Spotify playlist: https://rb.gy/kh0s65
Dickey Betts
"Ramblin' Man"
"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"
Richard Tandy
"Can't Get It Out of My Head"
Doug Ingle
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"
Eric Carmen
"Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)"
"Run-Away"
Mike Pinder
"The Best Way to Travel"
Mary Weiss
"Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)"
Melanie
"Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)"
"Brand New Key"
Wayne Kramer
"Kick Out the Jams"
Kinky Friedman
"Sold American"
David Sanborn
"Somebody Up There Likes Me"
Charlie Cohn
"Free"
John Barbata
"Happy Together"
"Long Time Gone"
Duane Eddy
"Rebel Rouser"
Karl Wallinger
"Ship of Fools"
James Chance
"Contort Yourself"
Mojo Nixon
"Don Henley Must Die"
Martin Mull
"Eggs"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7moab21SF8o 4:28
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Saturday 20 July 2024
Friday 19 July 2024
Margo's Got Money Troubles
https://rb.gy/9arc1d
I couldn't put this book down.
And the problem is...if I tell you anything about the plot, it will ruin it.
First and foremost it's an easy read. Not "simple," but "contemporary." No airs. Rufi Thorpe does have an MFA, but from Virginia, she's not a product of the Iowa Workshop, which Hannah in "Girls" attended and left because of its pretension, because it adheres to a formula, because everything is overthought and overworked.
That is not Margo, Who ultimately says:
"When you're going to do something stupidly brave, it helps to have less time to think about it."
This is where the college educated lose out to the adventurous. Sometimes you can be so busy analyzing pitfalls that you don't even start. Sometimes you need to just dive in. Step into the darkness and you have no idea what will happen, positive or negative.
And Margo certainly does a number of things stupidly brave.
She lives in Fullerton and goes to junior college. The product of a single mother. She's going nowhere fast. And then...
She derails herself. But finds a way forward anyway.
And if that's not obtuse enough for you...
As for encouraging you to read "Margo's Got Money Troubles," let me quote the opening paragraph:
"You are about to begin reading a new book, and to be honest, you're a little tense. The beginning of a novel is like a first date. You hope that from the first lines an urgent magic will take hold, and you will sink into the story like a hot bath, giving yourself over entirely. But this hope is tempered by the expectation that, in reality, you are about to have to learn a bunch of people's names and follow along politely like you are attending the baby shower of a woman you hardly know. And that's fine, goodness knows you've fallen in love with books that didn't grab you in the first paragraph. But that doesn't stop you from wishing they would, from wishing they would come right up to you in the dark of your mind and kiss you on the throat."
Getting over the hump. Reading enough of a book to get into it, to be hooked. Sometimes it's too heavy a lift.
But "Margo" begins with this knowledge of the reader, it's both present and irreverent, a sensibility too often lacking in today's vaunted fiction. Too much literary fiction is just too damn hard to read, and so much stuff is just lowbrow, romance, mystery, genre.
Not that "Margo" is highbrow. And it seems to me that Rufi Thorpe may have written it for commercial success, something absent from her career to this point.
I absolutely loved Thorpe's previous book, "The Knockout Queen." I detailed my devotion here: https://rb.gy/wjofxk But "The Knockout Queen" stalled in the marketplace. It wasn't completely ignored, it got 637 reviews on Amazon, with four stars, but readers and reviewers still preferred her debut, "The Girls From Corona Del Mar."
This happens all the time. I read Roxana Robinson's "Leaving," released this year, loved it and researched and it turned out everybody kept pointing me to her 2008 work, "Cost," which I then read. I recommend BOTH! The latter...deals with issues of family and addiction yet is contemporary and real. If you're a Boomer or Gen-X'er you will relate to so much, when you think it's going to be predictable, it is not.
But "Cost" is heavier than "Margo." You do have to get over that reading hump before you're hooked.
You do not have to read much of Margo to be hooked. I was hooked by the first paragraph. And it was rolling along, and then there was a turn, so wild, but so right that even though it was one in the morning I wanted to wake up my girlfriend to tell her about it.
Too often literary writers are detached from modern society. Don't you know, the smartphone is the devil? And you can't even participate in the social media you denigrate?
NOT MARGO!
The book is set in the now. Without pandering. I guarantee you'll read it and not catch some of the references, some of the slang. But this is what people in this demo, late teenagers, early twentysomethings, employ.
Margo is living in the now. And that's such a thrill.
Then again, so many readers of fiction do so because they want to avoid the now. However, the most talked about book of the last couple of years is "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow," at least in my circles. Whenever I bring it up, people's faces light up, you can see it in their eyes, they devoured it, it touched them, they're thrilled you're on the same page.
I'd like to say "Margo's Got Money Troubles" is as good as "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow," but it is not. Which has me wondering how successful it will be. Reviews have been very positive. But sometimes when you're pandering, you're rejected. Like Katy Perry.
Not that Thorpe is exactly pandering. But reading the book I think she consciously wanted to write something that connected with the public.
But that does not detract from the reading experience.
And I was surprised by the wisdom, evidenced in literary fiction but absent so much of the trash people read.
"'Beauty is like free money,' Shyanne used to say as she did Margo's face."
Bullseye. Which too many want to deny. And the truth is beauty comes with a cost, not that anybody wants to believe it. But the doors it opens, the freebies it rains down...they're real, it's a distinct advantage.
"Like how comedians have to bomb. If you don't learn how to bomb, then the audience has you on such a tight leash, you're stuck saying only the things you think they'll like."
They should post this on every studio wall. Record label execs should be beaten over the head with this. You don't want to be constricted by your audience. Which doesn't really know what it wants anyway. They want you to be just like you were, but then you are and they criticize or ignore you. Furthermore, failure today counts a lot less than it did in the pre-internet era. It's rolled over by the endless flow of creative lava that pours on to Spotify, on to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, the whole web, each and every day.
"But Margo knew the world was perfectly willing to punish you no matter what you had done."
Everything does not happen for a reason. That's a myth people tell themselves so they can soldier on. Bad things do happen to good people. You can do the right thing and get a bad outcome. The lesson is to learn this and metabolize this and soldier on. Life is unfair. Period. But that doesn't mean you should stop living, stop risking.
And here's the apotheosis, what you have to know about every creator, including me!
"...and we would scream to the crow, 'Look at me! Look at the beautiful insane things I can do with my body! Look at me! Love me!'
Because that's all art is in the end.
One person trying to get another person they have never met to fall in love with them."
And it's so hard. It's one thing for your family to dig what you've done, but someone you've never met, have no contact with? That's the challenge.
And the funny thing is when you achieve this, it still doesn't make your life whole. It feels good for a while, like winning a trophy, or an award, and then you're right back to where you were. Kinda like with beauty. You think it will solve all your problems, but it won't.
And I still haven't told you what "Margo's Got Money Troubles" is about.
Yes, Margo has money troubles. But why? And how does she deal with this?
That's the essence of this book.
If you love historical fiction, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like dense writing, wherein you have to pick apart each sentence, oftentimes with a dictionary in hand, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like a whodunit, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like science fiction, fantasy, "Margo" is not for you.
It's kind of like Hollywood, it's easier to repeat the formula. To create something brand new is seen as too risky.
Not that "Margo" plays with the form. It's a regular book, but the adventure, the choices, the outcomes, are so wild and unpredictable, yet wholly real, that you're thrilled as you go on the ride.
If you're a member of the self-satisfied elite, you might not be able to handle "Margo." Because, once again, instead of being set in the Ivory Tower, it all takes place in Orange County, a flat, overpopulated wasteland full of strip malls and boredom.
Will a guy love "Margo"?
The funny thing is guys have been affected by so much of what is in this book, but they may not like seeing things from a woman's perspective.
You'll laugh, you probably won't cry, but you'll learn about life in these United States today.
I'm smiling as I write this. Some of you are absolutely going to adore "Margo's Got Money Troubles," not that I can tell you exactly who that is, all I can tell you is I LOVED IT!
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I couldn't put this book down.
And the problem is...if I tell you anything about the plot, it will ruin it.
First and foremost it's an easy read. Not "simple," but "contemporary." No airs. Rufi Thorpe does have an MFA, but from Virginia, she's not a product of the Iowa Workshop, which Hannah in "Girls" attended and left because of its pretension, because it adheres to a formula, because everything is overthought and overworked.
That is not Margo, Who ultimately says:
"When you're going to do something stupidly brave, it helps to have less time to think about it."
This is where the college educated lose out to the adventurous. Sometimes you can be so busy analyzing pitfalls that you don't even start. Sometimes you need to just dive in. Step into the darkness and you have no idea what will happen, positive or negative.
And Margo certainly does a number of things stupidly brave.
She lives in Fullerton and goes to junior college. The product of a single mother. She's going nowhere fast. And then...
She derails herself. But finds a way forward anyway.
And if that's not obtuse enough for you...
As for encouraging you to read "Margo's Got Money Troubles," let me quote the opening paragraph:
"You are about to begin reading a new book, and to be honest, you're a little tense. The beginning of a novel is like a first date. You hope that from the first lines an urgent magic will take hold, and you will sink into the story like a hot bath, giving yourself over entirely. But this hope is tempered by the expectation that, in reality, you are about to have to learn a bunch of people's names and follow along politely like you are attending the baby shower of a woman you hardly know. And that's fine, goodness knows you've fallen in love with books that didn't grab you in the first paragraph. But that doesn't stop you from wishing they would, from wishing they would come right up to you in the dark of your mind and kiss you on the throat."
Getting over the hump. Reading enough of a book to get into it, to be hooked. Sometimes it's too heavy a lift.
But "Margo" begins with this knowledge of the reader, it's both present and irreverent, a sensibility too often lacking in today's vaunted fiction. Too much literary fiction is just too damn hard to read, and so much stuff is just lowbrow, romance, mystery, genre.
Not that "Margo" is highbrow. And it seems to me that Rufi Thorpe may have written it for commercial success, something absent from her career to this point.
I absolutely loved Thorpe's previous book, "The Knockout Queen." I detailed my devotion here: https://rb.gy/wjofxk But "The Knockout Queen" stalled in the marketplace. It wasn't completely ignored, it got 637 reviews on Amazon, with four stars, but readers and reviewers still preferred her debut, "The Girls From Corona Del Mar."
This happens all the time. I read Roxana Robinson's "Leaving," released this year, loved it and researched and it turned out everybody kept pointing me to her 2008 work, "Cost," which I then read. I recommend BOTH! The latter...deals with issues of family and addiction yet is contemporary and real. If you're a Boomer or Gen-X'er you will relate to so much, when you think it's going to be predictable, it is not.
But "Cost" is heavier than "Margo." You do have to get over that reading hump before you're hooked.
You do not have to read much of Margo to be hooked. I was hooked by the first paragraph. And it was rolling along, and then there was a turn, so wild, but so right that even though it was one in the morning I wanted to wake up my girlfriend to tell her about it.
Too often literary writers are detached from modern society. Don't you know, the smartphone is the devil? And you can't even participate in the social media you denigrate?
NOT MARGO!
The book is set in the now. Without pandering. I guarantee you'll read it and not catch some of the references, some of the slang. But this is what people in this demo, late teenagers, early twentysomethings, employ.
Margo is living in the now. And that's such a thrill.
Then again, so many readers of fiction do so because they want to avoid the now. However, the most talked about book of the last couple of years is "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow," at least in my circles. Whenever I bring it up, people's faces light up, you can see it in their eyes, they devoured it, it touched them, they're thrilled you're on the same page.
I'd like to say "Margo's Got Money Troubles" is as good as "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow," but it is not. Which has me wondering how successful it will be. Reviews have been very positive. But sometimes when you're pandering, you're rejected. Like Katy Perry.
Not that Thorpe is exactly pandering. But reading the book I think she consciously wanted to write something that connected with the public.
But that does not detract from the reading experience.
And I was surprised by the wisdom, evidenced in literary fiction but absent so much of the trash people read.
"'Beauty is like free money,' Shyanne used to say as she did Margo's face."
Bullseye. Which too many want to deny. And the truth is beauty comes with a cost, not that anybody wants to believe it. But the doors it opens, the freebies it rains down...they're real, it's a distinct advantage.
"Like how comedians have to bomb. If you don't learn how to bomb, then the audience has you on such a tight leash, you're stuck saying only the things you think they'll like."
They should post this on every studio wall. Record label execs should be beaten over the head with this. You don't want to be constricted by your audience. Which doesn't really know what it wants anyway. They want you to be just like you were, but then you are and they criticize or ignore you. Furthermore, failure today counts a lot less than it did in the pre-internet era. It's rolled over by the endless flow of creative lava that pours on to Spotify, on to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, the whole web, each and every day.
"But Margo knew the world was perfectly willing to punish you no matter what you had done."
Everything does not happen for a reason. That's a myth people tell themselves so they can soldier on. Bad things do happen to good people. You can do the right thing and get a bad outcome. The lesson is to learn this and metabolize this and soldier on. Life is unfair. Period. But that doesn't mean you should stop living, stop risking.
And here's the apotheosis, what you have to know about every creator, including me!
"...and we would scream to the crow, 'Look at me! Look at the beautiful insane things I can do with my body! Look at me! Love me!'
Because that's all art is in the end.
One person trying to get another person they have never met to fall in love with them."
And it's so hard. It's one thing for your family to dig what you've done, but someone you've never met, have no contact with? That's the challenge.
And the funny thing is when you achieve this, it still doesn't make your life whole. It feels good for a while, like winning a trophy, or an award, and then you're right back to where you were. Kinda like with beauty. You think it will solve all your problems, but it won't.
And I still haven't told you what "Margo's Got Money Troubles" is about.
Yes, Margo has money troubles. But why? And how does she deal with this?
That's the essence of this book.
If you love historical fiction, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like dense writing, wherein you have to pick apart each sentence, oftentimes with a dictionary in hand, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like a whodunit, "Margo" is not for you.
If you like science fiction, fantasy, "Margo" is not for you.
It's kind of like Hollywood, it's easier to repeat the formula. To create something brand new is seen as too risky.
Not that "Margo" plays with the form. It's a regular book, but the adventure, the choices, the outcomes, are so wild and unpredictable, yet wholly real, that you're thrilled as you go on the ride.
If you're a member of the self-satisfied elite, you might not be able to handle "Margo." Because, once again, instead of being set in the Ivory Tower, it all takes place in Orange County, a flat, overpopulated wasteland full of strip malls and boredom.
Will a guy love "Margo"?
The funny thing is guys have been affected by so much of what is in this book, but they may not like seeing things from a woman's perspective.
You'll laugh, you probably won't cry, but you'll learn about life in these United States today.
I'm smiling as I write this. Some of you are absolutely going to adore "Margo's Got Money Troubles," not that I can tell you exactly who that is, all I can tell you is I LOVED IT!
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More Recently Deceased-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in Saturday July 20th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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Thursday 18 July 2024
Pelosi Pushes
"Put Donilon on the phone."
That's the quote of the day.
Takes a woman to do a man's job. While wimps like Schumer kept saying their hands were tied, Pelosi set the bait last week, when she went on MSNBC and countered Biden's statement that his nomination was a done deal, he was continuing to run.
And then Pelosi pierced the bubble.
"One ally said that Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden in a recent call that she had seen polling data suggesting that he could not win, and the president had pushed back, saying he had polls showing otherwise.
"Ms. Pelosi, never shy in such situations, challenged him on that.
"'Put Donilon on the phone,' Ms. Pelosi told the president, referring to Mike Donilon, the president's longtime aide, according to people familiar with the exchange, which was reported earlier by CNN. 'Show me what polls.'"
Free link: https://t.ly/AhNwF
You don't want to argue with the data.
And speaking of the data, you need to subscribe to Nate Silver's "Silver Bulletin":
https://www.natesilver.net
All data is not created equal. But even worse, all data analysis is not created equally. This is what is happening with AI. The problem isn't hoovering up data, it's trying to prevent the model from hallucinating. Google had to pull back because of this. In other words, can you trust AI? Not yet! So when you see a result in your search engine, don't accept it at face value. Because it may be wrong. Dig deeper, or you might end up with egg on your face.
Silver has made his name with his model that averages the polls. And so far, no one has been able to do it as well. (Read Silver's takedown of the new 538 model here:
"Why I don't buy 538's new election model - It barely pays attention to the polls. And its results just don't make a lot of sense."
https://t.ly/OlpV3
Silver left the "New York Times" for greener pastures at ABC, establishing 538.com, but that was a financial failure and the entertainment behemoth refused to renew Silver's contract, so Silver went independent, on Substack, and he's asking for money, but in truth his e-mail is free, and you should sign up.
This is the information age, and you need all the information you can get. Now is the time to sign up for the "New York Times", if only for the next three months, because the Gray Lady has been breaking this story.
Save me the blowback. I'm just trying to help you. Democracy does die in darkness, and you want to shed some light. Scott Galloway took a huge swing at MSNBC last week and he's positively right. Every time I've tuned in Lawrence O'Donnell since the debate...speaking of hallucination, you'd think Biden is triumphing. Cable news is inherently biased, that's how they get eyeballs, ratings. And unless there's an assassination attempt or something gigantic to which they can send a film crew, they do almost no reporting, only opinion, and that gets old, very old.
And regarding the straight dope, every Democrat must read Bret Stephens's recent piece in the "Times":
Free link: "The Secret of Trump's Resurrection." - https://t.ly/2mRY3
The landscape has changed, and too many on the left refuse to acknowledge this.
Turns out life is too hard for too many people. Sure, the economy is good, if you own stock, as long as you don't have a service job.
Rightly or wrongly people are sick of others gaining a seeming advantage, whether it be via affirmative action or immigration. As for pronouns... This has got to stop. Along with trigger warnings. The pendulum has swung back. Too many on the left can't see which way the wind blows.
This is why the Democrats' reluctance to put the stake in the heart of Biden after the debate, letting three weeks go by, is so bad. It makes them appear weak, whereas Trump appears strong.
Don't shoot the messenger, literally.
Bottom line is you're college educated, you think you know better, and the disadvantaged and less financially secure know you do.
In other words, we've got a repeat of 2016. Trump is more in touch with the public than the Democrats. How did Biden squander success?
Once again, read Stephens's piece.
But know that the cavalry is coming.
There are leaks that Biden will announce he stops running on Sunday, that he won't endorse Kamala Harris. Take all that with a grain of salt, but know that James Carville is right, that if Harris is handed the torch the Democratic public will be deflated. They were left out of the decision to anoint Biden's second term run and they won't like being left out of the decision this time. They're just like the Republicans, sick and tired of being dictated to, told by those in power that they know better.
So what happened here?
Well, of course we had the disastrous debate.
But then came the aforementioned "Times" with its editorials and opinion columns, from the aforementioned Carville to Clooney. People have been talking about the power of Fox News for decades, why can they not accept that the "Times" has power?
And then came the drying up of the money. Recent donations have been anemic. Turn off the spigot and you end the race. Period.
But you need someone to put the stake in the heart, of in this case Biden.
Or maybe it's like a bullfight, a number of knives and then a deep gash by Pelosi.
But this illustrates how out of touch our leaders can be. Biden has done almost as much to hurt the country as Trump has. If Biden is out of touch on the polls, refuses to face facts that all of the hoi polloi can see, what else is he delusional on?
So for nearly a week it's been all Trump/RNC, all the time.
But the best piece I saw on this was in the "Atlantic":
"STOP PRETENDING YOU KNOW HOW THIS WILL END - The failed assassination of Donald Trump might not have any lasting effect on the election or politics in general": https://t.ly/sU0zD
Bingo. Not only does no one know, everything lasts less these days.
Kind of like the assassination attempt itself. If you lived through JFK and MLK and RFK you know that coverage was wall to wall, the only thing on TV, but in today's multifarious world you saw the headline and then...moved on. The media keeps telling us how big a deal it is, but is that the way the average person feels?
The despicable two-faced Vance is young and smart. He duplicates Trump, but he's a bulldog who can press the case. Where is the Democratic bulldog?
That's what we're going to find out.
One thing is for sure, Biden's replacement will be much younger, with a greater facility with the language, and will be absent at least some of Biden's baggage.
Stop saying the Republicans' success is based on white nationalism, that it's racism at the core.
What is it going to take for Democrats to accept reality?
Once again, it takes a pro to win. Which is why Trump lost in 2020. And once Minnesotans had seen Jesse Ventura govern, they wanted no more.
So you can stop saying you want Michelle Obama, or Oprah Winfrey, or even Clooney. Now is the time for a pro.
Harris ran a terrible campaign in 2020 and didn't get a single delegate.
As for her inclusion on the ticket as VP... The "Wall Street Journal" had this right:
"The Mess Democrats Have Made, Kamala Harris Edition - Imagine if Biden had chosen a Vice President for competence rather than identity politics."
Free link: https://t.ly/rbj0y
Did Biden ever contemplate that Harris might have to replace him, and this would be unpopular with most Democrats?
But you keep telling me women and Blacks will cashier the Democratic candidate if it's not Harris. Based on what? Nobody gets everything they want, ever hear of taking one for the team?
Maybe Harris ends up the candidate, but let's get the public involved, let's put it to a vote, let's squeeze out the Republicans' hold on publicity.
Pelosi won because she's a pragmatist.
It's time for Democrats to embrace that viewpoint. If you think Trump is so bad, concentrate on winning, that and no less.
Biden is finally toast. Funny that he didn't even realize it until today. But he's gone. Kaput. Out of the way. The Democrats are getting a do-over. Take out the flashlight and pore over every nook and cranny of potential candidates' lives and careers. And when we end up with the candidate...
We all need to rally around them. Period.
It will be time to shut up.
But if you kept supporting Biden after the debate...
As we said in the sixties, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution.
You learn, you adjust on the fly, that's the only way you succeed.
The game starts NOW!
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That's the quote of the day.
Takes a woman to do a man's job. While wimps like Schumer kept saying their hands were tied, Pelosi set the bait last week, when she went on MSNBC and countered Biden's statement that his nomination was a done deal, he was continuing to run.
And then Pelosi pierced the bubble.
"One ally said that Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden in a recent call that she had seen polling data suggesting that he could not win, and the president had pushed back, saying he had polls showing otherwise.
"Ms. Pelosi, never shy in such situations, challenged him on that.
"'Put Donilon on the phone,' Ms. Pelosi told the president, referring to Mike Donilon, the president's longtime aide, according to people familiar with the exchange, which was reported earlier by CNN. 'Show me what polls.'"
Free link: https://t.ly/AhNwF
You don't want to argue with the data.
And speaking of the data, you need to subscribe to Nate Silver's "Silver Bulletin":
https://www.natesilver.net
All data is not created equal. But even worse, all data analysis is not created equally. This is what is happening with AI. The problem isn't hoovering up data, it's trying to prevent the model from hallucinating. Google had to pull back because of this. In other words, can you trust AI? Not yet! So when you see a result in your search engine, don't accept it at face value. Because it may be wrong. Dig deeper, or you might end up with egg on your face.
Silver has made his name with his model that averages the polls. And so far, no one has been able to do it as well. (Read Silver's takedown of the new 538 model here:
"Why I don't buy 538's new election model - It barely pays attention to the polls. And its results just don't make a lot of sense."
https://t.ly/OlpV3
Silver left the "New York Times" for greener pastures at ABC, establishing 538.com, but that was a financial failure and the entertainment behemoth refused to renew Silver's contract, so Silver went independent, on Substack, and he's asking for money, but in truth his e-mail is free, and you should sign up.
This is the information age, and you need all the information you can get. Now is the time to sign up for the "New York Times", if only for the next three months, because the Gray Lady has been breaking this story.
Save me the blowback. I'm just trying to help you. Democracy does die in darkness, and you want to shed some light. Scott Galloway took a huge swing at MSNBC last week and he's positively right. Every time I've tuned in Lawrence O'Donnell since the debate...speaking of hallucination, you'd think Biden is triumphing. Cable news is inherently biased, that's how they get eyeballs, ratings. And unless there's an assassination attempt or something gigantic to which they can send a film crew, they do almost no reporting, only opinion, and that gets old, very old.
And regarding the straight dope, every Democrat must read Bret Stephens's recent piece in the "Times":
Free link: "The Secret of Trump's Resurrection." - https://t.ly/2mRY3
The landscape has changed, and too many on the left refuse to acknowledge this.
Turns out life is too hard for too many people. Sure, the economy is good, if you own stock, as long as you don't have a service job.
Rightly or wrongly people are sick of others gaining a seeming advantage, whether it be via affirmative action or immigration. As for pronouns... This has got to stop. Along with trigger warnings. The pendulum has swung back. Too many on the left can't see which way the wind blows.
This is why the Democrats' reluctance to put the stake in the heart of Biden after the debate, letting three weeks go by, is so bad. It makes them appear weak, whereas Trump appears strong.
Don't shoot the messenger, literally.
Bottom line is you're college educated, you think you know better, and the disadvantaged and less financially secure know you do.
In other words, we've got a repeat of 2016. Trump is more in touch with the public than the Democrats. How did Biden squander success?
Once again, read Stephens's piece.
But know that the cavalry is coming.
There are leaks that Biden will announce he stops running on Sunday, that he won't endorse Kamala Harris. Take all that with a grain of salt, but know that James Carville is right, that if Harris is handed the torch the Democratic public will be deflated. They were left out of the decision to anoint Biden's second term run and they won't like being left out of the decision this time. They're just like the Republicans, sick and tired of being dictated to, told by those in power that they know better.
So what happened here?
Well, of course we had the disastrous debate.
But then came the aforementioned "Times" with its editorials and opinion columns, from the aforementioned Carville to Clooney. People have been talking about the power of Fox News for decades, why can they not accept that the "Times" has power?
And then came the drying up of the money. Recent donations have been anemic. Turn off the spigot and you end the race. Period.
But you need someone to put the stake in the heart, of in this case Biden.
Or maybe it's like a bullfight, a number of knives and then a deep gash by Pelosi.
But this illustrates how out of touch our leaders can be. Biden has done almost as much to hurt the country as Trump has. If Biden is out of touch on the polls, refuses to face facts that all of the hoi polloi can see, what else is he delusional on?
So for nearly a week it's been all Trump/RNC, all the time.
But the best piece I saw on this was in the "Atlantic":
"STOP PRETENDING YOU KNOW HOW THIS WILL END - The failed assassination of Donald Trump might not have any lasting effect on the election or politics in general": https://t.ly/sU0zD
Bingo. Not only does no one know, everything lasts less these days.
Kind of like the assassination attempt itself. If you lived through JFK and MLK and RFK you know that coverage was wall to wall, the only thing on TV, but in today's multifarious world you saw the headline and then...moved on. The media keeps telling us how big a deal it is, but is that the way the average person feels?
The despicable two-faced Vance is young and smart. He duplicates Trump, but he's a bulldog who can press the case. Where is the Democratic bulldog?
That's what we're going to find out.
One thing is for sure, Biden's replacement will be much younger, with a greater facility with the language, and will be absent at least some of Biden's baggage.
Stop saying the Republicans' success is based on white nationalism, that it's racism at the core.
What is it going to take for Democrats to accept reality?
Once again, it takes a pro to win. Which is why Trump lost in 2020. And once Minnesotans had seen Jesse Ventura govern, they wanted no more.
So you can stop saying you want Michelle Obama, or Oprah Winfrey, or even Clooney. Now is the time for a pro.
Harris ran a terrible campaign in 2020 and didn't get a single delegate.
As for her inclusion on the ticket as VP... The "Wall Street Journal" had this right:
"The Mess Democrats Have Made, Kamala Harris Edition - Imagine if Biden had chosen a Vice President for competence rather than identity politics."
Free link: https://t.ly/rbj0y
Did Biden ever contemplate that Harris might have to replace him, and this would be unpopular with most Democrats?
But you keep telling me women and Blacks will cashier the Democratic candidate if it's not Harris. Based on what? Nobody gets everything they want, ever hear of taking one for the team?
Maybe Harris ends up the candidate, but let's get the public involved, let's put it to a vote, let's squeeze out the Republicans' hold on publicity.
Pelosi won because she's a pragmatist.
It's time for Democrats to embrace that viewpoint. If you think Trump is so bad, concentrate on winning, that and no less.
Biden is finally toast. Funny that he didn't even realize it until today. But he's gone. Kaput. Out of the way. The Democrats are getting a do-over. Take out the flashlight and pore over every nook and cranny of potential candidates' lives and careers. And when we end up with the candidate...
We all need to rally around them. Period.
It will be time to shut up.
But if you kept supporting Biden after the debate...
As we said in the sixties, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution.
You learn, you adjust on the fly, that's the only way you succeed.
The game starts NOW!
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Gary Spivack-This Week's Podcast
Gary Spivack is the talent buyer for the Danny Wimmer Presents rock festivals. Hear how the lineup is built.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gary-spivack/id1316200737?i=1000662620656
https://open.spotify.com/episode/58B0AP6PafpSzvYd4kZYvA?si=8aihSL_ASMyL4D95Lu9eBw
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/gary-spivack-196857232/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/f1e8fa98-ce73-414c-923a-947193aae744/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-gary-spivack
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gary-spivack/id1316200737?i=1000662620656
https://open.spotify.com/episode/58B0AP6PafpSzvYd4kZYvA?si=8aihSL_ASMyL4D95Lu9eBw
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/gary-spivack-196857232/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/f1e8fa98-ce73-414c-923a-947193aae744/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-gary-spivack
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Wednesday 17 July 2024
BritBox Recommendations
The number one recommendation according to my inbox is "Line of Duty," which is a fantastic series, I wrote about it here:
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2021/01/03/line-of-duty/
In 2021 I also listed it as #4 in "Best Series On Amazon Prime-In Order", here:
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2021/09/29/best-series-on-amazon-prime-in-order/
You can watch the first five seasons on various services (check justwatch.com), but if you want all six seasons, you must subscribe to BritBox. "Line of Duty" is all about "bent coppers," and it's one of the strongest word of mouth series extant.
I combed through the rest of the BritBox recommendations and I came up with the following list. Once again, these shows might be on different services outside the U.S., and just because a series is English, that does not mean it is on BritBox.
You know that unless it has a score of 80 in the Critics category on RottenTomatoes I don't watch a series. There's just so much to see, and so little time. All of these reach this threshold. In the numbers posted, the first is the Critics Score and the second is the Audience Score. I know RottenTomatoes is imperfect, but I've found it to be the most useful metric. (Certainly better than personal recommendations, which I find to be wildly inaccurate, people are passionate about series that are oftentimes mediocre...if you enjoyed it great, but that does not mean I necessarily will. I take my television watching very seriously, it eats up so much time, I don't want to waste it.) If there is no RottenTomatoes rating in one of the two categories, you will see "—"
One more thing... When I write about streaming television I get much more feedback than I do when I write about music.
In no particular order:
THE TOWER - 100/83
We started here because of the 100 Critics rating. This is not a huge investment, there are two seasons, the first has three episodes and the second has four and each is forty five minutes long.
The series is based on books by Kate London, not that I know who that is. It stars Gemma Whelan, whom dedicated followers of U.K. TV might know, but I did not. Interestingly, Whelan made her bones as a comedian, but this is a straight, dramatic role.
Wilson is the heart of the series, but the supporting actors are up to her level. You don't see this cornucopia of faces in an American series. Everyone is not beautiful, but in some cases that makes them more believable (like Fat Elaine, who owns this moniker even though Wilson's Sarah Collins blows back).
"The Tower" is not revolutionary. It's somewhat predictable, then again there are twists and turns, and the second season is more dense and better than the first. All in all a winner. Not the best series I've ever seen, but definitely a cut above.
SHETLAND - —/83
KAREN PIRIE - 91/85
SHERWOOD - 100/73
GRACE - 80/62
WALLANDER - 88/89
NO OFFENCE - —/92
CRACKER - —/93
VERA - —/82
THE RESPONDER - 100/76
THE THICK OF IT - —//93
STONEHOUSE - 95/74
HATTON GARDEN - 86/—
WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS - 100/76
LUTHER - 88/88
INSIDE NO. 9 - 100/93
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https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2021/01/03/line-of-duty/
In 2021 I also listed it as #4 in "Best Series On Amazon Prime-In Order", here:
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2021/09/29/best-series-on-amazon-prime-in-order/
You can watch the first five seasons on various services (check justwatch.com), but if you want all six seasons, you must subscribe to BritBox. "Line of Duty" is all about "bent coppers," and it's one of the strongest word of mouth series extant.
I combed through the rest of the BritBox recommendations and I came up with the following list. Once again, these shows might be on different services outside the U.S., and just because a series is English, that does not mean it is on BritBox.
You know that unless it has a score of 80 in the Critics category on RottenTomatoes I don't watch a series. There's just so much to see, and so little time. All of these reach this threshold. In the numbers posted, the first is the Critics Score and the second is the Audience Score. I know RottenTomatoes is imperfect, but I've found it to be the most useful metric. (Certainly better than personal recommendations, which I find to be wildly inaccurate, people are passionate about series that are oftentimes mediocre...if you enjoyed it great, but that does not mean I necessarily will. I take my television watching very seriously, it eats up so much time, I don't want to waste it.) If there is no RottenTomatoes rating in one of the two categories, you will see "—"
One more thing... When I write about streaming television I get much more feedback than I do when I write about music.
In no particular order:
THE TOWER - 100/83
We started here because of the 100 Critics rating. This is not a huge investment, there are two seasons, the first has three episodes and the second has four and each is forty five minutes long.
The series is based on books by Kate London, not that I know who that is. It stars Gemma Whelan, whom dedicated followers of U.K. TV might know, but I did not. Interestingly, Whelan made her bones as a comedian, but this is a straight, dramatic role.
Wilson is the heart of the series, but the supporting actors are up to her level. You don't see this cornucopia of faces in an American series. Everyone is not beautiful, but in some cases that makes them more believable (like Fat Elaine, who owns this moniker even though Wilson's Sarah Collins blows back).
"The Tower" is not revolutionary. It's somewhat predictable, then again there are twists and turns, and the second season is more dense and better than the first. All in all a winner. Not the best series I've ever seen, but definitely a cut above.
SHETLAND - —/83
KAREN PIRIE - 91/85
SHERWOOD - 100/73
GRACE - 80/62
WALLANDER - 88/89
NO OFFENCE - —/92
CRACKER - —/93
VERA - —/82
THE RESPONDER - 100/76
THE THICK OF IT - —//93
STONEHOUSE - 95/74
HATTON GARDEN - 86/—
WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS - 100/76
LUTHER - 88/88
INSIDE NO. 9 - 100/93
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Tuesday 16 July 2024
Songs
MIRANDA LAMBERT "AIN'T IN KANSAS ANYMORE"
Spotify: https://t.ly/kgkqt
YouTube: https://t.ly/3s0_I
This is a hit, even though it sounds like sh*t on Spotify and Amazon. However, "Ain't in Kansas Anymore" sounds great on Qobuz! It's all compressed, squished together on Spotify, and in Amazon Ultra HD it's a bit clearer yet bottom heavy, whereas on Qobuz it's much cleaner and the instruments are separated, it sounds like music, whereas on the other services it sounds like it's coming out of the dashboard on an AM radio, and does anybody listen like that anymore? Even country fans have great car stereos. As a matter of fact, just like power windows and A/C, every car now sold has a reasonable stereo, but tracks are still being mastered for the old way of listening.
Yes, this is a country record. But it's not that far from a rock record. Take the twang out of Miranda's voice and punch in some guitars and you've got an anthem, the kind that used to blast out of the speaker when you drove your Camaro listening to AOR radio back in the seventies.
First and foremost it's got a hook. It ain't rocket science folks, even though with so many of today's tracks missing the target you'd think it was. You hear that fiddle and you can't forget it. And it's right up front, introducing the song, it's the anti-skip strategy necessary in today's overloaded economy.
But there's also melody in the verse. And attitude. She's singing like she believes it, like she wrote the words, there's that essence too often lacking in today's written by committee tracks, although Miranda did have two co-writers.
And the chorus is memorable. With multiple voices. It's the kind of number you sing along with, thrilled just to be alive. This isn't music for your head, but your heart, which is directly attached to your genitals. Not that it's directly sexy, it's just that it enlivens you, makes you feel powerful, like all those rock anthems of the past.
And then there's the post chorus, the na-nas, that's the sound of the summer, something simple, not playing to the last row, but evidencing its own glow.
The words are simplistic, verging on stupid, but when did that really matter? First and foremost comes the sound.
And it's not like "Ain't in Kansas Anymore" is made to last, it's of the moment, but with so many pandering tracks missing the mark it stands out, like a flower.
As for the movie it comes from, "Twisters," the original wasn't that good, so I wouldn't bet on the sequel. But you never know.
As far as terrestrial radio play, chart numbers, that's a controlled market. Who knows if the song will triumph, PDs look for reasons not to play records. But if you're a fan of country music, if you're a fan of classic rock, this is the sound you know and covet, it rings the bell.
DAVINA MICHELLE "ALL IS OURS"
Spotify: https://t.ly/Evfow
YouTube: https://t.ly/I7tWZ
WHO?
I didn't know either.
I follow Mikaela Shiffrin, probably the greatest ski racer of all time, on Instagram Reels. Honestly, I watch more Reels than TikTok, because they're shorter, however the Reels algorithm sucks, you end up seeing the same videos over and over again, which doesn't happen on TikTok.
So if you don't know, Mikaela is engaged to her Norwegian boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, another great racer who had an horrific accident last season, putting his future career in jeopardy, for a long time he couldn't even walk.
And Mikaela posts reels of her and Alexander working out, on the beach, skiing, from all over the world. And Mikaela's personality...
She is not a jock. And I know, I've been around these people. Too often the strong silent types, never mind uneducated. Mikaela is very verbal, alive, she screwed up at the Olympics and gave long responses to probing questions by commentators, she didn't slink away.
And another thing Mikaela loves to do is dance. As well as play hits of the day on the guitar. A veritable renaissance woman I tell you!
No, not really, she's just a typical twenty nine year old who happens to have paid her dues to become an athletic great.
Anyway...
I came across this video of Mikaela and Aleksander working out and dancing, and the song registered immediately, I loved the pre-chorus, and it too contains a hook. AND IT WASN'T EVEN IN ENGLISH!
So I looked up Davina Michelle. Turns out she's Dutch. Had a number one hit in her home country.
Wait a second, IT IS IN ENGLISH! But since Davina Michelle is not singing in her native language, it takes a bit to realize this.
You know, the first language of the world, English. We rule, don't we?
Well, not anymore. It's not the seventies and eighties anymore, with the internet and streaming media hits are popping up all over the world.
So how did Mikaela discover "All Is Ours," which isn't even a hit, at least not yet.
Well, Mikaela spends months in Europe...
But most people don't even know about developing acts in the U.S.
"All Is Ours" is a trifle, but it's a very catchy trifle.
Instagram Reel: https://t.ly/EEchN
GOOD NEIGHBOURS "DAISIES"
Spotify: https://t.ly/0omq9
YouTube: https://t.ly/khX3o
Once again, WHO?
THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE A WIKIPEDIA PAGE!
I love this song, and you will too if you're a fan of early eighties English stuff, you know the one hit wonders on MTV. It's catchy, with electronic sounds. And even spacey at times.
Trying to learn more about the act, I found this video on YouTube, a live version of "Daisies" performed at the Village Underground in London:
https://rb.gy/5cf98l
Well, the more I watch it I realize it's not really live, then again, none of those videos in the eighties heyday were either, and this slots right in.
I have no idea if this was all staged, whether they selected the girls down front, but the vibe is infectious, it's no different from how it used to be, when you had to go to a club to see it, to feel it, when you listened to the radio, read the throwaway rag to find out where the new English sensations were playing, you just had to go.
Now "Daisies" is a new song, but "Home" does have 227,678,123 streams on Spotify.
We don't have acts like this in the U.S. It's a cultural thing.
I could go on, but listen to "Daisies" and you'll either love it or hate it, from the very beginning. It's a direct descendant of Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" and so many of those cuts way back when, but not imitative, it's fresh. This is the kind of tune that could revolutionize music in America, the way Wham! and so many acts did all those years ago.
"Daisies" draws you in. It doesn't alienate. It makes you happy, it excites you.
You're not being TOLD to be excited, the effervescence is baked into the track.
It crosses genres, from pop to rock. It's got modern sounds.
I don't want to overhype it, "Daisies" is not revolutionary, but this is the sound that made music the most powerful medium in the eighties. We tuned into MTV just to see it. Radio fell in lockstep, spinning the tracks. It made you optimistic, this music is the antidote to today's dark pessimistic days, and it's not a trifle like the Davina Michelle cut, it's more than that.
Is there more to come or is Good Neighbours just a modern day Haircut 100?
I DON'T KNOW!
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Spotify: https://t.ly/kgkqt
YouTube: https://t.ly/3s0_I
This is a hit, even though it sounds like sh*t on Spotify and Amazon. However, "Ain't in Kansas Anymore" sounds great on Qobuz! It's all compressed, squished together on Spotify, and in Amazon Ultra HD it's a bit clearer yet bottom heavy, whereas on Qobuz it's much cleaner and the instruments are separated, it sounds like music, whereas on the other services it sounds like it's coming out of the dashboard on an AM radio, and does anybody listen like that anymore? Even country fans have great car stereos. As a matter of fact, just like power windows and A/C, every car now sold has a reasonable stereo, but tracks are still being mastered for the old way of listening.
Yes, this is a country record. But it's not that far from a rock record. Take the twang out of Miranda's voice and punch in some guitars and you've got an anthem, the kind that used to blast out of the speaker when you drove your Camaro listening to AOR radio back in the seventies.
First and foremost it's got a hook. It ain't rocket science folks, even though with so many of today's tracks missing the target you'd think it was. You hear that fiddle and you can't forget it. And it's right up front, introducing the song, it's the anti-skip strategy necessary in today's overloaded economy.
But there's also melody in the verse. And attitude. She's singing like she believes it, like she wrote the words, there's that essence too often lacking in today's written by committee tracks, although Miranda did have two co-writers.
And the chorus is memorable. With multiple voices. It's the kind of number you sing along with, thrilled just to be alive. This isn't music for your head, but your heart, which is directly attached to your genitals. Not that it's directly sexy, it's just that it enlivens you, makes you feel powerful, like all those rock anthems of the past.
And then there's the post chorus, the na-nas, that's the sound of the summer, something simple, not playing to the last row, but evidencing its own glow.
The words are simplistic, verging on stupid, but when did that really matter? First and foremost comes the sound.
And it's not like "Ain't in Kansas Anymore" is made to last, it's of the moment, but with so many pandering tracks missing the mark it stands out, like a flower.
As for the movie it comes from, "Twisters," the original wasn't that good, so I wouldn't bet on the sequel. But you never know.
As far as terrestrial radio play, chart numbers, that's a controlled market. Who knows if the song will triumph, PDs look for reasons not to play records. But if you're a fan of country music, if you're a fan of classic rock, this is the sound you know and covet, it rings the bell.
DAVINA MICHELLE "ALL IS OURS"
Spotify: https://t.ly/Evfow
YouTube: https://t.ly/I7tWZ
WHO?
I didn't know either.
I follow Mikaela Shiffrin, probably the greatest ski racer of all time, on Instagram Reels. Honestly, I watch more Reels than TikTok, because they're shorter, however the Reels algorithm sucks, you end up seeing the same videos over and over again, which doesn't happen on TikTok.
So if you don't know, Mikaela is engaged to her Norwegian boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, another great racer who had an horrific accident last season, putting his future career in jeopardy, for a long time he couldn't even walk.
And Mikaela posts reels of her and Alexander working out, on the beach, skiing, from all over the world. And Mikaela's personality...
She is not a jock. And I know, I've been around these people. Too often the strong silent types, never mind uneducated. Mikaela is very verbal, alive, she screwed up at the Olympics and gave long responses to probing questions by commentators, she didn't slink away.
And another thing Mikaela loves to do is dance. As well as play hits of the day on the guitar. A veritable renaissance woman I tell you!
No, not really, she's just a typical twenty nine year old who happens to have paid her dues to become an athletic great.
Anyway...
I came across this video of Mikaela and Aleksander working out and dancing, and the song registered immediately, I loved the pre-chorus, and it too contains a hook. AND IT WASN'T EVEN IN ENGLISH!
So I looked up Davina Michelle. Turns out she's Dutch. Had a number one hit in her home country.
Wait a second, IT IS IN ENGLISH! But since Davina Michelle is not singing in her native language, it takes a bit to realize this.
You know, the first language of the world, English. We rule, don't we?
Well, not anymore. It's not the seventies and eighties anymore, with the internet and streaming media hits are popping up all over the world.
So how did Mikaela discover "All Is Ours," which isn't even a hit, at least not yet.
Well, Mikaela spends months in Europe...
But most people don't even know about developing acts in the U.S.
"All Is Ours" is a trifle, but it's a very catchy trifle.
Instagram Reel: https://t.ly/EEchN
GOOD NEIGHBOURS "DAISIES"
Spotify: https://t.ly/0omq9
YouTube: https://t.ly/khX3o
Once again, WHO?
THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE A WIKIPEDIA PAGE!
I love this song, and you will too if you're a fan of early eighties English stuff, you know the one hit wonders on MTV. It's catchy, with electronic sounds. And even spacey at times.
Trying to learn more about the act, I found this video on YouTube, a live version of "Daisies" performed at the Village Underground in London:
https://rb.gy/5cf98l
Well, the more I watch it I realize it's not really live, then again, none of those videos in the eighties heyday were either, and this slots right in.
I have no idea if this was all staged, whether they selected the girls down front, but the vibe is infectious, it's no different from how it used to be, when you had to go to a club to see it, to feel it, when you listened to the radio, read the throwaway rag to find out where the new English sensations were playing, you just had to go.
Now "Daisies" is a new song, but "Home" does have 227,678,123 streams on Spotify.
We don't have acts like this in the U.S. It's a cultural thing.
I could go on, but listen to "Daisies" and you'll either love it or hate it, from the very beginning. It's a direct descendant of Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" and so many of those cuts way back when, but not imitative, it's fresh. This is the kind of tune that could revolutionize music in America, the way Wham! and so many acts did all those years ago.
"Daisies" draws you in. It doesn't alienate. It makes you happy, it excites you.
You're not being TOLD to be excited, the effervescence is baked into the track.
It crosses genres, from pop to rock. It's got modern sounds.
I don't want to overhype it, "Daisies" is not revolutionary, but this is the sound that made music the most powerful medium in the eighties. We tuned into MTV just to see it. Radio fell in lockstep, spinning the tracks. It made you optimistic, this music is the antidote to today's dark pessimistic days, and it's not a trifle like the Davina Michelle cut, it's more than that.
Is there more to come or is Good Neighbours just a modern day Haircut 100?
I DON'T KNOW!
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Monday 15 July 2024
Katy Perry
Live by the hit, die by the hit.
That's why you don't want to be a pop star.
Used to be it was a reasonable trade. Everybody in the world knew your name and you could tour forever on even one hit.
Not anymore. Now you can have a hit and not be able to sell any tickets. But even worse is the hype machine, although still extant, no longer reaches many people. So you can be in "People," be on TV, be exposed in all the traditional media and the public doesn't even shrug, because it is not paying attention to these outlets and is completely unaware of what you're doing.
Back in the last century, if you were on TV constantly, and you gave the public what it wanted, odds are you'd have a modicum of success. Katy Perry was on television every week, and after a couple of stiff records decided to give the audience the girl power anthems she'd built her name on.
But everybody rejected it. I haven't seen backlash this big...EVER!
This is what happens when you live in a bubble.
In the old days, the labels controlled the narrative. Not any longer, today the public controls the narrative, and fans are watching every move, and it all happens online, so looky-loos will come across opinions...that's right, on social media you get opinions, not raw hype. This is what many acts don't understand about social media, if you don't have an opinion, if you don't have an edge, you won't get any traction.
Meanwhile, scores of acts that have never had a pop hit are doing prodigious business on the road. Their fans own them and support them. They feel invested. As soon as it is perceived you're a tool of the machine, that you're being forced down someone's throat, you're toast. Maybe, just maybe, if you have a track so good... But in this era of me-too, and I'm talking about sound, not sexual abuse, the idea of a revolutionary sound...never comes into play. And the traditional avenue of exposure, i.e. terrestrial radio, doesn't want anything new and different, it doesn't want to upset the apple cart, it doesn't want to risk a tune-out.
So... The world is bifurcated, between pop and the rest of music. But all we ever read about in industry press is pop. It's easily quantified. Are you on the chart or not, as if recordings ruled the roost when they do not, today it's all about live.
So who are the Katy Perry fans?
A certain demo of women. No longer young, not in the active group participating on social media. And that's how you drive a hit, on social media. Most Katy Perry fans are out of the loop. And there are a limited number of them. Perry could not say no, she appeared everywhere, she stood for nothing so much as...stardom. And that's not enough.
Today to sustain you must have an identity, that you curate. You have to be "on brand," you have to be able to say no. You have to look at your career through your hard core fans' perspective.
And the thing about fans is that they're active. They'll tell everybody they know about you. Trey Anastasio just had an interview in "Rolling Stone." So the Phishheads are e-mailing me. As if I didn't see it to begin with. As if I'm really that interested in what Trey has to say, sorry.
To tell you the truth I'm not interested in what most musicians have to say, because it no longer moves the needle. They don't stand for anything.
Ironically, Perry stood for Democrats. She was in the mix during the last presidential cycle. If she'd stood up today, spoken her truth, said Biden should stay or step down it actually would have helped her. Because she would risk alienating part of her audience. If you're not willing to risk losing fans, you're not going to create strong bonds with the fans you've got, never mind new ones.
And we've been told for eons that press doesn't matter.
Well, not the minion press. Not the brain dead press. Not the me-too press. Certainly not the traditional music and movie press.
Do you think I don't know you're publishing a story about this or that person because they've got new product, an album or a movie? It's not like they've got something special to say, they're just selling, there's no there there. Best to do your hype when you've got nothing to sell. Then it looks more genuine. And the songs are there to be streamed every day of the year. You're building an identity, not selling product. An identity, personality, lasts, you trade on it, whereas what you did on the chart yesterday no longer matters.
So there's a whole cabal out to get those who cross the lines.
We've seen this in media re Biden. It was started in the "New York Times," the media is doing the elected officials' job, and looking good in the process. If some people hate what the "Times" has been saying, it's doing it right. Which is to call it as it sees it, not to pledge fealty to any tribe, but to be independent. As a result, the paper has power.
As do those not just reciting pablum, tools of the label, who are pushing back.
But the bottom line is give the people what they want at your peril. It looks easy. You go back to the garden...
But the public has moved on.
This is a conundrum. Because you keep hearing from fans and your handlers and your label to go back to your golden era, but we're not going back to horses and buggies, EVs are here to stay, and I'm fine with you making America greater than it is today, but it ain't gonna look anything like it did back in the fifties, the era you're fantasizing about. We only move forward, we never move back. You only gain traction in the future by pushing your own artistry.
Sure, there's a business in going on the road and playing your hits. Assuming you created them before the internet killed the old paradigm about twenty years ago. I hope you like the money, because in many cases it's soul-deadening. You've taken yourself out of the game, I thought you were a musician!
And don't tell me no one wants the new stuff. No one wants ANY new stuff, because there's so much new stuff out there (never mind the old stuff!) That's the modern world, if you're shooting for the moon you're missing the point. Everything is happening online, grass roots. And if you only want to play new music do it in a small venue and make the public aware. There's a business in that, but not an arena or stadium business.
But if you were on MTV, if you even had a hit in the first decade of this century, you think the public is waiting with bated breath for your new work. But this is patently untrue. In the old days, there was a limited amount of product, your tunes got a modicum of exposure no matter how good or bad they were, people would check them out. But today they don't. Come on, the big number one hit is Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," you could even call it "The Song of the Summer," an outdated concept if there ever was one. Not my summer. Not your summer. Just the summer of the circle jerk publicity machine that needs to feed the pipeline. And if you think "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" is going to become legendary and have the legs of "Summer in the City," you believe in magic.
So Katy Perry completely miscalculated. She'll ultimately lick her wounds and climb back into the hole she came out of. This is what J.Lo did, this is what all the pop stars of yore do when they're confronted with the fact that the game has changed. But if she was smart, Perry would release new music almost instantly. That was more raw, not made with legendary producers. Then again, can she make the music alone?
It all comes down to talent. Artistry. We're back to the basics. Because there's just too much junk, too much low grade stuff trying to fill the pop pipeline. Odds are you're going to fail. But especially if you build up the hype, if you've got us waiting to see what you're going to do.
It's complicated. And Nancy Meyers can't have a hit in the theatre anymore.
The game has changed. The public bites back. This is the world we now live in. Don't be true to your school, but yourself. That's the essence of artistry, the individual. Who is Katy Perry? Damned if I know!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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That's why you don't want to be a pop star.
Used to be it was a reasonable trade. Everybody in the world knew your name and you could tour forever on even one hit.
Not anymore. Now you can have a hit and not be able to sell any tickets. But even worse is the hype machine, although still extant, no longer reaches many people. So you can be in "People," be on TV, be exposed in all the traditional media and the public doesn't even shrug, because it is not paying attention to these outlets and is completely unaware of what you're doing.
Back in the last century, if you were on TV constantly, and you gave the public what it wanted, odds are you'd have a modicum of success. Katy Perry was on television every week, and after a couple of stiff records decided to give the audience the girl power anthems she'd built her name on.
But everybody rejected it. I haven't seen backlash this big...EVER!
This is what happens when you live in a bubble.
In the old days, the labels controlled the narrative. Not any longer, today the public controls the narrative, and fans are watching every move, and it all happens online, so looky-loos will come across opinions...that's right, on social media you get opinions, not raw hype. This is what many acts don't understand about social media, if you don't have an opinion, if you don't have an edge, you won't get any traction.
Meanwhile, scores of acts that have never had a pop hit are doing prodigious business on the road. Their fans own them and support them. They feel invested. As soon as it is perceived you're a tool of the machine, that you're being forced down someone's throat, you're toast. Maybe, just maybe, if you have a track so good... But in this era of me-too, and I'm talking about sound, not sexual abuse, the idea of a revolutionary sound...never comes into play. And the traditional avenue of exposure, i.e. terrestrial radio, doesn't want anything new and different, it doesn't want to upset the apple cart, it doesn't want to risk a tune-out.
So... The world is bifurcated, between pop and the rest of music. But all we ever read about in industry press is pop. It's easily quantified. Are you on the chart or not, as if recordings ruled the roost when they do not, today it's all about live.
So who are the Katy Perry fans?
A certain demo of women. No longer young, not in the active group participating on social media. And that's how you drive a hit, on social media. Most Katy Perry fans are out of the loop. And there are a limited number of them. Perry could not say no, she appeared everywhere, she stood for nothing so much as...stardom. And that's not enough.
Today to sustain you must have an identity, that you curate. You have to be "on brand," you have to be able to say no. You have to look at your career through your hard core fans' perspective.
And the thing about fans is that they're active. They'll tell everybody they know about you. Trey Anastasio just had an interview in "Rolling Stone." So the Phishheads are e-mailing me. As if I didn't see it to begin with. As if I'm really that interested in what Trey has to say, sorry.
To tell you the truth I'm not interested in what most musicians have to say, because it no longer moves the needle. They don't stand for anything.
Ironically, Perry stood for Democrats. She was in the mix during the last presidential cycle. If she'd stood up today, spoken her truth, said Biden should stay or step down it actually would have helped her. Because she would risk alienating part of her audience. If you're not willing to risk losing fans, you're not going to create strong bonds with the fans you've got, never mind new ones.
And we've been told for eons that press doesn't matter.
Well, not the minion press. Not the brain dead press. Not the me-too press. Certainly not the traditional music and movie press.
Do you think I don't know you're publishing a story about this or that person because they've got new product, an album or a movie? It's not like they've got something special to say, they're just selling, there's no there there. Best to do your hype when you've got nothing to sell. Then it looks more genuine. And the songs are there to be streamed every day of the year. You're building an identity, not selling product. An identity, personality, lasts, you trade on it, whereas what you did on the chart yesterday no longer matters.
So there's a whole cabal out to get those who cross the lines.
We've seen this in media re Biden. It was started in the "New York Times," the media is doing the elected officials' job, and looking good in the process. If some people hate what the "Times" has been saying, it's doing it right. Which is to call it as it sees it, not to pledge fealty to any tribe, but to be independent. As a result, the paper has power.
As do those not just reciting pablum, tools of the label, who are pushing back.
But the bottom line is give the people what they want at your peril. It looks easy. You go back to the garden...
But the public has moved on.
This is a conundrum. Because you keep hearing from fans and your handlers and your label to go back to your golden era, but we're not going back to horses and buggies, EVs are here to stay, and I'm fine with you making America greater than it is today, but it ain't gonna look anything like it did back in the fifties, the era you're fantasizing about. We only move forward, we never move back. You only gain traction in the future by pushing your own artistry.
Sure, there's a business in going on the road and playing your hits. Assuming you created them before the internet killed the old paradigm about twenty years ago. I hope you like the money, because in many cases it's soul-deadening. You've taken yourself out of the game, I thought you were a musician!
And don't tell me no one wants the new stuff. No one wants ANY new stuff, because there's so much new stuff out there (never mind the old stuff!) That's the modern world, if you're shooting for the moon you're missing the point. Everything is happening online, grass roots. And if you only want to play new music do it in a small venue and make the public aware. There's a business in that, but not an arena or stadium business.
But if you were on MTV, if you even had a hit in the first decade of this century, you think the public is waiting with bated breath for your new work. But this is patently untrue. In the old days, there was a limited amount of product, your tunes got a modicum of exposure no matter how good or bad they were, people would check them out. But today they don't. Come on, the big number one hit is Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," you could even call it "The Song of the Summer," an outdated concept if there ever was one. Not my summer. Not your summer. Just the summer of the circle jerk publicity machine that needs to feed the pipeline. And if you think "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" is going to become legendary and have the legs of "Summer in the City," you believe in magic.
So Katy Perry completely miscalculated. She'll ultimately lick her wounds and climb back into the hole she came out of. This is what J.Lo did, this is what all the pop stars of yore do when they're confronted with the fact that the game has changed. But if she was smart, Perry would release new music almost instantly. That was more raw, not made with legendary producers. Then again, can she make the music alone?
It all comes down to talent. Artistry. We're back to the basics. Because there's just too much junk, too much low grade stuff trying to fill the pop pipeline. Odds are you're going to fail. But especially if you build up the hype, if you've got us waiting to see what you're going to do.
It's complicated. And Nancy Meyers can't have a hit in the theatre anymore.
The game has changed. The public bites back. This is the world we now live in. Don't be true to your school, but yourself. That's the essence of artistry, the individual. Who is Katy Perry? Damned if I know!
--
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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The Stones At SoFi
They are no longer selling danger.
They're selling rock and roll. A lost art. If you want to experience it in its original form, go to see the Stones.
What I'm saying is the emphasis is misplaced. It's on Mick Jagger's dancing, his onstage antics. The bottom line is this is necessary when you play in the vast stadiums the Stones appear in.
Have you ever been to SoFi? One of the most bizarre experiences in the sports stadium stratosphere.
Actually, my favorite moment came after the show. When I walked into an elevator and was promptly escorted out, as I was told THIS IS RESERVED FOR MR. KROENKE! It only went from field level up one flight. I'd actually ridden it earlier in the evening. The show had finished about fifteen minutes before, but it was a no-go.
Now logic defies SoFi. If I wasn't escorted to field level, I never would have made it, it was a labyrinth of escalators and corridors and stairs...
Even better was when I tried to get to Level 4 from the bowels of the stadium.
You can't get there from here. Literally. you ride the escalator and it goes from Level 3 to Level 5. Turns out you've go to take an elevator to get to Level 4, but after waiting interminably, I got escorted again, otherwise I never would have made it.
But this has nothing to do with the show. Other than to say that SoFi is vast. Sans frontman antics it would be hard to get the audience involved. But Mick did. And the band did.
I don't want to take sides, but the heart of the band is Keith Richards. Strumming his guitar, mostly in the background.
Actually, that was the highlight of the evening. Before the Linda Lindas took the stage, Keith's guitar tech Pierre gave me a tour of his guitars. There's one locked case after another. Because the band has rehearsed seventy songs, and you never quite know what they'll play. The Gibsons all have six strings, the rest mostly have five. And we were looking at each one in its slot in the case and then Pierre extracted...
The axe from "Honky Tonk Woman." The exact one from the track. I tingled then and I'm tingling now. This is rock and roll history. A direct connection from what once was to what now still is.
And then Andrew Watt came along and we joshed and jousted, he gave me sh*t for dissing him, being friendly all the while, and for the life of me I couldn't remember exactly what I'd said. When I take a big swing at someone I usually do. But one thing was for sure, Andrew was reading. And Pierre told me at the first session for "Hackney Diamonds" Watt insisted on playing the bass... A bridge from then to now.
And speaking of "Hackney Diamonds," "Angry" was far superior live. It breathed, there was more space, something that is hard to achieve in a recording. Sure, Jagger was still out front, but there was air between him and the rest of the instruments Saturday night, and it made "Angry" a classic, which was surprising.
What was also surprising was the band hit the ground running.
Now if you've ever seen the Stones, you know they start out rough, it takes them a while to find their groove. I was shocked that they were together from note one. Very professional.
But the reason this is hard is the Stones are a blast from the past. They're doing it the way they've always done. Naturally. Sans the hard drives and offstage players trying to imitate the records, delivering a professional appearance and sound that not only all their contemporaries employ, but especially the young 'uns. What you've got here is 1965. You remember buying a guitar in the wake of the Beatles breaking. You played in the basement with your buddies. And that's what the Stones do, only on a much higher level.
Sure, it's not the Marquee, but it's not that far removed. Jagger's movements are expanded, as is the band, with two backup singers and two horn players, along with two keyboard players. But if you close your eyes it could be...1965!
But the difference between the Stones and their British Invasion contemporaries is not only did they soldier on, they continued to have hits, in the seventies and eighties, and their tracks still had an impact thereafter. Actually, I sing 1989's "Mixed Emotions" in my head more than I do the earlier stuff... You're not the only one, with mixed emotions. Sure, we broke up. Maybe you pulled the trigger, but I was unsure too and...
They didn't play "Mixed Emotions" Saturday night.
They started with... "Start Me Up." Firing on all cylinders, as stated above.
Then back to the sixties with "Get Off of My Cloud."
But then came "Tumbling Dice." The single from "Exile on Main Street" that did not go to number one, that was the lead-in for the '72 tour. The first in America after "Sticky Fingers" allowed the Stones to declare themselves "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." Not only was "Sticky Fingers" fantastic, all their contemporaries had given up, or fallen by the wayside, and here were the Stones delivering what we wanted and didn't know we needed.
Not that the band played "Brown Sugar," supposedly that's been banished. And that line about the Puerto Rican girls dyin' to meet you...that was not heard in "Miss You," but...
Prior to the recent tours, the best, was '75, the one where the band was revealed after the petals of the silver flower unfolded. When I saw the show at the Forum that tune was when the band finally locked in, when they were finally together, in the groove, I was closed on "Tumbling Dice" that night, and thereafter have loved it. And the band performed it just as well on Saturday.
Then came the surprise of "Angry."
And I knew they were going to play "Heartbreaker," the fan's choice from "Goat's Head Soup," my favorite on the album. How were they going to get the intro right? Well, they didn't. They didn't even try. It was an approximation. Rather than use a tape, they approximated it with keyboard and then guitar and it made the song more special.
But then came "Fool to Cry." Which was not my favorite song from "Black and Blue," recorded with different guitarists after Mick Taylor left the band. There are two great tracks on that uneven album. One no one ever talks about, "Hand of Fate," the other "Memory Motel," a classic that only gained popular traction with the duet with Dave Matthews on a live album years later. But "Fool to Cry," the album's single? I never got that. And it was a big risk to slow the show down and do this number with falsetto. But the Stones are always about big risks. And Jagger pulled it off. Which is hard in a room this big.
"Monkey Man" didn't have Nicky Hopkins's piano, but it had energy nonetheless.
But the surprise I was warned about by Pierre. You see Keith gave up smoking two years ago and his voice has improved, he told me I'd hear it in the performance. I was positively stunned. The frog of yesteryear was replaced with a smooth voice with range. "You Got the Silver," played acoustically with Ronnie Wood, was a revelation, in that Keith sang it effortlessly, as he did thereafter with "Little T & A" and "Before They Make Me Run."
Oh, before that they did "You Can't Always Get What You Want" in a slowed-down manner. Which emphasized the lyrics, Jagger was fantastic singing about the Chelsea Drugstore, the words were clear and meaningful, but the budding freight train of the recording was nowhere to be found.
Then again, Pierre told me Keith had to keep it interesting for himself. To especially notice Keith's guitar work on "Satisfaction," he played it a bit different from the record, he had to keep himself inspired.
And that was another interesting thing. Although there's a ton of money involved, the show didn't have the feel of a dash for cash. It was like there was nowhere these cats would rather be, this is what they do, it wasn't about brand extensions, but the music, the camaraderie, the power of a band.
In truth, the show wasn't as together in the late middle, but then the powerhouse closers built to the point where there was no doubt that this was the Rolling Stones. Especially "Gimmie Shelter," whose gravitas and danger is hard to replicate live. But Chanel Haynes channeled her inner Tina to deliver a knife to the heart that was different from Merry Clayton's, but powerful, and extended. When she and Mick duetted...you realized no one else could pull this off.
But generally speaking there was no danger. That's gone. The bad boys of yore...are bad no longer.
I didn't see a tattoo in evidence. The Stones were comfortable in their own bodies. They weren't competing with anybody else. In fact, music has moved on, but they have stayed the same, which makes the experience more meaningful, and more powerful.
Not that there was not humor. Mick didn't speak much, but when he talked about getting to the venue...how he was going to take the 405, but ended up going the 101 to the 5 to the 10 and it took him two and a half hours...everybody in attendance knew exactly what he was talking about.
Now your mother was warned not to let you date a Rolling Stone. Then they were doing drugs in a basement in France. The band was dark. And dirty. And led a jet set lifestyle when many Americans hadn't even flown.
But everybody flies today. Look at the shorts and flip-flops on the plane.
And you've got billionaires flaunting their wealth. If you don't have a private plane, you're nearly laughable, certainly not a member of the club.
And all the musicians are sucking up to those with money, trying to revel in the largesse.
And there are these acts that play stadiums, but their reach is nothing compared to the Stones. How many shows can you go to and know every song (other than maybe from the new album, but that's just the point, nothing today has the ubiquity of yore).
Rap recovered the danger of rock, but ultimately that became a cartoon. And how many people want to get shot and go to jail anyway? It's one thing to do drugs, it's quite another to fear for your life.
But in truth, no one can be dangerous anymore because the wall between the public and the performer has been torn down. We know everything about you, mystery is history. That paradigm is kaput. Which is why someone like Noah Kahan can triumph, revealing and owning his inner failings...Noah ends up relatable, whereas Mick and Keith never were.
And how much longer are Mick and Keith going to do this?
Until they can't anymore.
When is the last tour? It'll be like Rod Argent of the Zombies, who just had a stroke and retired from the road, we won't foresee it. The Stones are the bridge between the Delta Blues and today, and those bluesmen kept on picking until they passed.
But not to audiences as big as the Stones.
All these years later, the recordings are just a framework. It's all about the show. And I could tell you there's nothing to see here, that it's all been done before, that if you went to a Stones show in the past you don't have to go again, but I'd be lying.
There was not a single person in SoFi who could complain they didn't get their money's worth. They came to see the Stones and they got more.
Sure, there were hi-def screens, but one could argue the production hasn't meant less in decades. It was really about the band. The Stones were not winning you over with dance routines and pyrotechnics, but solely the music. They were playing. Sure, they might have been in a football stadium, but the roots were in the club. Where it's more about energy than sound. Where you feel a part of the performance.
What the Stones are delivering you can't get anywhere else. No one else is flying without a net. No one else is doing what they've always did. Jagger still has his voice, astoundingly. Ronnie does not replicate the solos from the albums. And Keith...well, he's Keith, the smiling pirate who faced down the devil and won.
This is rock and roll.
Try sometime, you just mind find...
You get what you need.
--
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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They're selling rock and roll. A lost art. If you want to experience it in its original form, go to see the Stones.
What I'm saying is the emphasis is misplaced. It's on Mick Jagger's dancing, his onstage antics. The bottom line is this is necessary when you play in the vast stadiums the Stones appear in.
Have you ever been to SoFi? One of the most bizarre experiences in the sports stadium stratosphere.
Actually, my favorite moment came after the show. When I walked into an elevator and was promptly escorted out, as I was told THIS IS RESERVED FOR MR. KROENKE! It only went from field level up one flight. I'd actually ridden it earlier in the evening. The show had finished about fifteen minutes before, but it was a no-go.
Now logic defies SoFi. If I wasn't escorted to field level, I never would have made it, it was a labyrinth of escalators and corridors and stairs...
Even better was when I tried to get to Level 4 from the bowels of the stadium.
You can't get there from here. Literally. you ride the escalator and it goes from Level 3 to Level 5. Turns out you've go to take an elevator to get to Level 4, but after waiting interminably, I got escorted again, otherwise I never would have made it.
But this has nothing to do with the show. Other than to say that SoFi is vast. Sans frontman antics it would be hard to get the audience involved. But Mick did. And the band did.
I don't want to take sides, but the heart of the band is Keith Richards. Strumming his guitar, mostly in the background.
Actually, that was the highlight of the evening. Before the Linda Lindas took the stage, Keith's guitar tech Pierre gave me a tour of his guitars. There's one locked case after another. Because the band has rehearsed seventy songs, and you never quite know what they'll play. The Gibsons all have six strings, the rest mostly have five. And we were looking at each one in its slot in the case and then Pierre extracted...
The axe from "Honky Tonk Woman." The exact one from the track. I tingled then and I'm tingling now. This is rock and roll history. A direct connection from what once was to what now still is.
And then Andrew Watt came along and we joshed and jousted, he gave me sh*t for dissing him, being friendly all the while, and for the life of me I couldn't remember exactly what I'd said. When I take a big swing at someone I usually do. But one thing was for sure, Andrew was reading. And Pierre told me at the first session for "Hackney Diamonds" Watt insisted on playing the bass... A bridge from then to now.
And speaking of "Hackney Diamonds," "Angry" was far superior live. It breathed, there was more space, something that is hard to achieve in a recording. Sure, Jagger was still out front, but there was air between him and the rest of the instruments Saturday night, and it made "Angry" a classic, which was surprising.
What was also surprising was the band hit the ground running.
Now if you've ever seen the Stones, you know they start out rough, it takes them a while to find their groove. I was shocked that they were together from note one. Very professional.
But the reason this is hard is the Stones are a blast from the past. They're doing it the way they've always done. Naturally. Sans the hard drives and offstage players trying to imitate the records, delivering a professional appearance and sound that not only all their contemporaries employ, but especially the young 'uns. What you've got here is 1965. You remember buying a guitar in the wake of the Beatles breaking. You played in the basement with your buddies. And that's what the Stones do, only on a much higher level.
Sure, it's not the Marquee, but it's not that far removed. Jagger's movements are expanded, as is the band, with two backup singers and two horn players, along with two keyboard players. But if you close your eyes it could be...1965!
But the difference between the Stones and their British Invasion contemporaries is not only did they soldier on, they continued to have hits, in the seventies and eighties, and their tracks still had an impact thereafter. Actually, I sing 1989's "Mixed Emotions" in my head more than I do the earlier stuff... You're not the only one, with mixed emotions. Sure, we broke up. Maybe you pulled the trigger, but I was unsure too and...
They didn't play "Mixed Emotions" Saturday night.
They started with... "Start Me Up." Firing on all cylinders, as stated above.
Then back to the sixties with "Get Off of My Cloud."
But then came "Tumbling Dice." The single from "Exile on Main Street" that did not go to number one, that was the lead-in for the '72 tour. The first in America after "Sticky Fingers" allowed the Stones to declare themselves "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." Not only was "Sticky Fingers" fantastic, all their contemporaries had given up, or fallen by the wayside, and here were the Stones delivering what we wanted and didn't know we needed.
Not that the band played "Brown Sugar," supposedly that's been banished. And that line about the Puerto Rican girls dyin' to meet you...that was not heard in "Miss You," but...
Prior to the recent tours, the best, was '75, the one where the band was revealed after the petals of the silver flower unfolded. When I saw the show at the Forum that tune was when the band finally locked in, when they were finally together, in the groove, I was closed on "Tumbling Dice" that night, and thereafter have loved it. And the band performed it just as well on Saturday.
Then came the surprise of "Angry."
And I knew they were going to play "Heartbreaker," the fan's choice from "Goat's Head Soup," my favorite on the album. How were they going to get the intro right? Well, they didn't. They didn't even try. It was an approximation. Rather than use a tape, they approximated it with keyboard and then guitar and it made the song more special.
But then came "Fool to Cry." Which was not my favorite song from "Black and Blue," recorded with different guitarists after Mick Taylor left the band. There are two great tracks on that uneven album. One no one ever talks about, "Hand of Fate," the other "Memory Motel," a classic that only gained popular traction with the duet with Dave Matthews on a live album years later. But "Fool to Cry," the album's single? I never got that. And it was a big risk to slow the show down and do this number with falsetto. But the Stones are always about big risks. And Jagger pulled it off. Which is hard in a room this big.
"Monkey Man" didn't have Nicky Hopkins's piano, but it had energy nonetheless.
But the surprise I was warned about by Pierre. You see Keith gave up smoking two years ago and his voice has improved, he told me I'd hear it in the performance. I was positively stunned. The frog of yesteryear was replaced with a smooth voice with range. "You Got the Silver," played acoustically with Ronnie Wood, was a revelation, in that Keith sang it effortlessly, as he did thereafter with "Little T & A" and "Before They Make Me Run."
Oh, before that they did "You Can't Always Get What You Want" in a slowed-down manner. Which emphasized the lyrics, Jagger was fantastic singing about the Chelsea Drugstore, the words were clear and meaningful, but the budding freight train of the recording was nowhere to be found.
Then again, Pierre told me Keith had to keep it interesting for himself. To especially notice Keith's guitar work on "Satisfaction," he played it a bit different from the record, he had to keep himself inspired.
And that was another interesting thing. Although there's a ton of money involved, the show didn't have the feel of a dash for cash. It was like there was nowhere these cats would rather be, this is what they do, it wasn't about brand extensions, but the music, the camaraderie, the power of a band.
In truth, the show wasn't as together in the late middle, but then the powerhouse closers built to the point where there was no doubt that this was the Rolling Stones. Especially "Gimmie Shelter," whose gravitas and danger is hard to replicate live. But Chanel Haynes channeled her inner Tina to deliver a knife to the heart that was different from Merry Clayton's, but powerful, and extended. When she and Mick duetted...you realized no one else could pull this off.
But generally speaking there was no danger. That's gone. The bad boys of yore...are bad no longer.
I didn't see a tattoo in evidence. The Stones were comfortable in their own bodies. They weren't competing with anybody else. In fact, music has moved on, but they have stayed the same, which makes the experience more meaningful, and more powerful.
Not that there was not humor. Mick didn't speak much, but when he talked about getting to the venue...how he was going to take the 405, but ended up going the 101 to the 5 to the 10 and it took him two and a half hours...everybody in attendance knew exactly what he was talking about.
Now your mother was warned not to let you date a Rolling Stone. Then they were doing drugs in a basement in France. The band was dark. And dirty. And led a jet set lifestyle when many Americans hadn't even flown.
But everybody flies today. Look at the shorts and flip-flops on the plane.
And you've got billionaires flaunting their wealth. If you don't have a private plane, you're nearly laughable, certainly not a member of the club.
And all the musicians are sucking up to those with money, trying to revel in the largesse.
And there are these acts that play stadiums, but their reach is nothing compared to the Stones. How many shows can you go to and know every song (other than maybe from the new album, but that's just the point, nothing today has the ubiquity of yore).
Rap recovered the danger of rock, but ultimately that became a cartoon. And how many people want to get shot and go to jail anyway? It's one thing to do drugs, it's quite another to fear for your life.
But in truth, no one can be dangerous anymore because the wall between the public and the performer has been torn down. We know everything about you, mystery is history. That paradigm is kaput. Which is why someone like Noah Kahan can triumph, revealing and owning his inner failings...Noah ends up relatable, whereas Mick and Keith never were.
And how much longer are Mick and Keith going to do this?
Until they can't anymore.
When is the last tour? It'll be like Rod Argent of the Zombies, who just had a stroke and retired from the road, we won't foresee it. The Stones are the bridge between the Delta Blues and today, and those bluesmen kept on picking until they passed.
But not to audiences as big as the Stones.
All these years later, the recordings are just a framework. It's all about the show. And I could tell you there's nothing to see here, that it's all been done before, that if you went to a Stones show in the past you don't have to go again, but I'd be lying.
There was not a single person in SoFi who could complain they didn't get their money's worth. They came to see the Stones and they got more.
Sure, there were hi-def screens, but one could argue the production hasn't meant less in decades. It was really about the band. The Stones were not winning you over with dance routines and pyrotechnics, but solely the music. They were playing. Sure, they might have been in a football stadium, but the roots were in the club. Where it's more about energy than sound. Where you feel a part of the performance.
What the Stones are delivering you can't get anywhere else. No one else is flying without a net. No one else is doing what they've always did. Jagger still has his voice, astoundingly. Ronnie does not replicate the solos from the albums. And Keith...well, he's Keith, the smiling pirate who faced down the devil and won.
This is rock and roll.
Try sometime, you just mind find...
You get what you need.
--
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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