my promotion career. He taught me about being the "mayor of the market" and was always turning me on to music he was excited about when I went to see him in Seattle.
John Butler
_______________________________________
Nice to hear something about Kevin. He was one of my best friends here in Seattle. I really miss him. He was a wealth of musical knowledge also. Saw many great shows with him.
Rick Mercer, Jr.
_______________________________________
Sad news about Slim Dunlap.
I worked with Kevin Sutter and Jeff Laufer at RCA. Those 2 fellas knew how to accrue airplay.
John Sigler
_______________________________________
I knew Sutterman had to be the one to turn you onto Slim. Miss those conversations with Kevin. Life certainly is short!
Be well Bob.
Melissa Dragich
_______________________________________
Slim's dad was a highly respected lawyer in Rochester, helped Sandy Keith become Chief Justice of Minn Supreme Court. His parents and family were proud of him and he was a G.E.N.T.
Hope you saw him at Bogarts in Long Beach on the Old New Me tour because he all but burned that honky tonk down.
Dennis Pelowski
_______________________________________
Brands aren't bands...
Social media comets have no grit, grime, struggle, passion forged by "all of it," let alone real swagger or honest charisma.
The 'mats were the new punk losers set to stun drunk on their own sense of self, but they were committed.
And the songs? I always thought they were more a girls band (except for Bill Holdship, who ALWAYS believed) -- because everyone I knew who loved them was female.
But it was rock & roll on two wheels, possibly into the wall. Reckless, dangerous, real, bleeding and not caring.
And Slim? He was the one whose guitar churled it all forward...
Westerberg was in love with my best friend Emily in the '90s, in that corruptible way of his. Those words? Who could resist?
But Slim was a deeper, more desperate kind of heart. That's what you got, what you wanted, what most of us couldn't be raw enough to claim.
I'm glad you loved him. I'm glad you remembered. For a moment today, this weekend, you will make listen -- and that is good.
Here's to what music gives us: that's what made Slim burn the way he did.
Holly Gleason
_______________________________________
Thanks for your wonderful words about Slim Dunlap. You just brought attention to his talent to thousands who never knew the name. I appreciate your honesty about the "Mats" definitely an acquired taste but those of us who love them will always keep them in our hearts and minds, much like a crazy uncle or friend who was way more cool than sane.
I was on air talking about "Swinging Party" from the amazing remix of "Tim" from Ed Stasium today. Westerberg and the boys had a way of bringing cheap bar fly life to music, they had to be Bukowski's favorite band. Never heard that Slim Dunlap album before, at least on our tiny station in Traverse City Mi it will get played tomorrow.
Jerry (JC) Coyne
_______________________________________
Saw Slim a couple of times post-Replacements. Somewhere in Boston, The Paradise? With a band opening for Son Volt or Golden Smog. Slim had an old Marshall, a Telecaster, a Les Paul Jr and a Rickenbacker. I turned to my bandmate I was there with and said "that's going to be me someday." He looked at me like I was crazy.
Another time he was performing solo, might have been opening for Blue Mountain or Jayhawks, at the end of the show he asked the audience if anyone wanted to drive back to Minneapolis with him because he didn't want to drive alone and he'd buy your bus ticket back to Boston. I seriously considered it but my 9-5 wouldn't understand if I called in and said "I'm driving to Minneapolis with a Replacement!" There would've been no way to make them understand even though riding into MPLS with a Replacement would've been like showing up at the North Pole, well, not with Santa but maybe Rudolph.
I messaged Slim's family back in 2016 when I was putting together my first solo album and asked if it'd be ok to cover "Hate this town" and I got the greenlight, paid my clearances and all that. "In my dreams I don't hate this town. I'm thinking I'm lucky I live here." Such an amazing sentiment said so plainly. The life he lived versus the life that he might've lived and at the end "didn't want to work in a hardware store anyway..." We should all be so lucky to write a simply beautiful song.
Paul Westerberg might have been my guiding light but Slim showed me that once a musician, always a musician and it's still a job and worth it to go and sing your songs. When I go live with my Tele, Rickenbacker and Les Paul Jr, well, I always think of Slim in that regard and how I wish I had taken that long, cold ride back to Minnesota with him.
~Bobbo Byrnes
_______________________________________
I'm a friend of Slim's daughter Emily and her husband, Charles. Slim had an incredible amount of love and support around him. I visited him and Chrissie in their Minneapolis home in 2022 - heartbreaking situation but I've never seen a stronger family. He was a talented, tasteful musician and will be sorely missed.
bthompson
_______________________________________
I worked with Kevin Sutter on my 2016 release, Lost Soul. I'd been out of the game for ten years and commercially unsuccessful before that, though I'd checked some boxes like playing the Fillmore and the Newport Folk Festival and touring Europe. So Lost Soul wasn't my first rodeo and I knew how hard it was to break into AAA radio. Still, I had some Kickstarter money and wanted to give it a shot, knowing full well that there were no guarantees beyond sending the music to the right people and following up with phone calls. The investment didn't break the bank and the alternative was doing nothing.
Predictably, the "big" stations ignored us, which was fine since I was 99% sure that's what would happen. The one little blip was that WYEP was always about to discuss it in their weekly meeting but it kept slipping through the cracks. This went on for, like, a month and a half and I couldn't get closure. Who knows, maybe they'll get to it after the holidays in early 2025.
I also let myself be convinced to do a "clean" version of the catchy lead track, I Think I've Taken Enough Sh*t From You This Year, since Kevin thought it was exactly the kind of song AAA would go for. I knew - KNEW - this was pointless but went along with it. In for a penny, in for a pound! The feedback was that the clean version still implied unclean.
In the end, I was satisfied since we managed some airplay here and there and my strategy was to bottom feed anyway. An interview with whatever random site was something I could talk about on Facebook and Twitter or in my newsletter: proof of life.
I reached out to Kevin about another project a few years later, mostly because I liked the guy and wanted to hear his pitch. He said the competitive environment was even more challenging than it had been. Counterintuitively, he followed up with an email along the lines of "I hope our conversation convinced you to move forward." It had done the exact opposite!!!
As far as I can tell, Kevin Sutter was one of the good ones. He had to make a living but was realistic, knew what he was doing, and did what he said he was going to do. I would have recommended him and worked with him again under the right circumstances.
I had a way worse experience with a publicist on my "noise folk" project with guitarist Gerry Leonard, Bob Hillman & Spooky Ghost. Again, I knew there were no guarantees, but you hope they'll leverage their relationships to generate…something. But they generated nothing and I'm not convinced they even followed up. Literally, I got more publicity for another project around the same time just by emailing sites on my own. There was one site they said had passed that I then emailed myself and landed a video premiere. At the end, the publicist proposed solving the problem by throwing more money at it and seemed surprised and even a little angry when I said I couldn't invest further when the original investment generated zero ROI.
I know where I stand as an "artistically successful" independent artist but still crave musical connection and receive occasional signals that it's possible. The question becomes, can anyone really open doors? Lately, I'm thinking not.
Bob Hillman
I was lucky enough to have Slim take me under his wing and show me the ways of a touring band. In 1997 Slim got a chance to tour as the opening act for Son Volt, but his regular bassist couldn't make the trip. He asked me to do it, never mind that I'd never played bass onstage before in my life. My first gig, after one short rehearsal, was at Irving Plaza in New York. I hope no one noticed me.
Everywhere we went he had what seemed to be close friends. I wondered how is this possible? Could he have met all these people just in the handful of tours he did with the Replacements? I eventually realized that he just had that rare gift of putting everyone at ease and making them feel valued. People adored him everywhere we went.
I watched the faces of the young crowd at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston as Slim started his set with me plunking along on bass, looking over his shoulder. The Son Volt fans started out bored and even a little hostile, but as Slim worked his magic, the faces softened, smiled and laughed. He truly was a master entertainer.
Sadly, since 2012 he's been lying on his back, unable to even hold a guitar. He could barely communicate, but his mind was still sharp. He remembered personal details about his friends, and asked for updates whenever we'd visit.
I'll miss him forever, but I'm glad Slim's magnificent spirit no longer has to be tethered to that crumpled, fragile body. The love between him and Chrissie is lesson for us all.
You're right, he wasn't ever rolling in dough, but he was like Minneapolis' George Bailey - the richest man in town.
Best,
Terry Walsh
_______________________________________
In the 1980s, I played guitar for a loud LA-based post-punk act that
was trying to get signed. However, live mixing and various tech crew
jobs in television production paid my rent.
In December of '87, I was mixing FOH for an act that opened up for the
Replacements at the Palladium in Hollywood. I was a huge fan of the
Replacements -- wore the vinyl out and had seen them perform both
brilliantly and sh*t-faced. And here I was, a kid with a dream and in
the same room as his heroes.
During the interminable sound checks, the 'Mats new guitar player Slim
Dunlap was killing time sitting on his amplifier. I struck up a
conversation and shared a ciggie with the man during what was an
impromptu smoke break. He was affable and demure, and I probably told
him more about my aspirations than he wanted to hear.
While talking about the music business and his new-found fortune as
the lead guitarist for the darlings of College Radio, he cut me off.
He pointed across the stage to his guitar tech.
"See that guy over there?" he asked. I nodded. "He tunes my guitars.
And he makes more money than I do."
I eventually got signed in 1990, but when that went sideways in 1994,
I went back to mixing sound full-time—only in television, not rock and
roll. I got out. Music was too much of a grind and too little of a
return.
Last March, 37 years after my star-struck talk with Slim, I retired as
the Audio Mixer on Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
I took those jobs because I never forgot Slim's lesson on the
Economics of the Music Business.
Godspeed, Slim Dunlap. You were a Gentleman and a Savant. And one f*ck
of a guitar player.
Cole Coonce
_______________________________________
I knew Slim. I represented Slim . I loved Slim.
I met him for the first time when the Mats were touring behind " Pleased To Meet Me " . I was a friend of their then manager and went to see them in Houston . I arrived early with the intent of saying hi to them before the show. When I met Slim, I knew he was the real deal by his shoes. He wore "old man" shoes, beaten to hell lace up black oxfords with white socks and old man trousers. It was about 2 in the afternoon, he was drinking a Heineken out of the bottle, and it was pretty evident it was not his first of the day. We talked for half an hour about this and that and I was taken by not only how comfortable he was in his new roll, but what a perfect fit he was with being a Mat. It was years later when the band imploded and Slim recorded his debut album that we reconnected and I wound up as his booking agent. I told him how much I loved the first track, " Ain't Exactly Good " and how it was the best sounding Stones album they never made. He laughed while casually mentioning that he made the record in a cheap minneapolis home studio in a couple of days for a cost of about 1000.00. His follow up album, " Times like this " was just as easy to listen to. But talk about a frustrating position to be in. Here was a guy who was essentially the midwest version of Keith Richards only he couldn't get arrested. I don't think the guy ever made more than 5k off any one show. But he was a genuinely good unassuming guy who happened to have an average voice, write better than average songs , and could play the rock n roll guitar like very very few.
It was really sad when he had his stroke and just as sad hearing of his passing. It reminds me of when I heard of John Prine passing , and I said " we're all just a little worse off without John in our lives " . Today, we're all a little worse off without Slim Dunlap.
Scott Weiss
_______________________________________
I worked his second solo record Times Like This. Before the Chicago show I introduced myself and said it should be a great show tonight. Slim responded with, "As long as I make enough money to buy cigarettes and cat food I'm good."
The Old New Me is a GREAT record.
Rest Easy Slim
Kenny Schnurstein
_______________________________________
The band I was in at the time, The Casual Ts, opened for The Replacements in 1987 in Tallahassee. While Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson were living up to the 'Mats myth, Slim, who was quite a bit older than the others, was upbeat, very friendly, and seemed to genuinely enjoy our set. After the 'Mats delivered an incendiary set at the roadhouse we played (the long gone Kent's Lounge) we mentioned to Paul how much we thought Slim added to the band, Paul replied, with utter sincerity, that Slim had saved the band, and that they couldn't believe that he was playing with them. Slim was a local legend in Minneapolis, playing for many years with singer Curtiss A. and with other bands in the area. It was a great scene in many areas back then, where the local legend was a big thing. He was a treasure. Rave on, Slim Dunlap.
Bob Anthony
_______________________________________
Appreciate your mentioning Dunlap here. A lot of this is, as I think you're suggesting, about "you had to be there," and there's nothing good or bad about that really.
I grew up in the 1980s and the Mats were important to most everyone I knew. Part of all this was seeing them live, and for a while, not knowing what band you were going to get onstage. I finally did see them during their last tour in 1991, at the Marquee in London no less, and it was utter magic. Didn't matter than Chris Mars wasn't onboard for this one, or that Bob Stinson wasn't either. Slim was great, gracious, and an excellent foil for Westerberg.
Marshall Armintor
_______________________________________
Thanks for your post about Slim Dunlap. As for "getting" the Replacements, well, you kinda had to be there. And by "there" I mean the gigs. You never knew what those guys would or could do at any moment….sometimes blow your mind, sometimes break your heart. But they were always human and always unpredictable and Westerberg's tunes spoke directly to the heart of those of us who were Paul's age and basking in the fun and intensity of the post-punk live rock scene in the 80s. I saw every NYC Replacements show from February 1985 to the final 1991 tour. Those were damn good times. I'm sure Slim and Bob Stinson are jamming, entirely unrehearsed, in the afterlife.
Mitch Goldman
_______________________________________
The Replacements - in all incarnations - were another one of those bands that shifted my early life flight pattern. Seeing Slim play with them numerous times as a late teen was a near-religious experience - they were my dirtbag Beatles.
Godspeed Slim. And thank you.
Timothy J. Smith
_______________________________________
Please check out Songs for Slim, a tribute album consisting predominantly of covers of The Old New me by Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Jeff Tweedy, John Doe, Joe Henry and the Replacements amongst others.
It was to raise funds after Slim had his stroke.
You were far from alone in your love for Slim Dunlap.
Warm regards from Sydney,
David Ryan
https://open.spotify.com/album/3P7rxkTzsJRvXjle2fm1AF?si=heHnUT5LSca2rbE6SEXNqA
_______________________________________
Not forgetting the great "Times Like This" , a great version by Frankie Lee and Steve Earle. " It's times like this that you learn what you really miss " . Simple and timeless wrapped up in a gorgeous melody. RIP Slim
Blair Morgan
Christchurch, New Zealand
_______________________________________
"Don't Tell A Soul" is a fantastic album with great songs. If you still don't get it, that's on you. Listen to "Achin' To Be" and tell me that isn't one of the best songs you've ever heard. Yes, they lost the drunken shambolic edge they had on previous albums, but in my opinion it was for the better. Westerberg's songwriting was maturing and Slim Dunlap brought some much needed professionalism to the proceedings.
Jonathan Lee
_______________________________________
I've read that Westerberg didn't like the final cuts of Don't Tell a Soul or All Shook Down. Now, the earlier mixes are on Spotify. The album is, appropriately, Dead Man's Pop. Maybe it would help you understand.
https://open.spotify.com/album/026UE0OpdLYl0UUWh6npYf?si=hu9NA7NyTB6MQA0T6lVhtQ
Ray Jepson
_______________________________________
Here's the one Replacements song that you should really hear - "Can't Hardly Wait". It's got horns and it's just...indelible. From their last indie album "Pleased To Meet Me".
Give it three seconds, the opening riff might close ya.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0NX14YH2t16bwwlJSfXazr?si=824cddd7e8d84344
Daryl Shawn
_______________________________________
The Slim obituary and observation accurately depict the "working musician," the lineage of the Replacements, and what I would say is a "Sadly Beautiful" reality. However, it hurts and the harsh cold winds of our industries live on.
Michael Manas
_______________________________________
I didn't expect a eulogy for Slim Dunlap from you. I remember he and his band playing The Uptown Bar in South Minneapolis in support of the new record. The song that stuck with me that night and still comes back to me from time to time was "Taken on the Chin." It's a good rock song. Coulda been a hit. In fact I texted my buddy to say that Slim had taken the last one on the chin.
Thanks for writing about him; elevating his status. What he did was good and meaningful to a lot of us.
Jim Holm
_______________________________________
I met Slim in Minneapolis in late 1978 when he was playing guitar for Curtis A. Nice guy, and a great player. He was the perfect 'replacement' for Bob. One of the all time great players in Rock and Roll. A natural, if ever there was one. He didn't have to try.
Kenny Vaughan
_______________________________________
Wow you knew Slim Dunlop's solo work? And you mentioned the 'Mats?
If you ever saw them live you would get it. Sober or not, they "rocked like murder!"
Wileen Dragovan
_______________________________________
In addition to this wonderful piece on Slim, you were able to honor Kevin Sutter again! I miss Kevin every time I speak to someone who was close to him or see their name. He was a great mentor to me early in my promotion career. He taught me about being the "mayor of the market" and was always turning me on to music he was excited about when I went to see him in Seattle.
John Butler
_______________________________________
Nice to hear something about Kevin. He was one of my best friends here in Seattle. I really miss him. He was a wealth of musical knowledge also. Saw many great shows with him.
Rick Mercer, Jr.
_______________________________________
Sad news about Slim Dunlap.
I worked with Kevin Sutter and Jeff Laufer at RCA. Those 2 fellas knew how to accrue airplay.
John Sigler
_______________________________________
I knew Sutterman had to be the one to turn you onto Slim. Miss those conversations with Kevin. Life certainly is short!
Be well Bob.
Melissa Dragich
_______________________________________
Slim's dad was a highly respected lawyer in Rochester, helped Sandy Keith become Chief Justice of Minn Supreme Court. His parents and family were proud of him and he was a G.E.N.T.
Hope you saw him at Bogarts in Long Beach on the Old New Me tour because he all but burned that honky tonk down.
Dennis Pelowski
_______________________________________
Brands aren't bands...
Social media comets have no grit, grime, struggle, passion forged by "all of it," let alone real swagger or honest charisma.
The 'mats were the new punk losers set to stun drunk on their own sense of self, but they were committed.
And the songs? I always thought they were more a girls band (except for Bill Holdship, who ALWAYS believed) -- because everyone I knew who loved them was female.
But it was rock & roll on two wheels, possibly into the wall. Reckless, dangerous, real, bleeding and not caring.
And Slim? He was the one whose guitar churled it all forward...
Westerberg was in love with my best friend Emily in the '90s, in that corruptible way of his. Those words? Who could resist?
But Slim was a deeper, more desperate kind of heart. That's what you got, what you wanted, what most of us couldn't be raw enough to claim.
I'm glad you loved him. I'm glad you remembered. For a moment today, this weekend, you will make listen -- and that is good.
Here's to what music gives us: that's what made Slim burn the way he did.
Holly Gleason
_______________________________________
Thanks for your wonderful words about Slim Dunlap. You just brought attention to his talent to thousands who never knew the name. I appreciate your honesty about the "Mats" definitely an acquired taste but those of us who love them will always keep them in our hearts and minds, much like a crazy uncle or friend who was way more cool than sane.
I was on air talking about "Swinging Party" from the amazing remix of "Tim" from Ed Stasium today. Westerberg and the boys had a way of bringing cheap bar fly life to music, they had to be Bukowski's favorite band. Never heard that Slim Dunlap album before, at least on our tiny station in Traverse City Mi it will get played tomorrow.
Jerry (JC) Coyne
_______________________________________
Saw Slim a couple of times post-Replacements. Somewhere in Boston, The Paradise? With a band opening for Son Volt or Golden Smog. Slim had an old Marshall, a Telecaster, a Les Paul Jr and a Rickenbacker. I turned to my bandmate I was there with and said "that's going to be me someday." He looked at me like I was crazy.
Another time he was performing solo, might have been opening for Blue Mountain or Jayhawks, at the end of the show he asked the audience if anyone wanted to drive back to Minneapolis with him because he didn't want to drive alone and he'd buy your bus ticket back to Boston. I seriously considered it but my 9-5 wouldn't understand if I called in and said "I'm driving to Minneapolis with a Replacement!" There would've been no way to make them understand even though riding into MPLS with a Replacement would've been like showing up at the North Pole, well, not with Santa but maybe Rudolph.
I messaged Slim's family back in 2016 when I was putting together my first solo album and asked if it'd be ok to cover "Hate this town" and I got the greenlight, paid my clearances and all that. "In my dreams I don't hate this town. I'm thinking I'm lucky I live here." Such an amazing sentiment said so plainly. The life he lived versus the life that he might've lived and at the end "didn't want to work in a hardware store anyway..." We should all be so lucky to write a simply beautiful song.
Paul Westerberg might have been my guiding light but Slim showed me that once a musician, always a musician and it's still a job and worth it to go and sing your songs. When I go live with my Tele, Rickenbacker and Les Paul Jr, well, I always think of Slim in that regard and how I wish I had taken that long, cold ride back to Minnesota with him.
~Bobbo Byrnes
_______________________________________
I'm a friend of Slim's daughter Emily and her husband, Charles. Slim had an incredible amount of love and support around him. I visited him and Chrissie in their Minneapolis home in 2022 - heartbreaking situation but I've never seen a stronger family. He was a talented, tasteful musician and will be sorely missed.
bthompson
_______________________________________
I worked with Kevin Sutter on my 2016 release, Lost Soul. I'd been out of the game for ten years and commercially unsuccessful before that, though I'd checked some boxes like playing the Fillmore and the Newport Folk Festival and touring Europe. So Lost Soul wasn't my first rodeo and I knew how hard it was to break into AAA radio. Still, I had some Kickstarter money and wanted to give it a shot, knowing full well that there were no guarantees beyond sending the music to the right people and following up with phone calls. The investment didn't break the bank and the alternative was doing nothing.
Predictably, the "big" stations ignored us, which was fine since I was 99% sure that's what would happen. The one little blip was that WYEP was always about to discuss it in their weekly meeting but it kept slipping through the cracks. This went on for, like, a month and a half and I couldn't get closure. Who knows, maybe they'll get to it after the holidays in early 2025.
I also let myself be convinced to do a "clean" version of the catchy lead track, I Think I've Taken Enough Sh*t From You This Year, since Kevin thought it was exactly the kind of song AAA would go for. I knew - KNEW - this was pointless but went along with it. In for a penny, in for a pound! The feedback was that the clean version still implied unclean.
In the end, I was satisfied since we managed some airplay here and there and my strategy was to bottom feed anyway. An interview with whatever random site was something I could talk about on Facebook and Twitter or in my newsletter: proof of life.
I reached out to Kevin about another project a few years later, mostly because I liked the guy and wanted to hear his pitch. He said the competitive environment was even more challenging than it had been. Counterintuitively, he followed up with an email along the lines of "I hope our conversation convinced you to move forward." It had done the exact opposite!!!
As far as I can tell, Kevin Sutter was one of the good ones. He had to make a living but was realistic, knew what he was doing, and did what he said he was going to do. I would have recommended him and worked with him again under the right circumstances.
I had a way worse experience with a publicist on my "noise folk" project with guitarist Gerry Leonard, Bob Hillman & Spooky Ghost. Again, I knew there were no guarantees, but you hope they'll leverage their relationships to generate…something. But they generated nothing and I'm not convinced they even followed up. Literally, I got more publicity for another project around the same time just by emailing sites on my own. There was one site they said had passed that I then emailed myself and landed a video premiere. At the end, the publicist proposed solving the problem by throwing more money at it and seemed surprised and even a little angry when I said I couldn't invest further when the original investment generated zero ROI.
I know where I stand as an "artistically successful" independent artist but still crave musical connection and receive occasional signals that it's possible. The question becomes, can anyone really open doors? Lately, I'm thinking not.
Bob Hillman
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Astral Weeks: A Secret History Of 1968
https://shorturl.at/4Xolz
1
I devoured this book.
I bought my first issue of "Rolling Stone" at a newsstand right by the Columbia campus in December 1969. If I remember correctly, it was the issue with Mick Jagger on the cover, with a full explication of the Altamont debacle. This was manna from heaven, this was everything I was looking for, in-depth information on music and culture available nowhere else. Sure, the "Times" had an occasional feature, but an entire magazine?
But was that what it was? It came folded in half and when you subscribed you got free records.
I immediately signed up, it was less than ten bucks and I got a year of issues and the Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" and their greatest hits album "The Worst of Jefferson Airplane." I hadn't owned an Airplane album previously, but I immediately took to "Volunteers." At this point, we were beginning to become disillusioned, it seemed like the revolution might have passed us by, but that's what "Volunteers" was all about, the revolution. Of course the album contained the title cut, and a version of "Wooden Ships," but the heart of the album was "Eskimo Blue Day" and "Good Shepherd," with Grace emoting in her composition "Hey Fredrick" for good measure.
I know, I know, "Rolling Stone" started in '67, but like I always say, distribution is king, and I never saw it in the burbs, never saw it anywhere, in fact.
And when I subscribed nobody else I knew did. And when I went to college the following fall, it was the highlight of every other week. It came on Wednesday, I'd make sure I'd done all my studying for the week by Tuesday, and then I spent two days reading the magazine from cover to cover.
And the following December, there was a cover story on the Mel Lyman family. HUH?
I'd never heard of the guy. I can't say I read every word of the article, because there was no context. Although Jim Kweskin was a member. And Mark Frechette, but I'll get there.
And the funny thing about the Lyman family is it still exists, and it makes its money via construction, building structures for household names in Los Angeles.
And the first night of Aspen Live Mark Kates was testifying about this book about Boston, about Van Morrison's time there, creating "Astral Weeks," and... Mark couldn't put his finger on the other guy the book focused on, but I blurted out MEL LYMAN! And Mark said yes, that's who he was thinking of, and I immediately went on Libby and got the book.
2
I can't recommend most music books, they're basically hagiography, the acts appear to be saints and you learn a few details but even if you're a fan you end up disappointed.
But "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968" is something different.
If you were alive and conscious at that point, pick this one up.
If you weren't...
Does anybody really care about the history of yore? The counterculture? Sure, people listen to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, if not Jefferson Airplane, and now Van Morrison is a pariah, but I don't think the average person wants to dig deeper. But if you do...
So the story is Van Morrison was down and out and escaped to Boston with Janet Planet, formed a new group and started gigging.
And the book tells the whole story of the development of "Astral Weeks" and its ultimate recording. As well as Joe Smith paying off Bang to get Van on Warner Brothers.
But there's so much more.
Like the history of the Boston Tea Party, which was Boston's Fillmore, yet different. There were no seats, but it was where everybody played. I went once, totally stoned, to see the latest incarnation of Manfred Mann, and it wasn't good, and the following fall the joint closed. You look at the history of these venues, these ballrooms, and in retrospect they're so short.
And it was a guy from Kansas City who built the Tea Party and WBCN and the story is all in this book.
He knew someone who was in the Lyman family.
Actually, it was Thomas Hart Benton's daughter Jessie. Her money helped keep the commune, the cult afloat.
They had a compound in Fort Hill, ultimately with a wall around it, because Mel didn't trust the outside, and he wasn't quite like the Scientologists but he did believe in revenge.
The Lyman family began with "The Avatar," an underground newspaper.
That was a thing back then. Seems quaint today, but you've got to understand, printing was expensive, just like record-making.
I know, I know, today's social media specializes in speaking truth to power, when people are not trying to cash in.
Note: Watch this video about the income of the most successful TikTokkers, it's easier than being a musician — https://shorturl.at/19rzj
But in the sixties it was all about print, and the establishment didn't like it, so there were lawsuits and...
The book also covers a breakthrough public television show.
And the legendary James Brown concert after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. I never knew the government guaranteed him 60k...did he ever get it?
And there's the search for the holy grail, a tape recording of Van and his band live working out the "Astral Weeks" songs, Peter Wolf had it, could the author ever hear it?
3
But you'll be fascinated by the story of the Lyman family. These people thought he was God. Mel alternately said he was and he wasn't. But these people were in thrall to him.
As for the Mark Frechette story... Cindy Frechette went to our high school. She was called "Behemoth," which sounds terrible today, but you know how kids are... Yes, Cindy was big and tall and not what most people would consider attractive, but suddenly she started telling us her brother was going to be a movie star. Which no one believed, we didn't even know she had a brother. But it turned out she was right, Mark Frechette was one of the two leads in Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point"!
And then Mark and his costar retreated to the Lyman family compound.
God, I'd like to know more. Cults are fascinating. But usually they're peopled by the easily-influenced nobodies, not musicians like Jim Kweskin.
There is so much in this book I did not know.
The revelations were not on the surface, I knew the story, but not so many of the details, the author Ryan H. Walsh makes them come alive.
You will be caught up in the mood, the time, the place if you read this book. You'll be living in Boston in the sixties as opposed to wherever you are today. This is an amazing story. Amazing stories. Never written about in this depth previously.
But "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968" is not brand new, it actually came out in 2018. But today you put it out there and if it's any good it marinates in the marketplace and ultimately surfaces. Because people can't stop talking about it.
Just like Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks."
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1
I devoured this book.
I bought my first issue of "Rolling Stone" at a newsstand right by the Columbia campus in December 1969. If I remember correctly, it was the issue with Mick Jagger on the cover, with a full explication of the Altamont debacle. This was manna from heaven, this was everything I was looking for, in-depth information on music and culture available nowhere else. Sure, the "Times" had an occasional feature, but an entire magazine?
But was that what it was? It came folded in half and when you subscribed you got free records.
I immediately signed up, it was less than ten bucks and I got a year of issues and the Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" and their greatest hits album "The Worst of Jefferson Airplane." I hadn't owned an Airplane album previously, but I immediately took to "Volunteers." At this point, we were beginning to become disillusioned, it seemed like the revolution might have passed us by, but that's what "Volunteers" was all about, the revolution. Of course the album contained the title cut, and a version of "Wooden Ships," but the heart of the album was "Eskimo Blue Day" and "Good Shepherd," with Grace emoting in her composition "Hey Fredrick" for good measure.
I know, I know, "Rolling Stone" started in '67, but like I always say, distribution is king, and I never saw it in the burbs, never saw it anywhere, in fact.
And when I subscribed nobody else I knew did. And when I went to college the following fall, it was the highlight of every other week. It came on Wednesday, I'd make sure I'd done all my studying for the week by Tuesday, and then I spent two days reading the magazine from cover to cover.
And the following December, there was a cover story on the Mel Lyman family. HUH?
I'd never heard of the guy. I can't say I read every word of the article, because there was no context. Although Jim Kweskin was a member. And Mark Frechette, but I'll get there.
And the funny thing about the Lyman family is it still exists, and it makes its money via construction, building structures for household names in Los Angeles.
And the first night of Aspen Live Mark Kates was testifying about this book about Boston, about Van Morrison's time there, creating "Astral Weeks," and... Mark couldn't put his finger on the other guy the book focused on, but I blurted out MEL LYMAN! And Mark said yes, that's who he was thinking of, and I immediately went on Libby and got the book.
2
I can't recommend most music books, they're basically hagiography, the acts appear to be saints and you learn a few details but even if you're a fan you end up disappointed.
But "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968" is something different.
If you were alive and conscious at that point, pick this one up.
If you weren't...
Does anybody really care about the history of yore? The counterculture? Sure, people listen to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, if not Jefferson Airplane, and now Van Morrison is a pariah, but I don't think the average person wants to dig deeper. But if you do...
So the story is Van Morrison was down and out and escaped to Boston with Janet Planet, formed a new group and started gigging.
And the book tells the whole story of the development of "Astral Weeks" and its ultimate recording. As well as Joe Smith paying off Bang to get Van on Warner Brothers.
But there's so much more.
Like the history of the Boston Tea Party, which was Boston's Fillmore, yet different. There were no seats, but it was where everybody played. I went once, totally stoned, to see the latest incarnation of Manfred Mann, and it wasn't good, and the following fall the joint closed. You look at the history of these venues, these ballrooms, and in retrospect they're so short.
And it was a guy from Kansas City who built the Tea Party and WBCN and the story is all in this book.
He knew someone who was in the Lyman family.
Actually, it was Thomas Hart Benton's daughter Jessie. Her money helped keep the commune, the cult afloat.
They had a compound in Fort Hill, ultimately with a wall around it, because Mel didn't trust the outside, and he wasn't quite like the Scientologists but he did believe in revenge.
The Lyman family began with "The Avatar," an underground newspaper.
That was a thing back then. Seems quaint today, but you've got to understand, printing was expensive, just like record-making.
I know, I know, today's social media specializes in speaking truth to power, when people are not trying to cash in.
Note: Watch this video about the income of the most successful TikTokkers, it's easier than being a musician — https://shorturl.at/19rzj
But in the sixties it was all about print, and the establishment didn't like it, so there were lawsuits and...
The book also covers a breakthrough public television show.
And the legendary James Brown concert after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. I never knew the government guaranteed him 60k...did he ever get it?
And there's the search for the holy grail, a tape recording of Van and his band live working out the "Astral Weeks" songs, Peter Wolf had it, could the author ever hear it?
3
But you'll be fascinated by the story of the Lyman family. These people thought he was God. Mel alternately said he was and he wasn't. But these people were in thrall to him.
As for the Mark Frechette story... Cindy Frechette went to our high school. She was called "Behemoth," which sounds terrible today, but you know how kids are... Yes, Cindy was big and tall and not what most people would consider attractive, but suddenly she started telling us her brother was going to be a movie star. Which no one believed, we didn't even know she had a brother. But it turned out she was right, Mark Frechette was one of the two leads in Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point"!
And then Mark and his costar retreated to the Lyman family compound.
God, I'd like to know more. Cults are fascinating. But usually they're peopled by the easily-influenced nobodies, not musicians like Jim Kweskin.
There is so much in this book I did not know.
The revelations were not on the surface, I knew the story, but not so many of the details, the author Ryan H. Walsh makes them come alive.
You will be caught up in the mood, the time, the place if you read this book. You'll be living in Boston in the sixties as opposed to wherever you are today. This is an amazing story. Amazing stories. Never written about in this depth previously.
But "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968" is not brand new, it actually came out in 2018. But today you put it out there and if it's any good it marinates in the marketplace and ultimately surfaces. Because people can't stop talking about it.
Just like Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks."
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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