It was all about Post Malone.
People say they wish they were young again, not me. Maybe I wasn't good-looking enough, maybe I didn't have game, but when I think of all the time I spent at shows and bars alone, wishing I could connect with others, I cringe.
But now I have status. Not on Wall Street, but in the small world they call the music business. I saw Michael Chugg backstage and the night before I connected with Lana Del Rey over a favor she did for a friend of mine, I was the intermediary (yes, that sounds like a name-drop, but there's no way to tell the story without her name).
So I feel pretty good about myself, except when I feel bad about myself. And my social anxiety has me running away from encounters as opposed to leaning into them, but the people in attendance...
They're young, they're not famous, so they're flaunting what they've got, their bodies and their outfits, hoping they will impress others, and that's a game I'm glad I'm past.
Now at least half of the attendees were women, I'd say more. And like that old song by the Marvelettes which the Young Rascals did a great cover of, there were short ones, tall ones, find ones, kind ones...
As well as overweight ones. And those who did poorly in the genetic lottery. No one could see their bank account, without talking to them you couldn't perceive their personality, it was all about their look and that's a tough game to play.
There wasn't a lot of interaction amongst the groups, there never is. So you're alone, until you're together. You spend your whole life trying to find a significant other, certainly if you're a man, women support each other, converse, whereas men will talk sports and not much more, most won't even reveal major problems, never mind give support to others who are experiencing them.
So the people watching was nonpareil.
There are just so many people in the world. You realize it when you walk amongst the assembled multitude. This is not like a sporting event, where you go to your seat and stay there, you wander and see thousands of people and wonder what their story is, what made them come.
I spoke with four twentysomething Asian women from Pasadena who love country music.
I talked to a group of SMU graduates who told me they don't like the Coachella people.
Yes, I sat at a picnic table eating an overpriced and substandard lobster roll which was sold to me by a woman who was the picture of "carny" and I saw an empty space and I engaged the others in conversation. Other than that, I didn't speak to a single person out on the field all day, for hours. There were tons there, but I was alone. And I'll be honest, for a minute there, longer, it was kind of depressing. We all need context. At least I had some backstage.
Once again, at Stagecoach it's all about the headliners. They had a drone shot of the crowd in front of the Mane Stage on the screen and it was overwhelming, huge.
And the country headliners have broader support than the pop headliners, despite getting less publicity and respect. And although the absolute headliner was Miranda Lambert, the performance by Post Malone on the Mane Stage right before was the hit of the night.
Now if you're a baby boomer, you can't get over the face tattoos. And the thing about tattoos is once you get one or two, many cover their bodies with more. It's not only his face that Post has inked.
And he seemed to come from nowhere, and had success in the hip-hop world, and I didn't give him much respect until I saw a YouTube video of him playing some Hendrix material. First, he could really play. Second, the group's performance gelled, it was a good facsimile of Jimi, with the forceful energy of "Are You Experienced."
And Post got a ton of press, he was everywhere. But then he was living in Utah and despite the hype, his last two albums haven't had anywhere near the amount of commercial success of the hits before them.
But the guy didn't fade away. That's the strange thing about the new era, for all the one hit wonders who can't sell a ticket and disappear, there are others who have anemic recording careers who continue to do good live business and sustain in the marketplace.
And now, suddenly, Post Malone is everywhere. He's on the Taylor Swift single and he's at Stagecoach doing a "Country Covers" set.
Now my knowledge of country is an inch deep and not even two inches wide so if you play classics, I don't know them. And I didn't know almost any of the songs Post Malone played tonight, you can check the set list and see how you do here: https://t.ly/N-p6m
But the performance was so engaging that it didn't matter. There was the energy of the band. And Post's personality and delivery. He related like a friend without pandering. There was no "Hello Cleveland!," but quieter conversation, in many cases with a humble character, other than when he was praising the special guests, Dwight Yoakam, Brad Paisley and Sara Evans. He praised them like a fan, it was not perfunctory, there was emotion.
The whole set had emotion. And I'm standing there thinking this guy has got a career, he's never going to be broke down and busted, apply for a straight job and not get it because of his face tattoos.
And Post looked scraggly, he had an untrimmed beard, was wearing regular clothes, it was akin to the rock stars of fifty years ago as opposed to the spandex of the eighties and the sparkles seen on stages at Stagecoach.
In other words, Post Malone has a strange charisma, he's likable, he's a star.
Today all the press is about the recording industry. Sure, there are stories about Taylor Swift's grosses, but most of the conversation is about Spotify Top 50 hits, what AI will do to the business, there's a lot of doom and gloom.
But not in the live business. Yes, it's hard to sustain yourself on the road, but I'd wager more acts than ever are doing so. It's hard to build an audience. Think about it, you're starting from zero and the goal is for people to notice you and pay you money? That's a heavy lift.
But in the live business there's big money. Headline in the desert and you could be paid eight figures. And ever since Beyoncé, one special show can pay endless dividends, boosting your career. And when you see someone live a bond is created that can never be achieved with a recording. And the promoters...are keeping you alive.
So in the end it's a matter of whether you can sell tickets and whether you can deliver on stage, whether you're a PERFORMER or not.
Performance is a skill. I saw Miranda Lambert back in 2010 in a club. Believe me, she delivers a far superior show today. And you can learn how to perform, but some people are naturals.
Like Post Malone.
So you can graze and catch the undercard at Stagecoach, but really it's about the big names. It's less about discovery than a victory lap.
And when these stars take the Mane Stage there are so many people there that you can feel the energy, it's palpable, you're thrilled to be there, to be included, that feeling is why you pay to go. When the act is on stage and the music surrounds you and you see them on the big screen...there's a lot of technology involved, but the essence is humanity.
So the reason you live life is the surprises, the unknowns. If you walk out the front door you never know what will happen. And my mood completely changed when I encountered Post Malone's performance tonight. Didn't matter whether you were short or tall, good-looking or less attractive, even what you were wearing, it was about a bond between your brain and what was on stage, and if it worked...you can't get that hit anywhere else.
What we're selling is music. But it's more than that. We're selling life, dreams. When done right a performance is unforgettable. The only thing better is sex. We search for these peak moments. And Post Malone surprised me and delivered one tonight.
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Saturday 27 April 2024
Stagecoach-Day One
That's rock and roll.
This is not an arena show, this is not a stadium show, this is not Coachella, when you headline the Stagecoach Mane (Main) Stage you're playing to NINETY THOUSAND PEOPLE!
Now I wish every American could come to Stagecoach, because then they could see how we're more alike than different. Everything is perceived to be tribal in the U.S. today, but when we forget about politics what you get is...
Boobage.
That's what you notice immediately. Which is kind of astounding if you grew up in the relatively prudish sixties. Yes, we skinny-dipped, but we didn't exhibit our bodies quite the same way. The women are dressed to kill, but not like influencers, not like the Coachella crowd, they're more...normal. They may be showing off their assets, but above the cowboy boots they're all wearing jeans. Most people wouldn't look out of place anywhere in America, other than in the major metropolis. There were no brand names, it was not about posting as a fashionista online, then again people were shooting photos, but almost always in groups, you don't come to Stagecoach alone, you come with your posse, and you come to hear country music.
Now I was watching Elle King play the Mane Stage and... You don't see screens that big anywhere else. They've got to be visible all the way to the back row. And on stage it's all human, there are no hard drives, which is extremely refreshing.
No dance steps, no perfection, just guitars and drums and...
It's not a whole hell of a lot different than it was in the aforementioned sixties. When you watched the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" and were inspired to form a band. The songs were not syncopated to a beat, there were no drum machines, the music was organic, human, it didn't slide off of you, it was far from disposable. And every song had a chorus.
In other words, Stagecoach/country music is the antithesis of Top Forty, and the biggest recording act in America will be headlining Sunday night, Morgan Wallen.
I was listening to Buzz Brainard on the satellite on the drive in, he was interviewing Stagecoach attendees, asking them where they were from and who they wanted to see. They all wanted to see Wallen.
We don't have this kind of ubiquitous star in traditional pop, nobody everybody loves. As big as Drake, Kendrick, Taylor and Beyoncé are, not everybody likes them. But everybody in the country sphere likes Wallen. And if you listen to the record... You don't need a comprehensive course in country music to understand it. Listen to today's metal and if you haven't been paying attention for decades, it's incomprehensible. Fast and noisy. Hip-hop... It has haters. But the country songs are traditional, the singer may twang, there might be a pedal steel guitar, but the essence is rooted in the Great American Songbook. You can sing the songs at home, never mind relate to so many of the lyrics.
Now watching Dwight Yoakam in the Palomino tent I wasn't sure if the packed audience knew his material or not. You've got to know, at these giant festivals, it's more akin to a sporting event than a concert, in that the assembled multitude is never completely quiet, there's always an undercurrent of conversation. But then I moved back up front and the twenty and thirtysomethings knew every word, they were singing along. This man of color was slapping me on the back as he sang to the heavens.
But really what blew my mind was the Mane Stage.
Now at Coachella there are ten stages. There are essentially fewer than half of those at Stagecoach, because everybody wants to see the same acts.
At Coachella, the area in front of the main stage can accommodate forty thousand people. But everybody, all ninety thousand attendees, can sit or stand and watch the headliner on the Mane Stage.
And that's power.
I'm standing there contemplating what it must feel like to be performing to such a vast audience.
And then it occurs to me, you can't get this many people to see either Biden or Trump, no political figure. Only music can draw this many enthralled customers at once.
This was not a show that comes through town on its way to somewhere else. These are all one-off gigs, you stand there on stage and the audience is READY! They want to engage, they're waiting for you to play, they want you to light the fire.
Now Eric Church performed a confounding set. On acoustic guitar with a gospel choir and even a trumpet, this is not what people came for. And according to the press, many only stayed for fifteen minutes. I couldn't quite figure it out, I thought that Church was trying to pull a Beyoncé, do something special for this one-off, I thought the acoustic number would end, the gospel singers would leave the stage, but...
That's not what happened.
Honestly, it was more like an Andy Kaufman performance than a traditional Eric Church show, which rocks pretty hard. Then again, that's the thing about live, it is. As in it's one shot, you go out and perform and the audience resonates...
Or it does not.
So I'm looking at the crowd, mostly smiling, digging the music, and I'm wondering whether they're Republicans or Democrats. Used to be country music was a bastion of the right, but many Dems are fans today. And a certain percentage of the audience was working class, or close to it. In other words, they're working for a living. This contingent used to be Democrats, but now many are Republicans. If you're struggling, you resent those who think they're better than you.
But there was absolutely no tension. I've been to indoor shows and experienced more fear than I did last night, outdoors, mostly in the dark. It was weird, but I felt safe.
Once again, is this the America we read about in the press?
So what we've got here is genuine stars playing to people who need to hear their music, in many cases parking their rear ends in front of the Mane Stage from the moment they get there.
We haven't had this power since...
At least the eighties.
Where everybody's on the same page, everybody knows the music, everybody's all together as one.
And the draw is music. Not made by machines. Believe me, you couldn't even get a thousand, or even a hundred to listen to a concert of AI generated music. But real people, who've built careers over time...
You can't headline having started yesterday. Jelly Roll was the pre-headliner, and got vast applause, but this guy has been around forever, he's pushing forty, whereas in pop music we listen to the songs of adolescents who've experienced almost nothing.
So the performers seemed relaxed. They were out there naked, sans production. But when they started to play...
It was the same as it ever was. Akin to the past as opposed to the present. Madonna and Mariah Carey were a diversion, the latter engendered the singing TV contestants, Madonna made people want to be ubiquitous, in-your-face, known by everybody. But today's country music is more laid back, it's not about the penumbra, the brand extensions and the corporate endorsements, it's about the music. And every performer has an identity, and they're all different. Sure, you can listen to country radio and hear imitation, sameness, but out in the field, live, that's not how it plays.
So if you were young and there last night, your greatest desire would be to take the stage yourself, to be a music star.
For decades people wanted to be billionaire techies, conversation was about stock options and trigger points. But you won't get ninety thousand to show up for Elon Musk, maybe if Steve Jobs came back from the dead, but still, most people would stay at home and watch the stream. But for music, you have to be there. And believe me, with ninety thousand, you're not up close and personal.
And the reason people need to be there is because the music speaks to them in a way nothing else does, no politician, no television show...
It was palpable. I'm standing in front of the Mane Stage and I heard and felt the music, I perceived the power of the performers, and we were all there together, as Americans.
This is not Glastonbury, this is not an EDM show, this is not a slice of the public, Stagecoach attendees cut across all demos and walks of life.
This is the world I grew up in. And if you don't agree...
You weren't there.
--
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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This is not an arena show, this is not a stadium show, this is not Coachella, when you headline the Stagecoach Mane (Main) Stage you're playing to NINETY THOUSAND PEOPLE!
Now I wish every American could come to Stagecoach, because then they could see how we're more alike than different. Everything is perceived to be tribal in the U.S. today, but when we forget about politics what you get is...
Boobage.
That's what you notice immediately. Which is kind of astounding if you grew up in the relatively prudish sixties. Yes, we skinny-dipped, but we didn't exhibit our bodies quite the same way. The women are dressed to kill, but not like influencers, not like the Coachella crowd, they're more...normal. They may be showing off their assets, but above the cowboy boots they're all wearing jeans. Most people wouldn't look out of place anywhere in America, other than in the major metropolis. There were no brand names, it was not about posting as a fashionista online, then again people were shooting photos, but almost always in groups, you don't come to Stagecoach alone, you come with your posse, and you come to hear country music.
Now I was watching Elle King play the Mane Stage and... You don't see screens that big anywhere else. They've got to be visible all the way to the back row. And on stage it's all human, there are no hard drives, which is extremely refreshing.
No dance steps, no perfection, just guitars and drums and...
It's not a whole hell of a lot different than it was in the aforementioned sixties. When you watched the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" and were inspired to form a band. The songs were not syncopated to a beat, there were no drum machines, the music was organic, human, it didn't slide off of you, it was far from disposable. And every song had a chorus.
In other words, Stagecoach/country music is the antithesis of Top Forty, and the biggest recording act in America will be headlining Sunday night, Morgan Wallen.
I was listening to Buzz Brainard on the satellite on the drive in, he was interviewing Stagecoach attendees, asking them where they were from and who they wanted to see. They all wanted to see Wallen.
We don't have this kind of ubiquitous star in traditional pop, nobody everybody loves. As big as Drake, Kendrick, Taylor and Beyoncé are, not everybody likes them. But everybody in the country sphere likes Wallen. And if you listen to the record... You don't need a comprehensive course in country music to understand it. Listen to today's metal and if you haven't been paying attention for decades, it's incomprehensible. Fast and noisy. Hip-hop... It has haters. But the country songs are traditional, the singer may twang, there might be a pedal steel guitar, but the essence is rooted in the Great American Songbook. You can sing the songs at home, never mind relate to so many of the lyrics.
Now watching Dwight Yoakam in the Palomino tent I wasn't sure if the packed audience knew his material or not. You've got to know, at these giant festivals, it's more akin to a sporting event than a concert, in that the assembled multitude is never completely quiet, there's always an undercurrent of conversation. But then I moved back up front and the twenty and thirtysomethings knew every word, they were singing along. This man of color was slapping me on the back as he sang to the heavens.
But really what blew my mind was the Mane Stage.
Now at Coachella there are ten stages. There are essentially fewer than half of those at Stagecoach, because everybody wants to see the same acts.
At Coachella, the area in front of the main stage can accommodate forty thousand people. But everybody, all ninety thousand attendees, can sit or stand and watch the headliner on the Mane Stage.
And that's power.
I'm standing there contemplating what it must feel like to be performing to such a vast audience.
And then it occurs to me, you can't get this many people to see either Biden or Trump, no political figure. Only music can draw this many enthralled customers at once.
This was not a show that comes through town on its way to somewhere else. These are all one-off gigs, you stand there on stage and the audience is READY! They want to engage, they're waiting for you to play, they want you to light the fire.
Now Eric Church performed a confounding set. On acoustic guitar with a gospel choir and even a trumpet, this is not what people came for. And according to the press, many only stayed for fifteen minutes. I couldn't quite figure it out, I thought that Church was trying to pull a Beyoncé, do something special for this one-off, I thought the acoustic number would end, the gospel singers would leave the stage, but...
That's not what happened.
Honestly, it was more like an Andy Kaufman performance than a traditional Eric Church show, which rocks pretty hard. Then again, that's the thing about live, it is. As in it's one shot, you go out and perform and the audience resonates...
Or it does not.
So I'm looking at the crowd, mostly smiling, digging the music, and I'm wondering whether they're Republicans or Democrats. Used to be country music was a bastion of the right, but many Dems are fans today. And a certain percentage of the audience was working class, or close to it. In other words, they're working for a living. This contingent used to be Democrats, but now many are Republicans. If you're struggling, you resent those who think they're better than you.
But there was absolutely no tension. I've been to indoor shows and experienced more fear than I did last night, outdoors, mostly in the dark. It was weird, but I felt safe.
Once again, is this the America we read about in the press?
So what we've got here is genuine stars playing to people who need to hear their music, in many cases parking their rear ends in front of the Mane Stage from the moment they get there.
We haven't had this power since...
At least the eighties.
Where everybody's on the same page, everybody knows the music, everybody's all together as one.
And the draw is music. Not made by machines. Believe me, you couldn't even get a thousand, or even a hundred to listen to a concert of AI generated music. But real people, who've built careers over time...
You can't headline having started yesterday. Jelly Roll was the pre-headliner, and got vast applause, but this guy has been around forever, he's pushing forty, whereas in pop music we listen to the songs of adolescents who've experienced almost nothing.
So the performers seemed relaxed. They were out there naked, sans production. But when they started to play...
It was the same as it ever was. Akin to the past as opposed to the present. Madonna and Mariah Carey were a diversion, the latter engendered the singing TV contestants, Madonna made people want to be ubiquitous, in-your-face, known by everybody. But today's country music is more laid back, it's not about the penumbra, the brand extensions and the corporate endorsements, it's about the music. And every performer has an identity, and they're all different. Sure, you can listen to country radio and hear imitation, sameness, but out in the field, live, that's not how it plays.
So if you were young and there last night, your greatest desire would be to take the stage yourself, to be a music star.
For decades people wanted to be billionaire techies, conversation was about stock options and trigger points. But you won't get ninety thousand to show up for Elon Musk, maybe if Steve Jobs came back from the dead, but still, most people would stay at home and watch the stream. But for music, you have to be there. And believe me, with ninety thousand, you're not up close and personal.
And the reason people need to be there is because the music speaks to them in a way nothing else does, no politician, no television show...
It was palpable. I'm standing in front of the Mane Stage and I heard and felt the music, I perceived the power of the performers, and we were all there together, as Americans.
This is not Glastonbury, this is not an EDM show, this is not a slice of the public, Stagecoach attendees cut across all demos and walks of life.
This is the world I grew up in. And if you don't agree...
You weren't there.
--
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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Friday 26 April 2024
The Desert
It freaked me right out.
Lisa implored me to come for the BBQ last night, but I didn't want to miss couples therapy in the morning, especially after being out of the country, there was a lot to cover.
But this also meant I couldn't leave L.A. until just before noon, which meant I'd hit traffic.
But I could listen to Joe Biden on Howard Stern. iMessage was blowing up when I awoke, quite a coup for Stern and Sirius. But when I tuned in...
Here's the bottom line. Biden sounded old, really old. He had all his marbles, he told amazing stories, it was hard not to like him, he was self-deprecating but at the same time talking about a career in public service, but anybody listening would say this is an eighty year old guy. As my friend Andy said about a touring act that's fronted by someone over eighty, he's got no breath, no oomph. How they decided to let this man run is beyond me. In sports if you don't see the end, they tell you. Why couldn't anybody tell Joe he did his part and is now too old? Because when you listen to this guy you ask yourself what he's going to be like in four years, never mind him talking about how many of his buddies from Scranton are now dead. Not to mention the fact that Kamala Harris is not beloved. Sure, the right has marginalized her unfairly, but don't forget her performance in the 2020 debates... The more she talked, the less traction she got. So if Biden passes or becomes incapacitated, Kamala would step in, and I'm cool with that, but I can't say I'm enthusiastic.
And then there's the fact that Biden announced on Stern that he'd debate Trump. What is he, delusional? Trump won't let him get a word in edgewise and based on his performance today, Biden is going to look old and challenged and...
If you debate me, you too are delusional. Why can't anybody step back and see what is going on, why can't anybody blow the whistle?
Speaking of which, the "Wall Street Journal" has been busy blowing the whistle on the campus protesters and the left is so fearful of alienating a potential voter that it is staying silent. This is not the sixties and Vietnam, nobody has got skin in the game, whereas sixty years ago...you might get drafted and killed.
And then there's the ignorance and the support of Hamas and the river to the sea b.s... Peaceful protest is one thing, making Jews fearful of attending class is another. Yes, if you're a scared Jew at Columbia you can go to class virtually. Actually, Andrew Cuomo has got a good piece in today's aforementioned WSJ:
"Antisemitism at Columbia University Is a Disgrace - Imagine if in the wake of 9/11, pro-al-Qaeda protesters chased New Yorkers out of the city."
Free link: https://t.ly/CwC_u
Check it out.
So you can't go anywhere anymore, because of the people. The roads are not wide enough and if they're widened that just means people will move farther out and commute. Which means the speedy passage to the desert of even the eighties is history.
And then there was the rain. I know, it never rains in Southern California, only it does. When Lisa called and I told her she said it was blue skies in Indian Wells, which stunned me. But after Mt. San Jacinto, it truly was clear, and it appears it will continue to be so.
Yes, there are record references. You've got Peter Gabriel and the mountain and Robert Plant and "29 Palms"... Made me think of Robert, that song is fantastic, but radio wouldn't play it. Robert stopped doing the same thing, ultimately working with Alison Krauss. Kudos. Life is long, it gets boring doing the same damn thing, and it might feel good to be an icon, but that won't keep you warm at night.
And after Biden I went through literally every SXM channel, and the one that interested me most was John Mayer's. They were playing "Heartbreak Warfare," which is probably my favorite track of his, but after that they played Khruangbin & Leon Bridges's "Texas Sun," which is really good, except for the 808 elements. That's one thing that had me scratching my head, on every channel you heard a sound that was new in the eighties. We don't hear synth drums anymore, why do we have to hear the 808 in pop, country, everything?
And on another channel, way up in the 300s, they played Air's "All I Need" and it felt so good. But that was from back in the nineties, so much time has passed. And I was checking myself... I don't think young people would be as pissed about the traffic, it's all they know. And they've experienced a lot less music. I heard the Doobies' "Mamaloi" on Kenny Chesney's "No Shoes" channel and that's fifty years old. Do I know too much, am I disconnected, or does music not have the same place in the social structure anymore? I mean if you want to talk Trump, politics, China... I'm reading three physical newspapers a day and a few more virtually just like I used to read every rock magazine I could get my hands on. You can't even read "Rolling Stone" anymore, it's behind a paywall! And now it's an also-ran political outlet. Then again, "Rolling Stone" missed the internet just like MTV.
Speaking of which, have you been following the NPR story? Forget that the guy said it was too liberal, too politically correct, the real story is it's financially challenged. It's losing audience and advertisers.
"Inside the Crisis at NPR - Listeners are tuning out. Sponsorship revenue has dipped. A diversity push has generated internal turmoil. Can America's public radio network turn things around?"
Free link: https://t.ly/saC-o
You should read this, or at least skim it, NPR was disrupted, missed the memo and its moment and is on the downswing, only baby boomers are really listening, they've tried to diversify their audience and it has failed.
Just like Paramount+. It has lost billions in streaming. Imitating disrupter Netflix is not a good strategy.
Even more interesting is the story of the demise of car factories in China:
"'It Is Desolate': China's Glut of Unused Car Factories - Manufacturers like BYD, Tesla and Li Auto are cutting prices to move their electric cars. For gasoline-powered vehicles, the surplus of factories is even worse."
https://t.ly/yr0aQ
And we're arguing for gas guzzlers in the U.S. Sure, China is challenged, it overbuilt real estate, its economy is teetering, but that does not mean we can't learn lessons. China is the progenitor here. We have a moribund government playing team sports and missing the future. Sure, we can shut down TikTok, but China may still eat our lunch. But we're inured to a past lifestyle that wasn't so good to begin with.
Like I said, if you want to go deep on the news, I'm there with you. But today's music scene is so opaque.
But I didn't plan to write any of the above.
You see when you reach the desert, it's desolate. You're on the freeway, in some cases going near ninety just to keep up with the flow of traffic, and you look at the landscape and you get the feeling if you wandered off you'd die of exposure.
Maybe I've seen too many westerns. That was a staple of our boomer diet. TV shows and movies. Remember "The Treasure of Sierra Madre"? Today's kids ain't got no sense of movie history, never mind not having any badges.
And there's a sandstorm and endless vistas of nothing... If I drove another six hours I'd get to Phoenix, but it would be even hotter. Maybe people aren't supposed to live there. Hell, they're not supposed to live in the San Fernando Valley.
I mean I'm in the A/C and feel safe right now, but I was creeped out on the highway.
This isn't the mountains. Although there are beautiful mountains surrounding the flats, I was wondering what the attachment was.
But now that I'm inside...
Modern life is confounding.
Lisa implored me to come for the BBQ last night, but I didn't want to miss couples therapy in the morning, especially after being out of the country, there was a lot to cover.
But this also meant I couldn't leave L.A. until just before noon, which meant I'd hit traffic.
But I could listen to Joe Biden on Howard Stern. iMessage was blowing up when I awoke, quite a coup for Stern and Sirius. But when I tuned in...
Here's the bottom line. Biden sounded old, really old. He had all his marbles, he told amazing stories, it was hard not to like him, he was self-deprecating but at the same time talking about a career in public service, but anybody listening would say this is an eighty year old guy. As my friend Andy said about a touring act that's fronted by someone over eighty, he's got no breath, no oomph. How they decided to let this man run is beyond me. In sports if you don't see the end, they tell you. Why couldn't anybody tell Joe he did his part and is now too old? Because when you listen to this guy you ask yourself what he's going to be like in four years, never mind him talking about how many of his buddies from Scranton are now dead. Not to mention the fact that Kamala Harris is not beloved. Sure, the right has marginalized her unfairly, but don't forget her performance in the 2020 debates... The more she talked, the less traction she got. So if Biden passes or becomes incapacitated, Kamala would step in, and I'm cool with that, but I can't say I'm enthusiastic.
And then there's the fact that Biden announced on Stern that he'd debate Trump. What is he, delusional? Trump won't let him get a word in edgewise and based on his performance today, Biden is going to look old and challenged and...
If you debate me, you too are delusional. Why can't anybody step back and see what is going on, why can't anybody blow the whistle?
Speaking of which, the "Wall Street Journal" has been busy blowing the whistle on the campus protesters and the left is so fearful of alienating a potential voter that it is staying silent. This is not the sixties and Vietnam, nobody has got skin in the game, whereas sixty years ago...you might get drafted and killed.
And then there's the ignorance and the support of Hamas and the river to the sea b.s... Peaceful protest is one thing, making Jews fearful of attending class is another. Yes, if you're a scared Jew at Columbia you can go to class virtually. Actually, Andrew Cuomo has got a good piece in today's aforementioned WSJ:
"Antisemitism at Columbia University Is a Disgrace - Imagine if in the wake of 9/11, pro-al-Qaeda protesters chased New Yorkers out of the city."
Free link: https://t.ly/CwC_u
Check it out.
So you can't go anywhere anymore, because of the people. The roads are not wide enough and if they're widened that just means people will move farther out and commute. Which means the speedy passage to the desert of even the eighties is history.
And then there was the rain. I know, it never rains in Southern California, only it does. When Lisa called and I told her she said it was blue skies in Indian Wells, which stunned me. But after Mt. San Jacinto, it truly was clear, and it appears it will continue to be so.
Yes, there are record references. You've got Peter Gabriel and the mountain and Robert Plant and "29 Palms"... Made me think of Robert, that song is fantastic, but radio wouldn't play it. Robert stopped doing the same thing, ultimately working with Alison Krauss. Kudos. Life is long, it gets boring doing the same damn thing, and it might feel good to be an icon, but that won't keep you warm at night.
And after Biden I went through literally every SXM channel, and the one that interested me most was John Mayer's. They were playing "Heartbreak Warfare," which is probably my favorite track of his, but after that they played Khruangbin & Leon Bridges's "Texas Sun," which is really good, except for the 808 elements. That's one thing that had me scratching my head, on every channel you heard a sound that was new in the eighties. We don't hear synth drums anymore, why do we have to hear the 808 in pop, country, everything?
And on another channel, way up in the 300s, they played Air's "All I Need" and it felt so good. But that was from back in the nineties, so much time has passed. And I was checking myself... I don't think young people would be as pissed about the traffic, it's all they know. And they've experienced a lot less music. I heard the Doobies' "Mamaloi" on Kenny Chesney's "No Shoes" channel and that's fifty years old. Do I know too much, am I disconnected, or does music not have the same place in the social structure anymore? I mean if you want to talk Trump, politics, China... I'm reading three physical newspapers a day and a few more virtually just like I used to read every rock magazine I could get my hands on. You can't even read "Rolling Stone" anymore, it's behind a paywall! And now it's an also-ran political outlet. Then again, "Rolling Stone" missed the internet just like MTV.
Speaking of which, have you been following the NPR story? Forget that the guy said it was too liberal, too politically correct, the real story is it's financially challenged. It's losing audience and advertisers.
"Inside the Crisis at NPR - Listeners are tuning out. Sponsorship revenue has dipped. A diversity push has generated internal turmoil. Can America's public radio network turn things around?"
Free link: https://t.ly/saC-o
You should read this, or at least skim it, NPR was disrupted, missed the memo and its moment and is on the downswing, only baby boomers are really listening, they've tried to diversify their audience and it has failed.
Just like Paramount+. It has lost billions in streaming. Imitating disrupter Netflix is not a good strategy.
Even more interesting is the story of the demise of car factories in China:
"'It Is Desolate': China's Glut of Unused Car Factories - Manufacturers like BYD, Tesla and Li Auto are cutting prices to move their electric cars. For gasoline-powered vehicles, the surplus of factories is even worse."
https://t.ly/yr0aQ
And we're arguing for gas guzzlers in the U.S. Sure, China is challenged, it overbuilt real estate, its economy is teetering, but that does not mean we can't learn lessons. China is the progenitor here. We have a moribund government playing team sports and missing the future. Sure, we can shut down TikTok, but China may still eat our lunch. But we're inured to a past lifestyle that wasn't so good to begin with.
Like I said, if you want to go deep on the news, I'm there with you. But today's music scene is so opaque.
But I didn't plan to write any of the above.
You see when you reach the desert, it's desolate. You're on the freeway, in some cases going near ninety just to keep up with the flow of traffic, and you look at the landscape and you get the feeling if you wandered off you'd die of exposure.
Maybe I've seen too many westerns. That was a staple of our boomer diet. TV shows and movies. Remember "The Treasure of Sierra Madre"? Today's kids ain't got no sense of movie history, never mind not having any badges.
And there's a sandstorm and endless vistas of nothing... If I drove another six hours I'd get to Phoenix, but it would be even hotter. Maybe people aren't supposed to live there. Hell, they're not supposed to live in the San Fernando Valley.
I mean I'm in the A/C and feel safe right now, but I was creeped out on the highway.
This isn't the mountains. Although there are beautiful mountains surrounding the flats, I was wondering what the attachment was.
But now that I'm inside...
Modern life is confounding.
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Thursday 25 April 2024
Already Forgotten?-2-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in Saturday April 27th 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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Michael Cuscuna
1
He produced "Give It Up."
And on Saturday, he died.
I heard about Bonnie Raitt from the son of one of my mother's college friends. My mother went to a reunion, and after a couple of decades of no contact, she reconnected with her B.U. buddies and in this case, they came to Vermont to ski. And we were sitting in the lounge of the Equinox Hotel, which had just reopened, and this guy who went to Penn started testifying about Bonnie Raitt, whom I'd never heard of. Or maybe I had, there were many fewer record releases back then, but I certainly hadn't heard her music.
Now the first Bonnie Raitt album was produced by Willie Murphy on a four track machine at a summer camp in Minnesota. Bonnie wanted it raw and spontaneous, and although I bought 1971's "Bonnie Raitt" after being infected by "Give It Up," almost no one else did.
Now that first album has got a cover of Stephen Stills's "Bluebird," but the best cut is "I Ain't Blue," which was written by Willie Murphy and Spider John Koerner."
"Sit around the house
Readin' magazines"
As a magazine hound those lines resonated, and still do. "I Ain't Blue" is quiet and intimate, with Bonnie picking and singing about her state of mind, from back when you didn't play to the last row, but those in the building leaned in to pierce your space, to get into your head.
Hell, check out "I Ain't Blue" here:
Spotify: https://t.ly/qD-Zd
YouTube: https://t.ly/OFeS1
But I started with "Give It Up."
Before I went back to college for winter term, I went to the store and bought it, based on the way this guy testified. I trusted him, this was not the only album he spoke of, we could talk music, and I was willing to take a flyer, I was a big consumer of records, the best customer at so many stores.
Now at this point I was a junior. I'd woken up sometime in the first semester of the year and realized I had to get out of there. This was after this red-haired woman knocked on my door unexpectedly to talk about class... She was cool, the fact that she tracked me down makes me feel all good inside right now, even more back then, but she promptly dropped out and that's the last time I ever saw her. And dropping out at Middlebury was rare.
But I'd burned out on the school, just not soon enough. I checked into transferring and found out I'd have to go to college an extra year, and that was never going to happen.
This all goes to state of mind, as they say in the courtroom. Because mine was not good, but it was the records that got me through. "For the Roses" at the end of the year, and "Give It Up" in January.
So what I did was go to class in the morning, and go skiing in the afternoon. I'd come back to my room, drop the needle on a record, pull on my long johns, cotton Duofolds, back before the synthetic revolution, and when I was finally dressed I'd journey down to the Mobil station to hitch a ride up to the Bowl. But before I left Painter Hall, I'd listen to "Too Long at the Fair."
"Jesus cried, he wept and died
I guess he went up to heaven"
The guitar playing was just a bit imperfect, like it is live. And then Freebo's bass came in and ultimately Bonnie with the above lyrics.
"Won't you come and take me home
I've been too long at the fair
And lord I just can't stand it anymore"
Now you've got to know in the early seventies we were licking our wounds from Vietnam. There was the so-called "Back to the Land" movement. A retreat into the hills, to rebuild, it was personal, and so was "Too Long at the Fair."
Now sometimes I lifted the needle on the Dual turntable to hear it again. And sometimes I let it play through, to Bonnie's rollicking cover of Jackson Browne's "Under the Falling Sky." And then came a cover of the Sippie Wallace/Jack Viertel tune, "You Got to Know How." Which I knew, but it shattered the mood, and if I'd gotten this far, sometimes I lifted the needle to hear what came after, the Raitt original "You Told Me Baby."
"Told me baby
You were just too tired to try
There was nothing left for you to give
And no more tears to cry"
There was tape hiss at the beginning of the track. From back in the era when music wasn't background, but foreground, when we bought good stereos to get ever closer. And I always wondered about it, always think of it when "You Told Me Baby" comes to mind, and that is relatively frequently. What happened? Was this one take so perfect they had to keep it? Had they rerecorded too many times on the tape?
And then came the first cover of "Love Has No Pride" I ever heard. Long before Linda Ronstadt recorded it.
But back to "You Told Me Baby"... Bonnie's personality shined through. You see there was no one like her. Not a girly girl, not a girl's girl, but a man's girl. Someone who leaned in as opposed to leaned out, someone who could hold her own, who was "tough" as we said in the seventies. Tough as in "cool."
"Told me baby
To find somebody new
Do you really think that I'd come this far
Just to lose a man like you"
That's the second side, but all the hype, whatever stories there were, were about the first side. Mostly Chris Smither's "Love Me Like a Man," which speaks to the attitude I was talking about in "You Told Me Baby."
And then there's the slow burner "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody," which was good, but not exactly my kind of track. And the opener was a tear, the title cut, with slide guitar, once again written by Raitt, "Give It Up or Let Me Go." But the song on the first side that reached me, that equaled what I loved on the second, was another Raitt original, "Nothing Seems to Matter."
"Seems like such a long time since I held you in my arms
And felt you close and warm beside me
Another night is getting late, and I'm alone with just the ache
And the memory of you beside me"
But it gets better:
"Last time I saw you
There was nothing we could say
And we knew it was a time for a change
'A time to think,' you said that night
But I lied and said 'Alright'
And I left you in the morning
I watched you in the window
And Mexico will never be the same"
Ah, you play along. You don't want to appear desperate. You don't know that this is a turning point, either save the relationship now or it's gone forever.
"It was time to be apart
But somehow it seems this heart of mine
Will never find a way to live without you
And now I'm out here on the road
And I'm feeling bought and sold
And tonight I just can't help but think about you"
Heartache. Bonnie conveys it better than all the melisma masters on the hit parade. She's real, and therefore you connect.
2
Now the 1973 follow-up, "Takin' My Time," was highly anticipated, Bonnie was poised for a breakthrough, and the cover of the aforementioned Smither's "I Feel the Same," with its slide guitar/chicken pickin', was amazing.
But the sound of the album just wasn't right. It was less immediate than "Give It Up," the album was just a bit more polished, a bit more slick, and therefore it couldn't be penetrated as much, there was a wall between Bonnie and the listener, unlike on "Give It Up.
"Streetlights" is the album that contains Bonnie's iconic version of John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery," and it opens with an overlooked cover of Joni Mitchell's "That Song About the Midway" that is better than the original. But "Streetlights" was produced by Jerry Ragavoy, and it was just too slick.
Then came "Home Plate" and "Sweet Forgiveness," which have some absolutely great songs, but Paul Rothchild's production... Hell, the albums are produced, you can see the cats in the studio creating it, it's serious business, which is very different from "Give It Up."
And Bonnie seemed to know this, so for her next album she worked with the king of singer-songwriter producers, Peter Asher. But Raitt wasn't like the rest of Asher's clients, Bonnie had an edge, she was the tough chick, and the rough edges on "The Glow" were smoothed off.
"Green Light" was produced by Rob Fraboni, and it was rougher, but the material wasn't equal to that on "Give It Up," and it sounds like it was a good time party making the album, but it was a party the listener wasn't invited to, you felt like you were outside the door, looking in, whereas with "Give It Up" you were in the room, right next to Bonnie and the band.
Ultimately Bonnie lost her Warner deal and ended up on Capitol, and surprised the entire community with "Nick of Time." The dearly departed engineer Ed Cherney recorded most of the tracks live, and you could tell the difference.
But as good as some of the peaks were, the piece-de-resistance is the album that followed it, "Luck of the Draw." It was utterly amazing, just as good as "Give It Up," and almost never does an act hit that height twice, usually they peak and never get close again. Credit Don Was, who let Bonnie be Bonnie, who didn't try to remake her, turn her into something she was not. Cuscuna's album was even more raw, but they were both authentic, human and alive in a way most albums are not.
3
Now when "Give It Up" was released in 1972 it was not seen as a triumph, not seen as the victory lap of "Cowboy Carter." Sure, there was advertising, but there was no big push, the album penetrated the consciousness via word of mouth, and it only got so far.
But the record still exists.
Now when you broke the shrinkwrap you read the credits. And if you loved an album, you read them again and again. You wanted to know who was responsible, you needed to know who was responsible. Therefore I knew the producer of "Give It Up" was Michael Cuscuna.
But I never saw his name again.
Usually when you nail it, you get more work, you become more famous, but Cuscuna seemed to disappear after "Give It Up."
Until the internet hit with its troves of information and I found out Cuscuna was very successful in the jazz world, which made me feel good, because if you do work this good you deserve a future, you deserve a place in the music firmament.
But jazz isn't really my thing.
But "Give It Up"? It's one of my favorite albums of all time. One of the first CDs I ever bought, needing to get even closer to the music than the vinyl.
And now Michael Cuscuna is dead. I found out on the "New York Times" website, I check the obituaries at least once a day, usually twice.
"Michael Cuscuna, Who Unearthed Hidden Jazz Gems, Dies at 75 - Possibly the most prolific archival record producer in history, he was a founder of the Mosaic label, which became the gold standard of jazz reissues."
https://t.ly/0HWjz
I was stunned he was 75, I thought he was older. And that he grew up in Stamford and lived there when he died, just down the turnpike from where I grew up.
Now you've got to be somebody to get a "Times" obit. But I never saw Cuscuna's name on TMZ. I didn't see hosannas on X/Twitter. I Googled and found some more obits, and I'm sure the people in the jazz world know, but if you were a fan of "Give It Up"...
Records aren't made the same way anymore. They're polished, the goal is to get them right. Which is why it was such a departure for "Nick of Time" to be recorded live, as a group.
When I first met Ed Cherney I testified about "Luck of the Draw." And multiple times thereafter, to the point where it was a thing between us, bedrock as we became much closer friends, got tight not long before he got the Big C and passed.
And the way I testified to Ed about "Luck of the Draw" is the same way I feel about "Give It Up," but I didn't know Michael Cuscuna, I couldn't testify to him.
Now some people only do one thing in their life. As per the obit, Cuscuna did a lot more than "Give It Up," and I don't know if he even thought about it anymore, if he was still proud of it, after all it never made a big breakthrough commercially, and no ever talks about it today other than maybe me.
But there are a few records... Sometimes they're the biggies, the ones everybody knows and loves, but oftentimes they're in the nooks and crannies, you stumbled on to them for odd reasons, it's not like you were turned on by the radio, and they became personal favorites.
I can play every note of "Give It Up" in my head. I love hearing "Too Long at the Fair," but I can play it in my mind, and I do, all the time.
Lots of other people produced Bonnie Raitt, but only Don Was equaled the work of Michael Cuscuna, and Was went on to produce the Stones, Cuscuna didn't ride the artistic success of "Give It Up" anyplace in the rock firmament.
Cuscuna had to be hands-on, had to add something to "Give It Up" to get it so right. Other than Was, no one else ever came close. And I own those songs, they're personal, they were never banged on the radio. "Give It Up" was made when radio was secondary, when you didn't try to have a hit, but just to get it right, believing if you did people would get it, and spread the word.
For a minute there, I thought the obits wouldn't even mention "Give It Up," because ultimately Cuscuna made his name elsewhere. But they all did. Because the work was just that important, it lasts. "Give It Up" could not be easily categorized back in '72, nothing else sounded like it, and therefore it sounds just as fresh fifty years later, like an old blues record.
It's so hard to get it right. Talk to anybody who's tried in the studio. You go in with good intentions, but usually you miss, not by a mile, but the tracks don't have that magic you were searching for.
But that magnetism, that lightning in a bottle feel...
Michael Cuscuna was in the room where it happened. Steering. Whatever he did and said, it's hard to quantify the work of a producer, made a difference, he and Bonnie didn't create good work, they created TRANSCENDENT WORK!
Just listen.
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He produced "Give It Up."
And on Saturday, he died.
I heard about Bonnie Raitt from the son of one of my mother's college friends. My mother went to a reunion, and after a couple of decades of no contact, she reconnected with her B.U. buddies and in this case, they came to Vermont to ski. And we were sitting in the lounge of the Equinox Hotel, which had just reopened, and this guy who went to Penn started testifying about Bonnie Raitt, whom I'd never heard of. Or maybe I had, there were many fewer record releases back then, but I certainly hadn't heard her music.
Now the first Bonnie Raitt album was produced by Willie Murphy on a four track machine at a summer camp in Minnesota. Bonnie wanted it raw and spontaneous, and although I bought 1971's "Bonnie Raitt" after being infected by "Give It Up," almost no one else did.
Now that first album has got a cover of Stephen Stills's "Bluebird," but the best cut is "I Ain't Blue," which was written by Willie Murphy and Spider John Koerner."
"Sit around the house
Readin' magazines"
As a magazine hound those lines resonated, and still do. "I Ain't Blue" is quiet and intimate, with Bonnie picking and singing about her state of mind, from back when you didn't play to the last row, but those in the building leaned in to pierce your space, to get into your head.
Hell, check out "I Ain't Blue" here:
Spotify: https://t.ly/qD-Zd
YouTube: https://t.ly/OFeS1
But I started with "Give It Up."
Before I went back to college for winter term, I went to the store and bought it, based on the way this guy testified. I trusted him, this was not the only album he spoke of, we could talk music, and I was willing to take a flyer, I was a big consumer of records, the best customer at so many stores.
Now at this point I was a junior. I'd woken up sometime in the first semester of the year and realized I had to get out of there. This was after this red-haired woman knocked on my door unexpectedly to talk about class... She was cool, the fact that she tracked me down makes me feel all good inside right now, even more back then, but she promptly dropped out and that's the last time I ever saw her. And dropping out at Middlebury was rare.
But I'd burned out on the school, just not soon enough. I checked into transferring and found out I'd have to go to college an extra year, and that was never going to happen.
This all goes to state of mind, as they say in the courtroom. Because mine was not good, but it was the records that got me through. "For the Roses" at the end of the year, and "Give It Up" in January.
So what I did was go to class in the morning, and go skiing in the afternoon. I'd come back to my room, drop the needle on a record, pull on my long johns, cotton Duofolds, back before the synthetic revolution, and when I was finally dressed I'd journey down to the Mobil station to hitch a ride up to the Bowl. But before I left Painter Hall, I'd listen to "Too Long at the Fair."
"Jesus cried, he wept and died
I guess he went up to heaven"
The guitar playing was just a bit imperfect, like it is live. And then Freebo's bass came in and ultimately Bonnie with the above lyrics.
"Won't you come and take me home
I've been too long at the fair
And lord I just can't stand it anymore"
Now you've got to know in the early seventies we were licking our wounds from Vietnam. There was the so-called "Back to the Land" movement. A retreat into the hills, to rebuild, it was personal, and so was "Too Long at the Fair."
Now sometimes I lifted the needle on the Dual turntable to hear it again. And sometimes I let it play through, to Bonnie's rollicking cover of Jackson Browne's "Under the Falling Sky." And then came a cover of the Sippie Wallace/Jack Viertel tune, "You Got to Know How." Which I knew, but it shattered the mood, and if I'd gotten this far, sometimes I lifted the needle to hear what came after, the Raitt original "You Told Me Baby."
"Told me baby
You were just too tired to try
There was nothing left for you to give
And no more tears to cry"
There was tape hiss at the beginning of the track. From back in the era when music wasn't background, but foreground, when we bought good stereos to get ever closer. And I always wondered about it, always think of it when "You Told Me Baby" comes to mind, and that is relatively frequently. What happened? Was this one take so perfect they had to keep it? Had they rerecorded too many times on the tape?
And then came the first cover of "Love Has No Pride" I ever heard. Long before Linda Ronstadt recorded it.
But back to "You Told Me Baby"... Bonnie's personality shined through. You see there was no one like her. Not a girly girl, not a girl's girl, but a man's girl. Someone who leaned in as opposed to leaned out, someone who could hold her own, who was "tough" as we said in the seventies. Tough as in "cool."
"Told me baby
To find somebody new
Do you really think that I'd come this far
Just to lose a man like you"
That's the second side, but all the hype, whatever stories there were, were about the first side. Mostly Chris Smither's "Love Me Like a Man," which speaks to the attitude I was talking about in "You Told Me Baby."
And then there's the slow burner "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody," which was good, but not exactly my kind of track. And the opener was a tear, the title cut, with slide guitar, once again written by Raitt, "Give It Up or Let Me Go." But the song on the first side that reached me, that equaled what I loved on the second, was another Raitt original, "Nothing Seems to Matter."
"Seems like such a long time since I held you in my arms
And felt you close and warm beside me
Another night is getting late, and I'm alone with just the ache
And the memory of you beside me"
But it gets better:
"Last time I saw you
There was nothing we could say
And we knew it was a time for a change
'A time to think,' you said that night
But I lied and said 'Alright'
And I left you in the morning
I watched you in the window
And Mexico will never be the same"
Ah, you play along. You don't want to appear desperate. You don't know that this is a turning point, either save the relationship now or it's gone forever.
"It was time to be apart
But somehow it seems this heart of mine
Will never find a way to live without you
And now I'm out here on the road
And I'm feeling bought and sold
And tonight I just can't help but think about you"
Heartache. Bonnie conveys it better than all the melisma masters on the hit parade. She's real, and therefore you connect.
2
Now the 1973 follow-up, "Takin' My Time," was highly anticipated, Bonnie was poised for a breakthrough, and the cover of the aforementioned Smither's "I Feel the Same," with its slide guitar/chicken pickin', was amazing.
But the sound of the album just wasn't right. It was less immediate than "Give It Up," the album was just a bit more polished, a bit more slick, and therefore it couldn't be penetrated as much, there was a wall between Bonnie and the listener, unlike on "Give It Up.
"Streetlights" is the album that contains Bonnie's iconic version of John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery," and it opens with an overlooked cover of Joni Mitchell's "That Song About the Midway" that is better than the original. But "Streetlights" was produced by Jerry Ragavoy, and it was just too slick.
Then came "Home Plate" and "Sweet Forgiveness," which have some absolutely great songs, but Paul Rothchild's production... Hell, the albums are produced, you can see the cats in the studio creating it, it's serious business, which is very different from "Give It Up."
And Bonnie seemed to know this, so for her next album she worked with the king of singer-songwriter producers, Peter Asher. But Raitt wasn't like the rest of Asher's clients, Bonnie had an edge, she was the tough chick, and the rough edges on "The Glow" were smoothed off.
"Green Light" was produced by Rob Fraboni, and it was rougher, but the material wasn't equal to that on "Give It Up," and it sounds like it was a good time party making the album, but it was a party the listener wasn't invited to, you felt like you were outside the door, looking in, whereas with "Give It Up" you were in the room, right next to Bonnie and the band.
Ultimately Bonnie lost her Warner deal and ended up on Capitol, and surprised the entire community with "Nick of Time." The dearly departed engineer Ed Cherney recorded most of the tracks live, and you could tell the difference.
But as good as some of the peaks were, the piece-de-resistance is the album that followed it, "Luck of the Draw." It was utterly amazing, just as good as "Give It Up," and almost never does an act hit that height twice, usually they peak and never get close again. Credit Don Was, who let Bonnie be Bonnie, who didn't try to remake her, turn her into something she was not. Cuscuna's album was even more raw, but they were both authentic, human and alive in a way most albums are not.
3
Now when "Give It Up" was released in 1972 it was not seen as a triumph, not seen as the victory lap of "Cowboy Carter." Sure, there was advertising, but there was no big push, the album penetrated the consciousness via word of mouth, and it only got so far.
But the record still exists.
Now when you broke the shrinkwrap you read the credits. And if you loved an album, you read them again and again. You wanted to know who was responsible, you needed to know who was responsible. Therefore I knew the producer of "Give It Up" was Michael Cuscuna.
But I never saw his name again.
Usually when you nail it, you get more work, you become more famous, but Cuscuna seemed to disappear after "Give It Up."
Until the internet hit with its troves of information and I found out Cuscuna was very successful in the jazz world, which made me feel good, because if you do work this good you deserve a future, you deserve a place in the music firmament.
But jazz isn't really my thing.
But "Give It Up"? It's one of my favorite albums of all time. One of the first CDs I ever bought, needing to get even closer to the music than the vinyl.
And now Michael Cuscuna is dead. I found out on the "New York Times" website, I check the obituaries at least once a day, usually twice.
"Michael Cuscuna, Who Unearthed Hidden Jazz Gems, Dies at 75 - Possibly the most prolific archival record producer in history, he was a founder of the Mosaic label, which became the gold standard of jazz reissues."
https://t.ly/0HWjz
I was stunned he was 75, I thought he was older. And that he grew up in Stamford and lived there when he died, just down the turnpike from where I grew up.
Now you've got to be somebody to get a "Times" obit. But I never saw Cuscuna's name on TMZ. I didn't see hosannas on X/Twitter. I Googled and found some more obits, and I'm sure the people in the jazz world know, but if you were a fan of "Give It Up"...
Records aren't made the same way anymore. They're polished, the goal is to get them right. Which is why it was such a departure for "Nick of Time" to be recorded live, as a group.
When I first met Ed Cherney I testified about "Luck of the Draw." And multiple times thereafter, to the point where it was a thing between us, bedrock as we became much closer friends, got tight not long before he got the Big C and passed.
And the way I testified to Ed about "Luck of the Draw" is the same way I feel about "Give It Up," but I didn't know Michael Cuscuna, I couldn't testify to him.
Now some people only do one thing in their life. As per the obit, Cuscuna did a lot more than "Give It Up," and I don't know if he even thought about it anymore, if he was still proud of it, after all it never made a big breakthrough commercially, and no ever talks about it today other than maybe me.
But there are a few records... Sometimes they're the biggies, the ones everybody knows and loves, but oftentimes they're in the nooks and crannies, you stumbled on to them for odd reasons, it's not like you were turned on by the radio, and they became personal favorites.
I can play every note of "Give It Up" in my head. I love hearing "Too Long at the Fair," but I can play it in my mind, and I do, all the time.
Lots of other people produced Bonnie Raitt, but only Don Was equaled the work of Michael Cuscuna, and Was went on to produce the Stones, Cuscuna didn't ride the artistic success of "Give It Up" anyplace in the rock firmament.
Cuscuna had to be hands-on, had to add something to "Give It Up" to get it so right. Other than Was, no one else ever came close. And I own those songs, they're personal, they were never banged on the radio. "Give It Up" was made when radio was secondary, when you didn't try to have a hit, but just to get it right, believing if you did people would get it, and spread the word.
For a minute there, I thought the obits wouldn't even mention "Give It Up," because ultimately Cuscuna made his name elsewhere. But they all did. Because the work was just that important, it lasts. "Give It Up" could not be easily categorized back in '72, nothing else sounded like it, and therefore it sounds just as fresh fifty years later, like an old blues record.
It's so hard to get it right. Talk to anybody who's tried in the studio. You go in with good intentions, but usually you miss, not by a mile, but the tracks don't have that magic you were searching for.
But that magnetism, that lightning in a bottle feel...
Michael Cuscuna was in the room where it happened. Steering. Whatever he did and said, it's hard to quantify the work of a producer, made a difference, he and Bonnie didn't create good work, they created TRANSCENDENT WORK!
Just listen.
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Steve Poltz-This Week's Podcast
Steve Poltz is a national treasure. Known for co-writing "You Were Meant for Me" with Jewel, Poltz is one exposure away from becoming a ubiquitous star. You'll be riveted and entertained from the very beginning.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/steve-poltz-170718193/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-poltz/id1316200737?i=1000653566319
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5LEJ6MI4lr9HxQu7KcrEy9?si=9mOB_-i-SWinGVWVKoX3Tw
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/be2b3778-117d-4b18-82a5-5bd7f174477b/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-steve-poltz
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/steve-poltz-170718193/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-poltz/id1316200737?i=1000653566319
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5LEJ6MI4lr9HxQu7KcrEy9?si=9mOB_-i-SWinGVWVKoX3Tw
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/be2b3778-117d-4b18-82a5-5bd7f174477b/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-steve-poltz
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Cigarettes After Sex
They're playing Madison Square Garden.
The first thing I do when a band I've never heard of, or only know the name of, has outsized success is check the Spotify numbers.
"Apocalypse" has 1,233,307237 streams. How did this happen?
Well that's when you go to Wikipedia.
This is what I read about "Apocalypse" while I was listening to the track:
"It did not chart internationally until 2022, following its use in TikTok trends."
"Apocalypse" was included in the act's debut album, it was the second single, back in 2017!
The record didn't change, only the exposure did.
Now you've got to know that Madison Square Garden is a prestige play, despite being America's most famous arena you can't really make any money there, what with the unions... But you can say you played Madison Square Garden. You can win a Grammy, even in one of the top categories, and not be able to play Madison Square Garden. In other words, playing Madison Square Garden is the pinnacle of success, and now, more than ever, bands most people have never heard of are doing so.
Like Wallows. I've literally never heard of the band. But their Wikipedia page says the music video for "Are You Bored Yet?" was nominated for a VMA in the "Best Push Performance of the Year" category. What exactly is that?
I remember when the VMAs were a ritual. When you had to go, and if it wasn't in your city you got together in a group to watch it, it was a cultural rite.
We don't have any of these rites anymore.
Now Wallows is on Atlantic. But Cigarettes After Sex is on Partisan. Which is distributed by ADA, but it's not the same thing. If you're on a major label they employ all their relationships to get you on SiriusXM, to get you noticed by MTV, that's what you sign for. But when you're on an indie, even distributed by a major, those services are not lavished upon you.
Now the strangest thing about "Apocalypse" is it's really good. Wikipedia calls it "dream pop," which is not a term I've heard before, but it's accurate. And this is not usually the case. Normally something flies on the radar screen and you check it out and dismiss it, but not "Apocalypse," not even the rest of the work of Cigarettes After Sex, which has nine tracks beyond "Apocalypse" that have triple digit million streams on Spotify, and I'm not talking about de minimis streams, "Cry" has 457,140,733 and "K." has 600,943,764 and "Sunsetz" has 569,852,354.
I'm betting most readers have never even heard of Cigarettes After Sex. Yet so many with anemic streams are complaining they can't get paid.
Cigarettes After Sex was formed in 2008, when its leader Greg Gonzalez was already twenty six. The band has been in existence for sixteen years, its first album wasn't released until 2017. And you're expecting immediate success?
In other words, more acts are having success than ever before but it's taking a longer time to get there, at a point in the past where the act would have been dropped and everybody would be back at their day job, a footnote in history.
"Apocalypse" didn't change, it was the same song for five years after release before it blew up on TikTok.
Now I don't know how this happened, but I'm sure someone will e-mail and tell me, at the same time they insult me for being out of the loop, but that's the modern paradigm, one of narrow verticals, each of which are very deep, with dedicated fans.
Maybe there was a push on "Apocalypse," but I highly doubt it, five years after release. It was probably serendipitous, some TikTokker used it and then it went viral. In other words, the crowd was responsible. And this is exactly the opposite of the way it used to be.
Used to be the major labels were in control. They signed acts, picked priorities, got them press, radio and video play and they either connected or they didn't. Sure, there are some stories of tracks played years after the fact by some deejay that blew up, but those stories are rare, whereas they're de rigueur today.
Forget all the brouhaha in D.C. about TikTok. If it is closed down another platform will replace it. We've learned this over the past two decades, it's not like everybody's going to shrug their shoulders and move on. Turns out people want to create, and people want to see what the hoi polloi are creating. It's a completely different world from Netflix. Yes, Netflix's big competition is TikTok and YouTube, that's where the younger people are, for hours, every day! Its a Sargasso Sea of product, but if you rise above...you may not be known by everybody, but enough to have a career.
Then again, Cigarettes After Sex released the single "Dark Vacay" on April 16th and it only has 2,137,844 streams, indicating that the hard core base for the act is not huge and/or that most people don't even know the track is out. Cracks me up, trade papers will promote new releases, but the information never gets to the public, it's a circle jerk. The majors are still operating on an old paradigm. You don't convince the intermediary, you convince the end user, the public. And it's not about world domination, just finding your audience. And it's slower than ever before.
Everything above is hated by the powers-that-be. They hate that an indie has success. They hate that something was successful outside their purview. They hate that something succeeded organically. They hate that something is successful outside of the realm of music that they sign, which is extremely narrow.
Used to be record labels released a cornucopia of music. Today they release fewer albums than ever and it all sounds like stuff that's already been successful. That might work in a controlled market, but there's no control anymore, anybody can play, and the old avenues of exposure mean little.
This is classic disruption. And it's only going to get bigger. Almost all the major can dangle is money. And they can't make you successful, actually you have to prove your success before they'll even sign you! Which means we will have more and more outside successes. Furthermore, the major labels are categorically unable to break new artists, it's been the story of the past eighteen months. Because they want it fast when today it happens slow. Today everything is organic. The hard core music business, the active users that sustain it, seek credibility. I don't expect to see Greg Gonzalez on TMZ.
So we know less. No, we know more than we ever have, but there's so much more to know, and nobody can know all of it.
And music is not like television, where the amount of production is falling because the economics don't work. We keep getting more and more music, music is cheap, and exposure is cheap, but gaining traction in such a vast world? That's nearly impossible.
"Apocalypse":
Spotify: https://shorturl.at/lGT17
YouTube: https://rb.gy/sasl6v
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
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The first thing I do when a band I've never heard of, or only know the name of, has outsized success is check the Spotify numbers.
"Apocalypse" has 1,233,307237 streams. How did this happen?
Well that's when you go to Wikipedia.
This is what I read about "Apocalypse" while I was listening to the track:
"It did not chart internationally until 2022, following its use in TikTok trends."
"Apocalypse" was included in the act's debut album, it was the second single, back in 2017!
The record didn't change, only the exposure did.
Now you've got to know that Madison Square Garden is a prestige play, despite being America's most famous arena you can't really make any money there, what with the unions... But you can say you played Madison Square Garden. You can win a Grammy, even in one of the top categories, and not be able to play Madison Square Garden. In other words, playing Madison Square Garden is the pinnacle of success, and now, more than ever, bands most people have never heard of are doing so.
Like Wallows. I've literally never heard of the band. But their Wikipedia page says the music video for "Are You Bored Yet?" was nominated for a VMA in the "Best Push Performance of the Year" category. What exactly is that?
I remember when the VMAs were a ritual. When you had to go, and if it wasn't in your city you got together in a group to watch it, it was a cultural rite.
We don't have any of these rites anymore.
Now Wallows is on Atlantic. But Cigarettes After Sex is on Partisan. Which is distributed by ADA, but it's not the same thing. If you're on a major label they employ all their relationships to get you on SiriusXM, to get you noticed by MTV, that's what you sign for. But when you're on an indie, even distributed by a major, those services are not lavished upon you.
Now the strangest thing about "Apocalypse" is it's really good. Wikipedia calls it "dream pop," which is not a term I've heard before, but it's accurate. And this is not usually the case. Normally something flies on the radar screen and you check it out and dismiss it, but not "Apocalypse," not even the rest of the work of Cigarettes After Sex, which has nine tracks beyond "Apocalypse" that have triple digit million streams on Spotify, and I'm not talking about de minimis streams, "Cry" has 457,140,733 and "K." has 600,943,764 and "Sunsetz" has 569,852,354.
I'm betting most readers have never even heard of Cigarettes After Sex. Yet so many with anemic streams are complaining they can't get paid.
Cigarettes After Sex was formed in 2008, when its leader Greg Gonzalez was already twenty six. The band has been in existence for sixteen years, its first album wasn't released until 2017. And you're expecting immediate success?
In other words, more acts are having success than ever before but it's taking a longer time to get there, at a point in the past where the act would have been dropped and everybody would be back at their day job, a footnote in history.
"Apocalypse" didn't change, it was the same song for five years after release before it blew up on TikTok.
Now I don't know how this happened, but I'm sure someone will e-mail and tell me, at the same time they insult me for being out of the loop, but that's the modern paradigm, one of narrow verticals, each of which are very deep, with dedicated fans.
Maybe there was a push on "Apocalypse," but I highly doubt it, five years after release. It was probably serendipitous, some TikTokker used it and then it went viral. In other words, the crowd was responsible. And this is exactly the opposite of the way it used to be.
Used to be the major labels were in control. They signed acts, picked priorities, got them press, radio and video play and they either connected or they didn't. Sure, there are some stories of tracks played years after the fact by some deejay that blew up, but those stories are rare, whereas they're de rigueur today.
Forget all the brouhaha in D.C. about TikTok. If it is closed down another platform will replace it. We've learned this over the past two decades, it's not like everybody's going to shrug their shoulders and move on. Turns out people want to create, and people want to see what the hoi polloi are creating. It's a completely different world from Netflix. Yes, Netflix's big competition is TikTok and YouTube, that's where the younger people are, for hours, every day! Its a Sargasso Sea of product, but if you rise above...you may not be known by everybody, but enough to have a career.
Then again, Cigarettes After Sex released the single "Dark Vacay" on April 16th and it only has 2,137,844 streams, indicating that the hard core base for the act is not huge and/or that most people don't even know the track is out. Cracks me up, trade papers will promote new releases, but the information never gets to the public, it's a circle jerk. The majors are still operating on an old paradigm. You don't convince the intermediary, you convince the end user, the public. And it's not about world domination, just finding your audience. And it's slower than ever before.
Everything above is hated by the powers-that-be. They hate that an indie has success. They hate that something was successful outside their purview. They hate that something succeeded organically. They hate that something is successful outside of the realm of music that they sign, which is extremely narrow.
Used to be record labels released a cornucopia of music. Today they release fewer albums than ever and it all sounds like stuff that's already been successful. That might work in a controlled market, but there's no control anymore, anybody can play, and the old avenues of exposure mean little.
This is classic disruption. And it's only going to get bigger. Almost all the major can dangle is money. And they can't make you successful, actually you have to prove your success before they'll even sign you! Which means we will have more and more outside successes. Furthermore, the major labels are categorically unable to break new artists, it's been the story of the past eighteen months. Because they want it fast when today it happens slow. Today everything is organic. The hard core music business, the active users that sustain it, seek credibility. I don't expect to see Greg Gonzalez on TMZ.
So we know less. No, we know more than we ever have, but there's so much more to know, and nobody can know all of it.
And music is not like television, where the amount of production is falling because the economics don't work. We keep getting more and more music, music is cheap, and exposure is cheap, but gaining traction in such a vast world? That's nearly impossible.
"Apocalypse":
Spotify: https://shorturl.at/lGT17
YouTube: https://rb.gy/sasl6v
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Wednesday 24 April 2024
Re-Taylor Swift Backlash
A long overdue column.
Long on the cusp of sensory overload, Taylor's carpet bombing marketing started with the massive Eras Tour which, amazingly, still has seven months to go—with no surcease on the horizon.
Let's review:
1). The re-recording of old catalogue has been a complete artistic failure. Cynically marketed as an "artist rights" triumph, it was never more than a money grab.
These re-records did nothing for her artistic growth and, in fact, retarded it.
2) This, in turn, lead to a glut of her product in the marketplace and ridiculous palaver about her business acumen.
3) So, the tour gets rolling and we can't escape daily updates about every record set; it's even more ridiculous than those bogus ESPN stats, e.g., most bunt singles by a DH in a day game at Wrigley field.
4) This train starts to get derailed during the Kelsey romance—the ultimate marriage of the NFL and the world's biggest superstar.
5). Taylor goes off the rails at the Grammys. She makes a grand entrance after the monologue starts, walking an entire semi-circle to her table with the entire posse in tow! The nadir comes when she wins the award for the Best Album, music's highest honor, and sashays to the stage to announce the release date of her next album, more than two months away AND announces that she needs to go back stage to post the artwork!!!
6). Finally the release of the bloated 31 song album showing no artistic growth whatever, in fact, a step backward with too much repetition.
It's more than fatigue, it's simply too much at every level.
Best,
Lance Grode
______________________________________
My 21 year old daughter, who has been a Taylor fan, has told me she is "over it".
She also thinks she's using AI to write. Interesting theory.
Ed Toth
______________________________________
Bob this is rubbish. Get over yourself.
Mark Lafond
______________________________________
I saw this coming a mile away. Last year there was endless 24/7 round the clock coverage of the Eras tour combined non-stop coverage of her relationship with Travis Kelce. It was inescapable. Every conceivable news and music outlet I follow on social media would bombard people with an endless barrage of all things Taylor Swift. As it stands right now, it's far too soon for another album. Her tonedeaf album announcement at the Grammy's was also cringe. She clearly doesn't know how to read the room and her and her people have grossly overplayed their hand here. The last thing the world needed right now is more Taylor Swift. I'm happy to that there are dents in the armor and some mixed reviews are coming in. This one needed a reality check.
-Jake Dibiase
______________________________________
Make me miss you. That was my first thought when she announced the album. And when she dropped two versions… 30 tracks within hours, I thought "pretty self indulgent." And I'm a fan. Her Folklore and Evermore albums weren't for me, but she won me back with Midnights and the Eras tour. I've listened twice to Poets. I'm unmoved. Oh, you broke-up again? Great. Too whiny, repetitive melodies, seems she's writing with a dictionary at hand. The word "Impropriety" is used in a song. She rhymes Aristotle with Grand Theft Auto. Forcibly, IMO. And the whole vibe seems to be ripped from her BFF Lana Del Ray. An editor was needed but she's reached the "Yes Taylor" stage of anything she proposes. And yet, I still admire her. There are levels of genius. And she is kind to her fans. Sometimes too much is too much.
Jerry J. Sharell
______________________________________
Her intentional efforts to oversaturate the marketplace makes this double album a bit too self-indulgent and unneeded for my likes.
I most definitely have Taylor fatigue and I acutally enjoy a good chunk of these 31 songs.
Greg Robson
______________________________________
Bob, I understand where the author is coming from but from a record store's perspective, we haven't seen any backlash on Taylor Swift. The buzz was in full effect last weekend and her fans, especially younger teens, have maybe multiplied since the last album.
Scott Farrell
Down In The Valley Records
Minneapolis MN
______________________________________
Don't let go of the handlebars just yet, Bob. First of all, you personally inspired a hit song by Taylor Swift. Take a look at your rare company. You're standing among a couple of rock/pop stars and a Super Bowl champion.
Secondly, maybe review the material first? Courtney Love is thankful that a media outlet will pick up the phone these days and Hole was never, ever interesting.
Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff are producing incredible and interesting music, whether it's their own work or collaborations with others like Taylor. Take her songwriting magic, which she has whether anyone likes it or not, combined with that level of production brilliance and you're going to have some killer tracks. Fortnight, TTPD and loml are a few. Listen to the record, write about the record and then complain about the dyed vinyl, okay?
Aubrey Parker
______________________________________
I'm not a fan, but I listened to the album (at least the first drop.) and it just wasn't that good. Bland, repetitive. Case closed for me.
Mitchell Manasse
______________________________________
Yes.
"Let the farmland lay fallow".
Meg Griffin
______________________________________
Yes, didn't she just have the biggest tour, and the biggest movie, and the biggest public romance and was seen at the biggest sporting event and now she has the biggest album with the most streams ever?…damn, that's a lot!
Who else could render Trump mysterious by comparison? And the words tortured and poet in her album's title just sound out of place to me. But hey I'm your age.
Shepherd Stevenson
L.A.
______________________________________
Mark me down for over T Swift. Actually was over it during football season. Well really never a fan. When everyone around you tells you you're great, you are. Suffering from TSTSD.
B Chapin
______________________________________
With you on this. Her oversatuation/marketing ploys have gotten to such extremes it has turned me off her.
I have enjoyed her music but literally can't listen to the new album, skipped through it, just a rehash.
Too much of even a good thing IS too much.
Guess showing her true egomaniacal/vengeful stripes, or perhaps the billionare status has gone to her head. Likely a combination but regardless, sad, actually.
DG
______________________________________
There would be no negative Taylor Swift writings if the songs on this album were better. There is no saturation for good new music.
Frederick Licciardi, M.D.
Reproductive Endocrinology Fellowship Director
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
New York University Langone Health
______________________________________
Hi Bob. Not a Swiftie, can't even name or identify any of her music (though I passively followed her "feud" with you while it lasted). Enjoyed your take here and thought you might enjoy Marsha's take in the Globe.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/a190b54233b6b220747b2f5e5cbe3f73677b764a365e39107e7b2850357a7ae7/75CN4G5YGJCGTOL7NIGTEIMKRA/
Cheers!
Michael Craig
______________________________________
I'm from Syracuse and there were some empty seats at his show on the 18th. But he is playing the Dome: 30K plus for concerts--unlike the basketball-sized arenas he played in Albany and Columbus before and after Syracuse. The empties were in the back of the dome and in the upper decks. The sound is famously lousy in the Dome too--but it was a great show. I've seen the promo videos he made for a couple of the shows--not on Tik Tok which I don't use, but reposts on the fansite Blogness on the Edge of Town--the go to site for set lists/videos etc. for the tour now that Backstreets shut down. His video for Syracuse was him and Garry W. Tallent--the only two folks at his very first Syracuse show in 1973 (opening for Chicago). Funny--and a little ballsy with the use of the f-word.
I'm a huge Bruce fan, amazed that he can do these energetic 3 hr. shows at 74 years old. I'm 64 and starting to hobble around.
Phil Prehn
______________________________________
She has been putting out new versions of past albums. So, this is all new material? Swifties want a piece of everything she does. For RSD last weekend, who beat out the usual people first in line? Swifties. To get a reproduction of a letter she wrote. There was no RSD limited vinyl. She has more power than any other woman in the world. Can anybody else sellout the Superdome for three nights in a couple of hours? A Pink Floyd reunion, maybe?
The young people need a hero and they have chosen her. Post Covid, etc. Let them have their hero. It also helps with parent/child bonding. The last few RSD"s involving Swifties, the same mother brings her daughter and stays overnight with her. She told me she is taking her to Europe to TS, She buys her all the variants, too. Good mother. Good medicine in these times.
That said, I think people should be able to give their honest opinion. As long as it is not done out of meaness.
John Kauchick
Mississippi
______________________________________
Great read, but I hope you tackle the "the thanK you, aIMee" song… the ultimate retribution and "FU" to Kim Kardashian for going after her. Made me have a whole new level of respect for her.
Will Ward
______________________________________
Truer words, maestro.
Between the ginormous tours, the tour movie, the NFL/Kelcie soap opera, the nonstop posting and perceived attempts to dominate the news cycles, and, now what I think really feels like a cash grab with the re-recordings (and why would this pop star ever need any more money?), and that's coming also from some hard core swifties I know and am fond of, I have felt, before this article and your post, like she's blowing it. It's the old adage: "how can I miss you if you don't go away?"
She's far from the first pop star who miscalculated this way, and/or can't get out of her own narcissistic shadow, and almost surely won't be the last.
Steve Jones
______________________________________
One of my father's favorite retorts whenever I criticized a popular artist I couldn't give a sh*t about (Barry Manilow comes to mind) was, "All the way to the bank." Taylor Swift is literally a billionaire. She has a huge fan base who loves everything she does and no amount of "think pieces" in mainstream publications (or Paste, whoever the f*ck reads that) is going to change their minds. So I guess like most sons, I've become my dad. Plus I like a lot of her music and thought The Eras Tour movie was pretty incredible.
Neil Krupnick
Expat Boomer in Portugal
______________________________________
At the Atlanta concert she (Madonna) did show up at 10:04PM for 8:30PM show. But THAT"S NOT WHAT PISSED ME OFF! As we arrived, on time, for the show and sat in our $450.00 seats I immediately notice how f*cking hot it was. So I go to one of the ushers in our section and ask if he can crank up the AC? He says " Too bad you didn't get the memo. I'm wearing this short sleeve polo because they warned all the venue staff that Madonna wanted it HOT." Well, I was schvitzing until the show ended at 12:30AM."
And THAT'S the part of the class action that the Material Girl may have trouble wiggling out of.
Eron Epstein
______________________________________
I am not a Swiftie, but I listened to Taylor's album because I like some of her songs and I heard the hype. (I haven't heard them all, in fact I've never heard one of her albums all the way through before.)
I found it boring. All the music is around the same midtempo plodding speed, with vocals that mostly sound like they were recorded when she was half asleep. All the drums and keyboards backing her sound like they are from the same off-the-shelf AI-generator do-it-yourself-band program. (Are all of her records this way? If so, then I can't understand her massive success.)
If I was a mom, I'd be upset with all the foul language in the album. For someone who has such a nice-girl image, there sure are a lot of F-bombs . I'd hate to have my young daughter walking around singing:
'Cause f*ck it, I was in love
So f*ck you if I can't have us
Language aside, many of the lyrics are pretty deep and cool, I guess, but I think more fans are into hooks than the lyrics, but maybe I'm wrong about that. But a good album makes me want to start over and listen to it again. This album made me want to skip to the next song, repeatedly.
If I was her manager I'd have suggested an edit. Just because you can put out an endless amount of music doesn't mean you should. We learned that with all those over-stuffed 80 minute CDs in the '90s, didn't we?
Mike Blakesley
______________________________________
My two centimes: I've thought Swift is talented and not doing the same old sh*t. (adult here--not bracelet Swiftie). However, in this group of songs (disclaimer: didn't buy it, though I have a turntable. Heard on YT.)... possibly because of the number released I started to see a formula. I also hear a formula in the beats.
Any group of work created in a short time is going to reflect that time... hence, it's a lot of 4pm.
Take Cezanne's apples... If you see thirty paintings of them, as great as the artist may be there is a saturation point. And, I doubt Cezanne would drop thirty apple paintings. Ms. Swift needs an editor.
I don't understand this release. Swift is more than huge.. it can't be about the money... drop this after the Eras tour and the fans will buy anything. As a prolific artist she must be concerned with her body of work and her legacy. I don't think if Beethoven released all 32 piano sonate (one more than Swift song on the album) it would be a good idea. (probably bad analogy-- he composed them during about 45 years)... but, even so... say in a boxed set they invite comparison. To have your work compete with your work doesn't seem like a good idea for Ludwig or for Taylor.
Best wishes,
Elisabetta di Cagno
______________________________________
Don't know how much backlash there is...
Backlash only matters in 2024 to the people doing the backlashing.
The fans don't care. Taylor doesn't care as she fuels up her jet. But the haters do.
This is just the beginning of the new future that you've talked about for so long. No need for her to STFU, she won't.
Stephen Tatton
______________________________________
Taylor Swift is her own worst ex and we're her sounding board. That said, I'll take more Taylor over the next four years if it means less Trump, and I'm not even in her demographic. But after all the media hype, maybe I am the demographic. Love her new video, the music can take it or leave it. Commercial pop is commercial pop, suck it like a lollipop and toss the wrapper into the slush pile for the next sucker to contend with.
Stephen Gordon
______________________________________
How dare you Bob! Take it back!
Seriously though, our entire family are Taylor Swift fans and even our 10 year old is saying "she's starting to repeat herself" or "doesn't she sing that melody on 3 or 4 other songs?"
I even noticed more Swifties actually complaining during the presale process because they don't have the money for all of the variants and editions being offered with only one new bonus track on each one. If you are on her mailing list you also know that her team is always promoting scarcity. It's always "available for 48 hours only!!!"… and of course just a week or so before the album came out she made all of the different versions become available 'one more time for only 48 hours'.
And now we have the 31 song version which for sure will be available to buy and hardcopy as well at some point with probably at least four variants.
More re-invention and less scarcity and oversaturation I say…
Jemal Jalal Hines
______________________________________
Great article again Bob. It is certainly about the marketing but I DO think it's about Taylor Swift. She obviously controls EVERYTHING including the marketing AND how many of the same albums are released and when. No , I am not a TS hater but I'm not blind or deaf either. In fact I thought she had talent and potential when she was her original self. That went to the wayside light years ago and as we know - sooner or later it all catches up with you. That's entertainment. Peace & Love, Jeff Booth
______________________________________
Couldn't agree more. My household though is a testament to both sides…
I am a longtime producer / writer and have mega respect (duh) for Taylor. Love a lot of her stuff. Have been enjoying for the most part my 12 year olds obsession with her. I liked Midnights a lot. Have been trying to get reasonable tickets for my daughter (haha good luck) She was OVER the moon excited for this album.
It came out, I started listening last friday to all 31 tracks, and it immediately hit me within the first or two tracks… this is too much, it's not that good, it sounds like everything else she's done the last few years, but just, not as good. I couldn't get through it. I tried again, and again. Just, feels to me like an artist surrounded by yes people, with nobody telling her "hey, the lyrics may be very meaningful, but the songs themselves, the chords, the melodies, the vibe… NOT GOOD… over cooked"
My daughter… LOVES IT. She's a super fan. Obsessed with the lyrics. And I keep hearing from other swifties… they kinda love that it's a record "for them", not for the rest. We'll see how long that attitude lasts.
But personally I agree. It has completely turned me off of her older music now too, and I'm leaning towards not shilling out for the concert. I"m just kinda turned off big time. She had an opportunity to DO SOMETHING NEW and really special here… biggest audience in the world. Biggest moment. She could afford to take some risks, try something radical… This feels like mailed in content to max out streaming numbers… that's it.
______________________________________
Tell me about it, Bob. How would you like to be mistaken for her manager? I get messages on LinkedIn and FB all the time from people who want tickets for their daughter or some charity event that wants Taylor's time. I got one a couple of week's ago from someone making a documentary in Germany and wanted me to set up an interview with Taylor for broadcast on National German TV. I have to tell them I'm not THAT Robert Allen. lol
This goes back a number of years, but I used to think the industry people in Nashville were super nice. When I'd call some manager or label, they would put me right through to the person I was calling. I'm thinking, that's unusual but maybe that's Nashville. Then I started getting the emails for Taylor Swift's attention and it dawns on me that my name has something to do with it. Now it makes sense because when I'd call Nashville, a receptionist would ask who's calling and I would say my name and there would be this 1-2 second pause and then they would put me right through. Good luck getting a receptionist since Covid. lol
So I look up who's managing Taylor and it's her parents, which doesn't make sense to me why people are contacting me. Finally I saw that there was a Robert Allen who was her Tour Manager at the time. He's now become her full-time manager as head of her management company. But that hasn't stopped people from contacting me for TS.
Peace,
Robert Allen
Sha-La Music Inc.
______________________________________
Great email.
I was in correspondence with the manager of another of the world's biggest stars about their being a guest on my podcast. I was told they'd consider it when they came back from their "off cycle."
debbie millman
______________________________________
I still couldn't name a single Taylor Swift song if you put a gun to my head (and I'm so dulled by her uber-ubiquity you'd probably have to), but the thought of a double album containing thirty one songs just makes me feel like Trump in that courtroom.
Best, as always,
Dave King
______________________________________
She is a talentless hack who can't sing. Followed by a bunch of social media-obsessed female age 11 teenyboppers who rely on their "peers" to help them decide what they like since they don't know what they like. I was over TS from day one. May the fatigue be permanent. All the media shills who write about her have never heard one of her sh*tty songs. This includes Kara Swisher. A brilliant tech analyst but musically clueless.
Derek Morris
______________________________________
"Always leave them asking for more." - P.T. Barnum
Mark Maheu
Barrie, Ontario
______________________________________
I wonder if Swift adding that additional album to the release was an unforced error? I note that the Spotify numbers for the second album are a third to a fourth of the numbers for the first several tracks. Her fans, who seem to be consumers of albums, aren't making it all the way through the two hours of music. She would have done better to hold the second album and release it later in the year.
Don Friedman
______________________________________
Let's not forget to include Pearl Jam in this onslaught of multiple editions of records. There are 12 different color variations of their latest 'Dark Matter,' retailing for around $50 each. Limited pressings of each, but as I understand it, most of the variants have not sold out as of today. At least they tried to do something interesting with this, by having them be specifically region-exclusive and certain independent record stores would be selling them online (Easy Street Records in Seattle, Newbury Comics in Boston, etc).
However, as a fan, the thought of dropping $600 or more to collect all of them (that's the only reason you would do it if you were hardcore about having everything) is too much for me. I like the new record a lot and feel like it's their best since 'Yield' in 1998. But if Pearl Jam is embracing the cash grab of limited edition vinyl, it's going to happen for every band eventually.
-Nathan Lind
______________________________________
I agree with Courtney.
This nails it:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5_q6PGu4Vl/
EveAnna Manley
______________________________________
"But does that mean I can never comment about her again?"
Yes. It is perceived as possibly disingenuous and/or based on a personal agenda. Classic conflict of interest.
Micah Sheveloff
______________________________________
Excellent viewpoint on this Bob . She's not the first one to commit this faux pas . BTW hooray to the plaintiffs participating in the class action against Madonna . Like really who does she think she is ?
Chris
______________________________________
Drake and Swift actually seem to have the same problems. The act is stale and they're too old for their stances in their own songs. They're insulated for now by their money and the rubber stamp they have with fans.
I also think both of them can survive passing their peak and still break interesting ground, maybe even more interesting, as long as they admit it happened and dig into their artistic cores. They're successful for good, sustainable reasons.
Gregg DeMammos
______________________________________
This can also be compared to "Trump burnout". He's on every network and cable news channel every day all day. He's on the front page of the WSJ today and in at least one article every day.
He's a common criminal, pigs have better personalities, a modern day Al Capone minus the Tommy gun, but uggh, he is the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee. Make this stop too.
Jim Gilmore
______________________________________
It's an open secret that Taylor can't sing live. I worked a video crew at a trade show where she performed with her incredible band when she was still country and sweet as can be.
The brand spent a lot of time and money on post production and the engineer who cut the live audio tried to make it feel "live" by leaving a few clams in Final Cut.
The brand sent the videos to management and management they wouldn't agree to release the "live" videos until her entire vocal track got pitch corrected.
But fans in the audience had already recorded and shared the songs online exposing her clam sandwich of a performance. Remember when Milli Vanilli got pilloried for being phony? Well, looks like Tay Tay gets a new jet.
Shane Roeschlein
______________________________________
I think what is very frustrating to us fans of Swift and you is that you just never have anything positive to say. I can't remember the last time you actually delved into the actual quality of her music. It's always a negative take.
It doesn't really matter what you or other critics say though. The connection she has now with her people is just too strong. The total honesty on this new album is astounding, and she has not made it for the masses. She knows that it's only the most hardcore of fans that will pore over the dense lyrics to 31 songs. There's only one hit single contender (Down Bad).
But for those of us who have grown up with her it's pure gold. We now know so much more about what's she's been going through for the past decade, and for a rich global superstar to admit she chose the wrong partner, or that the guy who she thought was the one ghosted and left her high and dry is astounding. It's all so relatable, even after all these years.
So keep on hoping she'll make a misstep, because this is the thing; she never will. Because she is ultimately just plainly perhaps the greatest and truest artist that has ever lived (thus far).
Imagine the stories you could be writing if you accepted the enormity of her talent and success. You're alive during the reign of possibly the greatest artist in history and you don't see it. It's actually quite bewildering.
Sincerely,
John Paterson
______________________________________
I love what Taylor Swift does now, but you were right: her performance with Stevie Nicks at The Grammies was out of tune and terrible. And for all the pre performance hype it had, it seemed even worse than it was, which was pretty bad.
Colin Boyd
______________________________________
"How can I miss you if you won't go away?"
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Same album as the immortal "I Scare Myself." Great stuff.
I think Taylor may have finally jumped the shark but then again my daughter was quick to order a "Tortured Poets" sweater for her mom. It is starting to feel a bit like KISS.
Regarding Bruce I have to assume that all the social media hype is to get butts in seats after he had to reschedule all the shows. I couldn't go to the rescheduled show in Columbus but I managed to sell my two tickets for $1000. So it seems there is still some demand among the boomer elite.
Keep up the great work. Somehow you made even the guy from Loverboy sound interesting.
Best
David Vawter
______________________________________
When you make bad music, you can make it all day long.
Luke Joerger
Hastings Digital Studios LLC
______________________________________
Put me in the "Swiftie column"
Mike Bone
______________________________________
You are getting hard to read. Ailsa Morozow
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Long on the cusp of sensory overload, Taylor's carpet bombing marketing started with the massive Eras Tour which, amazingly, still has seven months to go—with no surcease on the horizon.
Let's review:
1). The re-recording of old catalogue has been a complete artistic failure. Cynically marketed as an "artist rights" triumph, it was never more than a money grab.
These re-records did nothing for her artistic growth and, in fact, retarded it.
2) This, in turn, lead to a glut of her product in the marketplace and ridiculous palaver about her business acumen.
3) So, the tour gets rolling and we can't escape daily updates about every record set; it's even more ridiculous than those bogus ESPN stats, e.g., most bunt singles by a DH in a day game at Wrigley field.
4) This train starts to get derailed during the Kelsey romance—the ultimate marriage of the NFL and the world's biggest superstar.
5). Taylor goes off the rails at the Grammys. She makes a grand entrance after the monologue starts, walking an entire semi-circle to her table with the entire posse in tow! The nadir comes when she wins the award for the Best Album, music's highest honor, and sashays to the stage to announce the release date of her next album, more than two months away AND announces that she needs to go back stage to post the artwork!!!
6). Finally the release of the bloated 31 song album showing no artistic growth whatever, in fact, a step backward with too much repetition.
It's more than fatigue, it's simply too much at every level.
Best,
Lance Grode
______________________________________
My 21 year old daughter, who has been a Taylor fan, has told me she is "over it".
She also thinks she's using AI to write. Interesting theory.
Ed Toth
______________________________________
Bob this is rubbish. Get over yourself.
Mark Lafond
______________________________________
I saw this coming a mile away. Last year there was endless 24/7 round the clock coverage of the Eras tour combined non-stop coverage of her relationship with Travis Kelce. It was inescapable. Every conceivable news and music outlet I follow on social media would bombard people with an endless barrage of all things Taylor Swift. As it stands right now, it's far too soon for another album. Her tonedeaf album announcement at the Grammy's was also cringe. She clearly doesn't know how to read the room and her and her people have grossly overplayed their hand here. The last thing the world needed right now is more Taylor Swift. I'm happy to that there are dents in the armor and some mixed reviews are coming in. This one needed a reality check.
-Jake Dibiase
______________________________________
Make me miss you. That was my first thought when she announced the album. And when she dropped two versions… 30 tracks within hours, I thought "pretty self indulgent." And I'm a fan. Her Folklore and Evermore albums weren't for me, but she won me back with Midnights and the Eras tour. I've listened twice to Poets. I'm unmoved. Oh, you broke-up again? Great. Too whiny, repetitive melodies, seems she's writing with a dictionary at hand. The word "Impropriety" is used in a song. She rhymes Aristotle with Grand Theft Auto. Forcibly, IMO. And the whole vibe seems to be ripped from her BFF Lana Del Ray. An editor was needed but she's reached the "Yes Taylor" stage of anything she proposes. And yet, I still admire her. There are levels of genius. And she is kind to her fans. Sometimes too much is too much.
Jerry J. Sharell
______________________________________
Her intentional efforts to oversaturate the marketplace makes this double album a bit too self-indulgent and unneeded for my likes.
I most definitely have Taylor fatigue and I acutally enjoy a good chunk of these 31 songs.
Greg Robson
______________________________________
Bob, I understand where the author is coming from but from a record store's perspective, we haven't seen any backlash on Taylor Swift. The buzz was in full effect last weekend and her fans, especially younger teens, have maybe multiplied since the last album.
Scott Farrell
Down In The Valley Records
Minneapolis MN
______________________________________
Don't let go of the handlebars just yet, Bob. First of all, you personally inspired a hit song by Taylor Swift. Take a look at your rare company. You're standing among a couple of rock/pop stars and a Super Bowl champion.
Secondly, maybe review the material first? Courtney Love is thankful that a media outlet will pick up the phone these days and Hole was never, ever interesting.
Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff are producing incredible and interesting music, whether it's their own work or collaborations with others like Taylor. Take her songwriting magic, which she has whether anyone likes it or not, combined with that level of production brilliance and you're going to have some killer tracks. Fortnight, TTPD and loml are a few. Listen to the record, write about the record and then complain about the dyed vinyl, okay?
Aubrey Parker
______________________________________
I'm not a fan, but I listened to the album (at least the first drop.) and it just wasn't that good. Bland, repetitive. Case closed for me.
Mitchell Manasse
______________________________________
Yes.
"Let the farmland lay fallow".
Meg Griffin
______________________________________
Yes, didn't she just have the biggest tour, and the biggest movie, and the biggest public romance and was seen at the biggest sporting event and now she has the biggest album with the most streams ever?…damn, that's a lot!
Who else could render Trump mysterious by comparison? And the words tortured and poet in her album's title just sound out of place to me. But hey I'm your age.
Shepherd Stevenson
L.A.
______________________________________
Mark me down for over T Swift. Actually was over it during football season. Well really never a fan. When everyone around you tells you you're great, you are. Suffering from TSTSD.
B Chapin
______________________________________
With you on this. Her oversatuation/marketing ploys have gotten to such extremes it has turned me off her.
I have enjoyed her music but literally can't listen to the new album, skipped through it, just a rehash.
Too much of even a good thing IS too much.
Guess showing her true egomaniacal/vengeful stripes, or perhaps the billionare status has gone to her head. Likely a combination but regardless, sad, actually.
DG
______________________________________
There would be no negative Taylor Swift writings if the songs on this album were better. There is no saturation for good new music.
Frederick Licciardi, M.D.
Reproductive Endocrinology Fellowship Director
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
New York University Langone Health
______________________________________
Hi Bob. Not a Swiftie, can't even name or identify any of her music (though I passively followed her "feud" with you while it lasted). Enjoyed your take here and thought you might enjoy Marsha's take in the Globe.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/a190b54233b6b220747b2f5e5cbe3f73677b764a365e39107e7b2850357a7ae7/75CN4G5YGJCGTOL7NIGTEIMKRA/
Cheers!
Michael Craig
______________________________________
I'm from Syracuse and there were some empty seats at his show on the 18th. But he is playing the Dome: 30K plus for concerts--unlike the basketball-sized arenas he played in Albany and Columbus before and after Syracuse. The empties were in the back of the dome and in the upper decks. The sound is famously lousy in the Dome too--but it was a great show. I've seen the promo videos he made for a couple of the shows--not on Tik Tok which I don't use, but reposts on the fansite Blogness on the Edge of Town--the go to site for set lists/videos etc. for the tour now that Backstreets shut down. His video for Syracuse was him and Garry W. Tallent--the only two folks at his very first Syracuse show in 1973 (opening for Chicago). Funny--and a little ballsy with the use of the f-word.
I'm a huge Bruce fan, amazed that he can do these energetic 3 hr. shows at 74 years old. I'm 64 and starting to hobble around.
Phil Prehn
______________________________________
She has been putting out new versions of past albums. So, this is all new material? Swifties want a piece of everything she does. For RSD last weekend, who beat out the usual people first in line? Swifties. To get a reproduction of a letter she wrote. There was no RSD limited vinyl. She has more power than any other woman in the world. Can anybody else sellout the Superdome for three nights in a couple of hours? A Pink Floyd reunion, maybe?
The young people need a hero and they have chosen her. Post Covid, etc. Let them have their hero. It also helps with parent/child bonding. The last few RSD"s involving Swifties, the same mother brings her daughter and stays overnight with her. She told me she is taking her to Europe to TS, She buys her all the variants, too. Good mother. Good medicine in these times.
That said, I think people should be able to give their honest opinion. As long as it is not done out of meaness.
John Kauchick
Mississippi
______________________________________
Great read, but I hope you tackle the "the thanK you, aIMee" song… the ultimate retribution and "FU" to Kim Kardashian for going after her. Made me have a whole new level of respect for her.
Will Ward
______________________________________
Truer words, maestro.
Between the ginormous tours, the tour movie, the NFL/Kelcie soap opera, the nonstop posting and perceived attempts to dominate the news cycles, and, now what I think really feels like a cash grab with the re-recordings (and why would this pop star ever need any more money?), and that's coming also from some hard core swifties I know and am fond of, I have felt, before this article and your post, like she's blowing it. It's the old adage: "how can I miss you if you don't go away?"
She's far from the first pop star who miscalculated this way, and/or can't get out of her own narcissistic shadow, and almost surely won't be the last.
Steve Jones
______________________________________
One of my father's favorite retorts whenever I criticized a popular artist I couldn't give a sh*t about (Barry Manilow comes to mind) was, "All the way to the bank." Taylor Swift is literally a billionaire. She has a huge fan base who loves everything she does and no amount of "think pieces" in mainstream publications (or Paste, whoever the f*ck reads that) is going to change their minds. So I guess like most sons, I've become my dad. Plus I like a lot of her music and thought The Eras Tour movie was pretty incredible.
Neil Krupnick
Expat Boomer in Portugal
______________________________________
At the Atlanta concert she (Madonna) did show up at 10:04PM for 8:30PM show. But THAT"S NOT WHAT PISSED ME OFF! As we arrived, on time, for the show and sat in our $450.00 seats I immediately notice how f*cking hot it was. So I go to one of the ushers in our section and ask if he can crank up the AC? He says " Too bad you didn't get the memo. I'm wearing this short sleeve polo because they warned all the venue staff that Madonna wanted it HOT." Well, I was schvitzing until the show ended at 12:30AM."
And THAT'S the part of the class action that the Material Girl may have trouble wiggling out of.
Eron Epstein
______________________________________
I am not a Swiftie, but I listened to Taylor's album because I like some of her songs and I heard the hype. (I haven't heard them all, in fact I've never heard one of her albums all the way through before.)
I found it boring. All the music is around the same midtempo plodding speed, with vocals that mostly sound like they were recorded when she was half asleep. All the drums and keyboards backing her sound like they are from the same off-the-shelf AI-generator do-it-yourself-band program. (Are all of her records this way? If so, then I can't understand her massive success.)
If I was a mom, I'd be upset with all the foul language in the album. For someone who has such a nice-girl image, there sure are a lot of F-bombs . I'd hate to have my young daughter walking around singing:
'Cause f*ck it, I was in love
So f*ck you if I can't have us
Language aside, many of the lyrics are pretty deep and cool, I guess, but I think more fans are into hooks than the lyrics, but maybe I'm wrong about that. But a good album makes me want to start over and listen to it again. This album made me want to skip to the next song, repeatedly.
If I was her manager I'd have suggested an edit. Just because you can put out an endless amount of music doesn't mean you should. We learned that with all those over-stuffed 80 minute CDs in the '90s, didn't we?
Mike Blakesley
______________________________________
My two centimes: I've thought Swift is talented and not doing the same old sh*t. (adult here--not bracelet Swiftie). However, in this group of songs (disclaimer: didn't buy it, though I have a turntable. Heard on YT.)... possibly because of the number released I started to see a formula. I also hear a formula in the beats.
Any group of work created in a short time is going to reflect that time... hence, it's a lot of 4pm.
Take Cezanne's apples... If you see thirty paintings of them, as great as the artist may be there is a saturation point. And, I doubt Cezanne would drop thirty apple paintings. Ms. Swift needs an editor.
I don't understand this release. Swift is more than huge.. it can't be about the money... drop this after the Eras tour and the fans will buy anything. As a prolific artist she must be concerned with her body of work and her legacy. I don't think if Beethoven released all 32 piano sonate (one more than Swift song on the album) it would be a good idea. (probably bad analogy-- he composed them during about 45 years)... but, even so... say in a boxed set they invite comparison. To have your work compete with your work doesn't seem like a good idea for Ludwig or for Taylor.
Best wishes,
Elisabetta di Cagno
______________________________________
Don't know how much backlash there is...
Backlash only matters in 2024 to the people doing the backlashing.
The fans don't care. Taylor doesn't care as she fuels up her jet. But the haters do.
This is just the beginning of the new future that you've talked about for so long. No need for her to STFU, she won't.
Stephen Tatton
______________________________________
Taylor Swift is her own worst ex and we're her sounding board. That said, I'll take more Taylor over the next four years if it means less Trump, and I'm not even in her demographic. But after all the media hype, maybe I am the demographic. Love her new video, the music can take it or leave it. Commercial pop is commercial pop, suck it like a lollipop and toss the wrapper into the slush pile for the next sucker to contend with.
Stephen Gordon
______________________________________
How dare you Bob! Take it back!
Seriously though, our entire family are Taylor Swift fans and even our 10 year old is saying "she's starting to repeat herself" or "doesn't she sing that melody on 3 or 4 other songs?"
I even noticed more Swifties actually complaining during the presale process because they don't have the money for all of the variants and editions being offered with only one new bonus track on each one. If you are on her mailing list you also know that her team is always promoting scarcity. It's always "available for 48 hours only!!!"… and of course just a week or so before the album came out she made all of the different versions become available 'one more time for only 48 hours'.
And now we have the 31 song version which for sure will be available to buy and hardcopy as well at some point with probably at least four variants.
More re-invention and less scarcity and oversaturation I say…
Jemal Jalal Hines
______________________________________
Great article again Bob. It is certainly about the marketing but I DO think it's about Taylor Swift. She obviously controls EVERYTHING including the marketing AND how many of the same albums are released and when. No , I am not a TS hater but I'm not blind or deaf either. In fact I thought she had talent and potential when she was her original self. That went to the wayside light years ago and as we know - sooner or later it all catches up with you. That's entertainment. Peace & Love, Jeff Booth
______________________________________
Couldn't agree more. My household though is a testament to both sides…
I am a longtime producer / writer and have mega respect (duh) for Taylor. Love a lot of her stuff. Have been enjoying for the most part my 12 year olds obsession with her. I liked Midnights a lot. Have been trying to get reasonable tickets for my daughter (haha good luck) She was OVER the moon excited for this album.
It came out, I started listening last friday to all 31 tracks, and it immediately hit me within the first or two tracks… this is too much, it's not that good, it sounds like everything else she's done the last few years, but just, not as good. I couldn't get through it. I tried again, and again. Just, feels to me like an artist surrounded by yes people, with nobody telling her "hey, the lyrics may be very meaningful, but the songs themselves, the chords, the melodies, the vibe… NOT GOOD… over cooked"
My daughter… LOVES IT. She's a super fan. Obsessed with the lyrics. And I keep hearing from other swifties… they kinda love that it's a record "for them", not for the rest. We'll see how long that attitude lasts.
But personally I agree. It has completely turned me off of her older music now too, and I'm leaning towards not shilling out for the concert. I"m just kinda turned off big time. She had an opportunity to DO SOMETHING NEW and really special here… biggest audience in the world. Biggest moment. She could afford to take some risks, try something radical… This feels like mailed in content to max out streaming numbers… that's it.
______________________________________
Tell me about it, Bob. How would you like to be mistaken for her manager? I get messages on LinkedIn and FB all the time from people who want tickets for their daughter or some charity event that wants Taylor's time. I got one a couple of week's ago from someone making a documentary in Germany and wanted me to set up an interview with Taylor for broadcast on National German TV. I have to tell them I'm not THAT Robert Allen. lol
This goes back a number of years, but I used to think the industry people in Nashville were super nice. When I'd call some manager or label, they would put me right through to the person I was calling. I'm thinking, that's unusual but maybe that's Nashville. Then I started getting the emails for Taylor Swift's attention and it dawns on me that my name has something to do with it. Now it makes sense because when I'd call Nashville, a receptionist would ask who's calling and I would say my name and there would be this 1-2 second pause and then they would put me right through. Good luck getting a receptionist since Covid. lol
So I look up who's managing Taylor and it's her parents, which doesn't make sense to me why people are contacting me. Finally I saw that there was a Robert Allen who was her Tour Manager at the time. He's now become her full-time manager as head of her management company. But that hasn't stopped people from contacting me for TS.
Peace,
Robert Allen
Sha-La Music Inc.
______________________________________
Great email.
I was in correspondence with the manager of another of the world's biggest stars about their being a guest on my podcast. I was told they'd consider it when they came back from their "off cycle."
debbie millman
______________________________________
I still couldn't name a single Taylor Swift song if you put a gun to my head (and I'm so dulled by her uber-ubiquity you'd probably have to), but the thought of a double album containing thirty one songs just makes me feel like Trump in that courtroom.
Best, as always,
Dave King
______________________________________
She is a talentless hack who can't sing. Followed by a bunch of social media-obsessed female age 11 teenyboppers who rely on their "peers" to help them decide what they like since they don't know what they like. I was over TS from day one. May the fatigue be permanent. All the media shills who write about her have never heard one of her sh*tty songs. This includes Kara Swisher. A brilliant tech analyst but musically clueless.
Derek Morris
______________________________________
"Always leave them asking for more." - P.T. Barnum
Mark Maheu
Barrie, Ontario
______________________________________
I wonder if Swift adding that additional album to the release was an unforced error? I note that the Spotify numbers for the second album are a third to a fourth of the numbers for the first several tracks. Her fans, who seem to be consumers of albums, aren't making it all the way through the two hours of music. She would have done better to hold the second album and release it later in the year.
Don Friedman
______________________________________
Let's not forget to include Pearl Jam in this onslaught of multiple editions of records. There are 12 different color variations of their latest 'Dark Matter,' retailing for around $50 each. Limited pressings of each, but as I understand it, most of the variants have not sold out as of today. At least they tried to do something interesting with this, by having them be specifically region-exclusive and certain independent record stores would be selling them online (Easy Street Records in Seattle, Newbury Comics in Boston, etc).
However, as a fan, the thought of dropping $600 or more to collect all of them (that's the only reason you would do it if you were hardcore about having everything) is too much for me. I like the new record a lot and feel like it's their best since 'Yield' in 1998. But if Pearl Jam is embracing the cash grab of limited edition vinyl, it's going to happen for every band eventually.
-Nathan Lind
______________________________________
I agree with Courtney.
This nails it:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5_q6PGu4Vl/
EveAnna Manley
______________________________________
"But does that mean I can never comment about her again?"
Yes. It is perceived as possibly disingenuous and/or based on a personal agenda. Classic conflict of interest.
Micah Sheveloff
______________________________________
Excellent viewpoint on this Bob . She's not the first one to commit this faux pas . BTW hooray to the plaintiffs participating in the class action against Madonna . Like really who does she think she is ?
Chris
______________________________________
Drake and Swift actually seem to have the same problems. The act is stale and they're too old for their stances in their own songs. They're insulated for now by their money and the rubber stamp they have with fans.
I also think both of them can survive passing their peak and still break interesting ground, maybe even more interesting, as long as they admit it happened and dig into their artistic cores. They're successful for good, sustainable reasons.
Gregg DeMammos
______________________________________
This can also be compared to "Trump burnout". He's on every network and cable news channel every day all day. He's on the front page of the WSJ today and in at least one article every day.
He's a common criminal, pigs have better personalities, a modern day Al Capone minus the Tommy gun, but uggh, he is the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee. Make this stop too.
Jim Gilmore
______________________________________
It's an open secret that Taylor can't sing live. I worked a video crew at a trade show where she performed with her incredible band when she was still country and sweet as can be.
The brand spent a lot of time and money on post production and the engineer who cut the live audio tried to make it feel "live" by leaving a few clams in Final Cut.
The brand sent the videos to management and management they wouldn't agree to release the "live" videos until her entire vocal track got pitch corrected.
But fans in the audience had already recorded and shared the songs online exposing her clam sandwich of a performance. Remember when Milli Vanilli got pilloried for being phony? Well, looks like Tay Tay gets a new jet.
Shane Roeschlein
______________________________________
I think what is very frustrating to us fans of Swift and you is that you just never have anything positive to say. I can't remember the last time you actually delved into the actual quality of her music. It's always a negative take.
It doesn't really matter what you or other critics say though. The connection she has now with her people is just too strong. The total honesty on this new album is astounding, and she has not made it for the masses. She knows that it's only the most hardcore of fans that will pore over the dense lyrics to 31 songs. There's only one hit single contender (Down Bad).
But for those of us who have grown up with her it's pure gold. We now know so much more about what's she's been going through for the past decade, and for a rich global superstar to admit she chose the wrong partner, or that the guy who she thought was the one ghosted and left her high and dry is astounding. It's all so relatable, even after all these years.
So keep on hoping she'll make a misstep, because this is the thing; she never will. Because she is ultimately just plainly perhaps the greatest and truest artist that has ever lived (thus far).
Imagine the stories you could be writing if you accepted the enormity of her talent and success. You're alive during the reign of possibly the greatest artist in history and you don't see it. It's actually quite bewildering.
Sincerely,
John Paterson
______________________________________
I love what Taylor Swift does now, but you were right: her performance with Stevie Nicks at The Grammies was out of tune and terrible. And for all the pre performance hype it had, it seemed even worse than it was, which was pretty bad.
Colin Boyd
______________________________________
"How can I miss you if you won't go away?"
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Same album as the immortal "I Scare Myself." Great stuff.
I think Taylor may have finally jumped the shark but then again my daughter was quick to order a "Tortured Poets" sweater for her mom. It is starting to feel a bit like KISS.
Regarding Bruce I have to assume that all the social media hype is to get butts in seats after he had to reschedule all the shows. I couldn't go to the rescheduled show in Columbus but I managed to sell my two tickets for $1000. So it seems there is still some demand among the boomer elite.
Keep up the great work. Somehow you made even the guy from Loverboy sound interesting.
Best
David Vawter
______________________________________
When you make bad music, you can make it all day long.
Luke Joerger
Hastings Digital Studios LLC
______________________________________
Put me in the "Swiftie column"
Mike Bone
______________________________________
You are getting hard to read. Ailsa Morozow
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Tuesday 23 April 2024
Taylor Swift Backlash
"Taylor Swift Has Given Fans a Lot. Is It Finally Too Much? - Swift has been inescapable over the last year. With the release of 'The Tortured Poets Department,' her latest (very long) album, some seem to finally be feeling fatigued."
Free link: https://shorturl.at/ejVYZ
Gregg said he hadn't heard anything about Harry Styles recently, was he over? No, I said, HE WAS BETWEEN CYCLES!
That's something you learn in elementary school, letting farmland lay fallow, otherwise you drain all the nutrients. Sometimes you have to go away for a while to sustain.
So on Friday, all Taylor Swift information was hosannas. Now, a handful of days later, negative feedback is slipping in. Did the album change? Not a lick!
Oh Bob, get over it. She wrote a song about you and you can't let it go. She's the biggest star in the world and you can't handle it.
But does that mean I can never comment about her again?
"Paste Magazine opted not to put a byline on its harsh review of Swift's album, citing safety concerns for the writer."
It's a RECORD! It's not Trump, it's not Gaza, but the writer of this review was afraid to attach his name.
"For some, the constant deluge that has peaked in the past year is starting to add up to a new (and previously unthinkable) feeling: Taylor Swift fatigue."
This is a business story. How do you manage a career in the 2020s?
"'It's almost like if you produce too much… too fast… in a brazen attempt to completely saturate and dominate a market rather than having something important or even halfway interesting to say… the art suffers!' Chris Murphy, a staff writer at Vanity Fair, posted on X."
"Some admonished Swift for selling so many versions of 'Poets' only to double its size after those orders were in, part of a cynically corporate rollout. (Care for the CD, vinyl or the Phantom Clear vinyl?)"
For twenty years we've heard that selling out is no longer an issue, that brand extensions are good, that you cannot oversaturate the fans. Is this true? That is the question.
What do we know about Michael Jackson? He peaked, was the biggest star in the world with "Thriller," and then he needed to stay at that level thereafter. Not only was no subsequent album as good, he labeled himself "The King of Pop" and became a caricature of himself, a punchline.
But that was in the last century.
So the hardest thing to get these days is attention. Which is why you must stay in the public eye 24/7, if you go away then you've got to make a comeback. That's been conventional wisdom. But what if you're a superstar, do the same rules apply?
Forget the music, this has been an endless sell, an incredible hype, ever since the announcement of the album on the Grammys. Could anything live up to this buildup?
Or is it just non-fans who are antagonized, who want Taylor Swift out of their feed...
Then you have Courtney Love:
"She added that Swift is 'is not important' and noted that she 'might be a safe space for girls, and she's probably the Madonna of now, but she's not interesting as an artist.'"
https://tinyurl.com/45x6dwfu
Can Love get away with this because she is seen as the last gasp of credibility, from an era when music still meant something, moved the culture, or is she just laughed off as a cartoon? All I know is the story is everywhere, you can't avoid it, whereas you had to dig, be a fan, to find minutiae like this in the last century.
And then you've got another Madonna lawsuit:
"Madonna Sued Again for Late Concerts: 'A Consumer's Worst Nightmare' - Plaintiffs also allege singer kept concert uncomfortably hot on purpose and that she lip-synced."
https://tinyurl.com/38h37ktf
How can we miss you if you never go away?
How do you manage a career in the twenty first century?
Let's be clear, Taylor Swift wrote a song about me because I believed her horrific, off-key performance at the Grammys would seriously damage her career. Turned out that I was wrong. That's what happened in the twentieth century, but not the twenty first, where we all live in separate silos and a fan forgives all faux pas.
But how about now?
People can tell if you need it. And at some point, with a certain level of success, you have to appear that you don't. The classic example being Neil Young, who peaked with "Harvest" and went on tour with a noisy rock band and played all new material. And I wish I could mention more names, but Young is just about the only one who's been willing to kill his career to save it, in order to have artistic freedom.
And is it art, or is it sales? The tech bros were beloved for most of this century, now they're loathed. Public sentiment shifts.
Furthermore, most people just don't care. They're not going to listen to Taylor Swift or so much of the hyped music of today. We no longer live in a monoculture, but we're told we do by media, and if you question this...be ready for feedback, NEGATIVE FEEDBACK!
I don't care if the Swifties love the new album, buy multiple copies of vinyl... Then again, I will ask why you need more than one copy of a record, if you even have a turntable.
I don't care if Swift sells out stadiums for eternity.
But is the penumbra, which is really the majority, just sick and tired of hearing about Swift, period. This isn't a judgment of her music, but you know how it is when you keep seeing the same ad online, it drives you crazy, are people just sick of being bombarded with info on Taylor Swift?
Many are. And it's not that they're haters. Hell, in the old days most people did not have a voice, there was no internet, never mind no social media. And if you express your opinion do you have to worry about your safety, online or in real life?
This is not about Swift the person, this is about marketing. We were told there were no limits, are there?
And the major labels can't break new stars so they keep pushing the old ones upon us.
And media is looking for universal stories.
Can there ever be too much?
I think about this each and every day. How many e-mails can I send to my list? More than one a day and I get sign-offs. Do I think about the audience and adjust to it or live by my own inner tuning fork? But if you're operating in a personal vacuum, you've got to accept the consequences. Sometimes I just want to say something, it's important to me, and I hit send knowing that some of the audience won't want to read it, others will be offended, others will tell me to stay in my lane and...
It's hard to be a saint in the city.
Then again, have you seen Bruce Springsteen's hype for his shows on TikTok? At first I thought it was brilliant. But now, he just looks like an old guy shilling. And X told me there were a lot of tickets available in Syracuse. Bruce sold out multiple stadiums back in the eighties, but that was almost forty years ago.
If you're in everybody's face all the time there's going to be fatigue.
Maybe you don't care because your fan base still supports you.
But these are all questions a manager should ask. Taylor Swift has just illustrated the issue. In a world where we've believed there can never be too much, can there be? At some point do you have to hold back?
Once again, if you have to make an artistic statement and you don't care about the consequences, that's one thing. But selling multiple versions of the same damn album on vinyl is not about art. And telling us every day you're setting records... Sometimes you just have to STFU!
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Free link: https://shorturl.at/ejVYZ
Gregg said he hadn't heard anything about Harry Styles recently, was he over? No, I said, HE WAS BETWEEN CYCLES!
That's something you learn in elementary school, letting farmland lay fallow, otherwise you drain all the nutrients. Sometimes you have to go away for a while to sustain.
So on Friday, all Taylor Swift information was hosannas. Now, a handful of days later, negative feedback is slipping in. Did the album change? Not a lick!
Oh Bob, get over it. She wrote a song about you and you can't let it go. She's the biggest star in the world and you can't handle it.
But does that mean I can never comment about her again?
"Paste Magazine opted not to put a byline on its harsh review of Swift's album, citing safety concerns for the writer."
It's a RECORD! It's not Trump, it's not Gaza, but the writer of this review was afraid to attach his name.
"For some, the constant deluge that has peaked in the past year is starting to add up to a new (and previously unthinkable) feeling: Taylor Swift fatigue."
This is a business story. How do you manage a career in the 2020s?
"'It's almost like if you produce too much… too fast… in a brazen attempt to completely saturate and dominate a market rather than having something important or even halfway interesting to say… the art suffers!' Chris Murphy, a staff writer at Vanity Fair, posted on X."
"Some admonished Swift for selling so many versions of 'Poets' only to double its size after those orders were in, part of a cynically corporate rollout. (Care for the CD, vinyl or the Phantom Clear vinyl?)"
For twenty years we've heard that selling out is no longer an issue, that brand extensions are good, that you cannot oversaturate the fans. Is this true? That is the question.
What do we know about Michael Jackson? He peaked, was the biggest star in the world with "Thriller," and then he needed to stay at that level thereafter. Not only was no subsequent album as good, he labeled himself "The King of Pop" and became a caricature of himself, a punchline.
But that was in the last century.
So the hardest thing to get these days is attention. Which is why you must stay in the public eye 24/7, if you go away then you've got to make a comeback. That's been conventional wisdom. But what if you're a superstar, do the same rules apply?
Forget the music, this has been an endless sell, an incredible hype, ever since the announcement of the album on the Grammys. Could anything live up to this buildup?
Or is it just non-fans who are antagonized, who want Taylor Swift out of their feed...
Then you have Courtney Love:
"She added that Swift is 'is not important' and noted that she 'might be a safe space for girls, and she's probably the Madonna of now, but she's not interesting as an artist.'"
https://tinyurl.com/45x6dwfu
Can Love get away with this because she is seen as the last gasp of credibility, from an era when music still meant something, moved the culture, or is she just laughed off as a cartoon? All I know is the story is everywhere, you can't avoid it, whereas you had to dig, be a fan, to find minutiae like this in the last century.
And then you've got another Madonna lawsuit:
"Madonna Sued Again for Late Concerts: 'A Consumer's Worst Nightmare' - Plaintiffs also allege singer kept concert uncomfortably hot on purpose and that she lip-synced."
https://tinyurl.com/38h37ktf
How can we miss you if you never go away?
How do you manage a career in the twenty first century?
Let's be clear, Taylor Swift wrote a song about me because I believed her horrific, off-key performance at the Grammys would seriously damage her career. Turned out that I was wrong. That's what happened in the twentieth century, but not the twenty first, where we all live in separate silos and a fan forgives all faux pas.
But how about now?
People can tell if you need it. And at some point, with a certain level of success, you have to appear that you don't. The classic example being Neil Young, who peaked with "Harvest" and went on tour with a noisy rock band and played all new material. And I wish I could mention more names, but Young is just about the only one who's been willing to kill his career to save it, in order to have artistic freedom.
And is it art, or is it sales? The tech bros were beloved for most of this century, now they're loathed. Public sentiment shifts.
Furthermore, most people just don't care. They're not going to listen to Taylor Swift or so much of the hyped music of today. We no longer live in a monoculture, but we're told we do by media, and if you question this...be ready for feedback, NEGATIVE FEEDBACK!
I don't care if the Swifties love the new album, buy multiple copies of vinyl... Then again, I will ask why you need more than one copy of a record, if you even have a turntable.
I don't care if Swift sells out stadiums for eternity.
But is the penumbra, which is really the majority, just sick and tired of hearing about Swift, period. This isn't a judgment of her music, but you know how it is when you keep seeing the same ad online, it drives you crazy, are people just sick of being bombarded with info on Taylor Swift?
Many are. And it's not that they're haters. Hell, in the old days most people did not have a voice, there was no internet, never mind no social media. And if you express your opinion do you have to worry about your safety, online or in real life?
This is not about Swift the person, this is about marketing. We were told there were no limits, are there?
And the major labels can't break new stars so they keep pushing the old ones upon us.
And media is looking for universal stories.
Can there ever be too much?
I think about this each and every day. How many e-mails can I send to my list? More than one a day and I get sign-offs. Do I think about the audience and adjust to it or live by my own inner tuning fork? But if you're operating in a personal vacuum, you've got to accept the consequences. Sometimes I just want to say something, it's important to me, and I hit send knowing that some of the audience won't want to read it, others will be offended, others will tell me to stay in my lane and...
It's hard to be a saint in the city.
Then again, have you seen Bruce Springsteen's hype for his shows on TikTok? At first I thought it was brilliant. But now, he just looks like an old guy shilling. And X told me there were a lot of tickets available in Syracuse. Bruce sold out multiple stadiums back in the eighties, but that was almost forty years ago.
If you're in everybody's face all the time there's going to be fatigue.
Maybe you don't care because your fan base still supports you.
But these are all questions a manager should ask. Taylor Swift has just illustrated the issue. In a world where we've believed there can never be too much, can there be? At some point do you have to hold back?
Once again, if you have to make an artistic statement and you don't care about the consequences, that's one thing. But selling multiple versions of the same damn album on vinyl is not about art. And telling us every day you're setting records... Sometimes you just have to STFU!
--
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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Sunday 21 April 2024
Giancarlo
Now that was a surprise.
After yesterday's frustrations, today we decided to hire a guide. I was taken aback by the price, but when's the next time I'll be in Rome? Possibly never!
Back in '72, which is a great Bob Seger album unavailable on streaming services, you flew to Europe for $200, bought a Eurail pass and the goal was to spend as little as possible, to come home with money, and that was a mistake. When you're confronted with an entrance fee, any fee at all in a foreign country, and you desire to partake, pay, you'll regret it if you don't, when you're home.
So we said yes.
And walked down to the lobby this morning to find a little old man and a driver and from the moment we pulled away from the curb this little old man with the vigor of someone decades younger started to speak. And he didn't stop speaking until we were dropped off three hours later.
Giancarlo started with facts and figures, the number of palaces, the number of churches, while telling us the layout of the city is the same as two thousand years ago, it's the same buildings, redone.
One palace had two thousand rooms, that's where the Pope used to live, before the Vatican.
And I'm positively riveted. Paying attention. This is the learning experience I didn't get in college.
Then I thought about it... The college teachers were pedigreed with a degree, there were no teaching assistants where I went to school, the professors had their doctorates and they couldn't have been more boring. But Giancarlo?!
That's why I became an art history major. Because the teachers were all good, it was a pleasure to go to class. I remember Art 101, which I only took as a sophomore because everybody recommended it, John Hunisak showed us some slide and said there was a great ice cream place around the corner... In art history you could think for yourself, do your own analysis, whereas in the English department it was all about someone else's theories, too much was set in stone instead of being vibrant and alive like in art.
Giancarlo is telling us how Napoleon was Italian. And then the French took over Corsica... And after becoming emperor, Napoleon built a palace for his mother and brother in Rome, with a veranda where she could look down on the hoi polloi, unseen. It's still there!
And then city hall, redone by Michelangelo... The walkway is built of stones ripped-off from the Coliseum.
Our ultimate destination was the Catacombs, since we'd been to the usual tourist sites on previous visits to the city.
So what you had was the pagans. They thought life ended with death. Done, gone. So to preserve your memory, they created a sculpture of you and posted it on the Appian Way. There are thirty thousand of these sculptures in the Vatican Museum.
But the Christians were persecuted, at least until Constantine conquered Rome in the fourth century, and they believed you never really died, you went to heaven, hell or purgatory. So, you "rested in peace" until this happened.
So because of this persecution, the Christians buried their dead underground, they dug into soft volcanic rock, made a hole big enough for a wrapped body, and then put a marble plaque over the whole thing to signify who was there. If you were a martyr, you were buried under an arch. There are four levels and forty seven miles of paths and this is not the only catacombs. Giancarlo told us we'd see no skulls, but there might be some bones. And he reached into one of the graves and pulled out a humerus or something and it was absolutely creepy. And he pulled out a fragment of a ceramic jug. And he'd sift his hand through the dirt for bone fragments... I thought in a museum you looked but did not touch, but I guess there are so many graves...
And they had these carved out spots where they put these little pots of deodorant. It smelled like hell down there back in the day.
So when we came back above ground, we had to get Giancarlo's story. Turns out he has a Ph.D. And taught not only in Italy, but at Penn State and the University of Phoenix. If only I had a professor like this...
And from there we went to the Appian Way, which for years I thought was just a home pizza kit. And on each side of the Appian Way are these giant tombs, like houses. And the road goes on for seven hundred kilometers, and it used to be smooth before they ripped up the paving stones to lay modern utilities and just put the stones back willy-nilly. Giancarlo kept on telling us that back in the day they had what we do now, newspapers... Until the Mongols came along and wiped everybody out with the plague they carried.
It was mind-blowing, I didn't want it to end.
And then I thought of my mother going to Elderhostel, now known as "Road Scholar." Yes, old people go to some far-flung place and learn.
And I thought of how life was the same at the beginning and the end. In the beginning you know nothing and go to school to learn. And when you get out of school you think you know everything. But when you get old and retire you realize all you don't know, you're fascinated by history, imagination, you contemplate how much you'll never know, never experience.
Made me want to go back to every city and hire a guide, but I'm not rich enough to do that. When I was in Rome half a century ago, it was like my art history courses come alive. But Giancarlo filled in the details between the paintings and sculpture. Furthermore, you could tell he enjoyed doing this, it just wasn't a gig.
He's eighty four, although he has the vim and vigor of someone much younger. And a girlfriend in Dublin who he owns a house with who is dying of brain cancer after their twenty years together, her sisters don't want him to visit her in the hospital for fear he'll convince her to give him all her money. And he's got a son. And he keeps pushing the envelope.
I hate to tell you this, but life has no meaning, it is what you make of it. No one is keeping score, and I'm down with the pagans, there is no afterlife. So you have to gain your own perspective.
In school they tell you what to do, how to behave. And the freedom of graduating feels so liberating. But then you get older and there's no structure, no one telling you what to do, no scorecard that applies to all.
Some just put one foot in front of another at a job, whether it be digging ditches or being a doctor. Others lament that they didn't pay more attention in school for a better adulthood. And some have families, but eventually even the children grow up and have children of their own. So what do you do?
That's the big question in life, what do you do?
Ultimately it's your decision, even though you might feel parental or societal pressure. It's tough to go your own way. Even worse, when people truly have freedom, they're so often paralyzed.
And you can't do everything, and a lot of times we can only do the same thing, Giancarlo told us he took Bill Gates and his family on a tour of the Vatican... I can go on that tour too, and so can you!
But deeper...
Most people live in a bubble, because to contemplate what is going on outside it is too overwhelming. That's what being in Rome is like, overwhelming. There's so much to learn, so much to see. And you realize the people two millenniums ago were really no different from us. Which is hard to fathom.
So I learned plenty today, it was utterly fascinating. Will there be a test, will I get a gold star? Absolutely not. I've got to get off on it for itself.
And I did.
Giancarlo Alú: https://shorturl.at/tM056
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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--
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After yesterday's frustrations, today we decided to hire a guide. I was taken aback by the price, but when's the next time I'll be in Rome? Possibly never!
Back in '72, which is a great Bob Seger album unavailable on streaming services, you flew to Europe for $200, bought a Eurail pass and the goal was to spend as little as possible, to come home with money, and that was a mistake. When you're confronted with an entrance fee, any fee at all in a foreign country, and you desire to partake, pay, you'll regret it if you don't, when you're home.
So we said yes.
And walked down to the lobby this morning to find a little old man and a driver and from the moment we pulled away from the curb this little old man with the vigor of someone decades younger started to speak. And he didn't stop speaking until we were dropped off three hours later.
Giancarlo started with facts and figures, the number of palaces, the number of churches, while telling us the layout of the city is the same as two thousand years ago, it's the same buildings, redone.
One palace had two thousand rooms, that's where the Pope used to live, before the Vatican.
And I'm positively riveted. Paying attention. This is the learning experience I didn't get in college.
Then I thought about it... The college teachers were pedigreed with a degree, there were no teaching assistants where I went to school, the professors had their doctorates and they couldn't have been more boring. But Giancarlo?!
That's why I became an art history major. Because the teachers were all good, it was a pleasure to go to class. I remember Art 101, which I only took as a sophomore because everybody recommended it, John Hunisak showed us some slide and said there was a great ice cream place around the corner... In art history you could think for yourself, do your own analysis, whereas in the English department it was all about someone else's theories, too much was set in stone instead of being vibrant and alive like in art.
Giancarlo is telling us how Napoleon was Italian. And then the French took over Corsica... And after becoming emperor, Napoleon built a palace for his mother and brother in Rome, with a veranda where she could look down on the hoi polloi, unseen. It's still there!
And then city hall, redone by Michelangelo... The walkway is built of stones ripped-off from the Coliseum.
Our ultimate destination was the Catacombs, since we'd been to the usual tourist sites on previous visits to the city.
So what you had was the pagans. They thought life ended with death. Done, gone. So to preserve your memory, they created a sculpture of you and posted it on the Appian Way. There are thirty thousand of these sculptures in the Vatican Museum.
But the Christians were persecuted, at least until Constantine conquered Rome in the fourth century, and they believed you never really died, you went to heaven, hell or purgatory. So, you "rested in peace" until this happened.
So because of this persecution, the Christians buried their dead underground, they dug into soft volcanic rock, made a hole big enough for a wrapped body, and then put a marble plaque over the whole thing to signify who was there. If you were a martyr, you were buried under an arch. There are four levels and forty seven miles of paths and this is not the only catacombs. Giancarlo told us we'd see no skulls, but there might be some bones. And he reached into one of the graves and pulled out a humerus or something and it was absolutely creepy. And he pulled out a fragment of a ceramic jug. And he'd sift his hand through the dirt for bone fragments... I thought in a museum you looked but did not touch, but I guess there are so many graves...
And they had these carved out spots where they put these little pots of deodorant. It smelled like hell down there back in the day.
So when we came back above ground, we had to get Giancarlo's story. Turns out he has a Ph.D. And taught not only in Italy, but at Penn State and the University of Phoenix. If only I had a professor like this...
And from there we went to the Appian Way, which for years I thought was just a home pizza kit. And on each side of the Appian Way are these giant tombs, like houses. And the road goes on for seven hundred kilometers, and it used to be smooth before they ripped up the paving stones to lay modern utilities and just put the stones back willy-nilly. Giancarlo kept on telling us that back in the day they had what we do now, newspapers... Until the Mongols came along and wiped everybody out with the plague they carried.
It was mind-blowing, I didn't want it to end.
And then I thought of my mother going to Elderhostel, now known as "Road Scholar." Yes, old people go to some far-flung place and learn.
And I thought of how life was the same at the beginning and the end. In the beginning you know nothing and go to school to learn. And when you get out of school you think you know everything. But when you get old and retire you realize all you don't know, you're fascinated by history, imagination, you contemplate how much you'll never know, never experience.
Made me want to go back to every city and hire a guide, but I'm not rich enough to do that. When I was in Rome half a century ago, it was like my art history courses come alive. But Giancarlo filled in the details between the paintings and sculpture. Furthermore, you could tell he enjoyed doing this, it just wasn't a gig.
He's eighty four, although he has the vim and vigor of someone much younger. And a girlfriend in Dublin who he owns a house with who is dying of brain cancer after their twenty years together, her sisters don't want him to visit her in the hospital for fear he'll convince her to give him all her money. And he's got a son. And he keeps pushing the envelope.
I hate to tell you this, but life has no meaning, it is what you make of it. No one is keeping score, and I'm down with the pagans, there is no afterlife. So you have to gain your own perspective.
In school they tell you what to do, how to behave. And the freedom of graduating feels so liberating. But then you get older and there's no structure, no one telling you what to do, no scorecard that applies to all.
Some just put one foot in front of another at a job, whether it be digging ditches or being a doctor. Others lament that they didn't pay more attention in school for a better adulthood. And some have families, but eventually even the children grow up and have children of their own. So what do you do?
That's the big question in life, what do you do?
Ultimately it's your decision, even though you might feel parental or societal pressure. It's tough to go your own way. Even worse, when people truly have freedom, they're so often paralyzed.
And you can't do everything, and a lot of times we can only do the same thing, Giancarlo told us he took Bill Gates and his family on a tour of the Vatican... I can go on that tour too, and so can you!
But deeper...
Most people live in a bubble, because to contemplate what is going on outside it is too overwhelming. That's what being in Rome is like, overwhelming. There's so much to learn, so much to see. And you realize the people two millenniums ago were really no different from us. Which is hard to fathom.
So I learned plenty today, it was utterly fascinating. Will there be a test, will I get a gold star? Absolutely not. I've got to get off on it for itself.
And I did.
Giancarlo Alú: https://shorturl.at/tM056
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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