Live Album Covers-SiriusXM This Week

Tune in Saturday November 29th 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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Poison In My Well

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1lQPaWzjstwG1X3hWZb11A?si=U85iBAQ-Svy5ODLMAx4nig

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYmZyHXPUT4

I was listening to the Pulse of Americana playlist on Spotify.

I don't do that on a regular basis, listen to playlists, it was a last resort, I wanted to hear new music and...

I'm reading the news, but at this point I almost shrug, I guess I feel powerless.

As for podcasts... True crime...kinda burned out on that. And the political ones...the speakers are self-satisfied and believe they make a difference and...

You know how it is when almost nothing feels right?

That's why I ended up listening to the latest album by a classic act, and realizing it wasn't really that good, that's when I pulled up the Pulse of Americana playlist.

And...

It starts with the song. I know, I know, you've heard this over and over, but most people still don't learn the lesson, they just don't know what a song is. Listen to the Beatles' catalog and then sit down and write a song. Start with verse/chorus/bridge... If you can master this, then you can jump off into uncharted territory. "Tomorrow Never Knows" was not on the Beatles' first album...

And the form is important, the lyrics less so, but melody/changes always helps. It's very rare that a droning sound sans differences embeds itself in the mind of the listener.

So, assuming you've got the song, which is a big if, A BIG IF!

Then it comes down to the performance/recording of said song.

I once got an e-mail from someone, back when I used to respond, asking me about their song. I was not positive about the vocal, and then he responded...WHAT ABOUT THE LYRICS? The lyrics were not fantastic, but this guy was indignant, saying WHAT ABOUT BOB DYLAN!

And I responded BOB DYLAN IS THE BEST LYRICIST OF ALL TIME!

If you're in the league of Bob Dylan, and have a less than perfect voice, go for it, sing your own songs, but if you don't...don't put your music online and then bitch when no one wants to listen to it. Isn't that part of music, having a good voice? When did we lose the thread here?

As for recording... That's one thing we've lost with the major label/pre-internet era. Without a ton of money, recordings are not labored over (not that fast and cheap is always bad), and you end up with a lot of less than professional stuff. The internet is LADEN with less than professional stuff. To the point where it's nearly impossible to find the needle in the haystack.

But I found one.

"Poison In My Well" by Maggie Rose and Grace Potter...

Everybody's an armchair expert. I don't need a plethora of e-mail telling me this song is not great, I KNOW IT! But in a world of crap, it's pretty damn good, and it stood out.

First there was the groove, which got my head nodding... Too many people have not paid enough dues and don't know how to swing... This is what you get with endless live appearances, you gain FEEL! Too many of today's recording artists lack this.

And then when Maggie Rose comes in...SHE CAN SING! What a concept! Well, it is after listening to endless substandard vocals on the Americana playlist. Somehow people believe in this genre you can get away with imperfect vocals...believe me, the audience isn't enamored.

And after a short verse, there's a change, there's a pre-chorus, a revelation in a world where acts drone endlessly with one chord verses...

But it's better than that. This pre-chorus is not Ms. Rose alone, Grace Potter comes in singing along...which adds humanity and richness. Never mind Potter always bringing an element of swagger, the antithesis of the kewpie dolls like Ariana Grande.

And then these two women go into the chorus...

Now back when we used to go to bars to hear bands, this is what resonated, good singers wailing, going balls to the wall, giving it their all. We could FEEL IT in the audience.

And then there's the post chorus singing about poisoning the well... There's emphasis, attitude, but CONTROL! These women know what they're singing, they're feeling empowered.

And when Rose comes back in, she's upped it up a notch, she's got somewhat of a sneer.

And Grace Potter comes and doubles....

And listening on headphones I'm thinking of how we listened to this music back in the seventies, on the biggest rigs we could afford, LOUD! You can't get that gut-punching bass with earbuds/headphones, you can't feel the music, it's not all encompassing, it appeals to your head before your heart, before your genitalia...and believe me, although this song is not about sex, you can feel the sex in the vocals.

And I wanted to hear "Poison In My Well" again. The music had gotten to me, that groove, that professionalism, this was not someone recording with their iPhone eager to post to Spotify.

So I look up the song...

"All my expectations
You go and shoot 'em down
All my birthday candles
You go and blow 'em out"

Okay, he's a bad man. Not pedestrian, but not revelatory.

"'Cause if you can't have it
Then nobody can have it
Yeah, I know how it happens
You're gonna smash and grab it all"

The music and singing of the pre-chorus is great, and that one line about smashing and grabbing it all...that's a new way to put it, the image comes to mind...I know people like that, you do too...

But the best words are in the chorus:

"The only time you're every sorry
Is when you're sorry for yourself"

This is a cut above. I've never quite seen it put this way before.
And then there's the piece-de-resistance:

"You can't see what you can't see
You don't know how to be happy for somebody else"

On the page maybe not great...maybe not that great when looked at from a distance, but with the emphatic vocal the image is painted... Guys who are all about themselves, sharks, if they're not winning they're not interested, and any victories can't be at their expense, they always must come out ahead.

So now I'm on about the third or fourth time through and I start to do a little research. And I find out online this track came out in JULY!

So am I out of the loop or did this song never really happen...

Well, Spotify tells me there are only 147,119 streams, so...

As for Maggie Rose, whose name I know, but not much more...

She's been on a slew of labels, even made a record for Big Loud...

Close, but no cigar. In the old days, someone would have given up. Made it to the show but not the center ring.

But "Poison In My Well" is now on...One Riot?

Whatever that is.

But getting my info right, research tells me that "Poison In My Well" is nominated for a Best Americana Performance Grammy...which means I'm not the only person who is paying attention, who can see the merit in this track, but art is not about awards...the stars put theirs in their bathroom, if they display them at all... Most of the categories are for losers. No, the music game is about IMPACT! Which usually aligns with commercial success. Have people heard your music, did they like it and want to play it again, did they tell people about it?

That's worth more than any award. That's the game we're all playing, don't delude yourself otherwise. The committee is the public. What does the public have to say?

HAS THE PUBLIC EVEN HEARD IT?

Well, I'm not sure where "Poison In My Well" fits in today's marketplace. It's not Spotify Top 50 pop. Not mainstream country...you can't hear a hat or references to beer/babies/church and there's no banjo... Now Chris Stapleton broke through breaking all the rules, by just being great, so there is a lane...

Then again, Stapleton is fantastic. He supersedes the mainstream country crap, but if you're in his lane and don't have traction...

Americana encompasses too much dreck. To be a fan of this genre... Its fans don't want you, they're proud of their interests, and usually it's about lyrics and struggle and if an act's too polished, they're not interested.

So...

In conclusion... "Poison In My Well" is the best thing I heard on the Pulse of Americana playlist. It was the only song I wanted to hear more than once. I could put it on at a party and people's bodies would start to pulse along with the music, no one would say to take it off, but...

Most people have never even heard it.

This is the world we live in, if you do professional work that is a cut above the rest that still isn't enough for notice.

But I noticed "Poison In My Well."


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Todd Snider

1

This is weird to me. For a journeyman singer, barely covered in the media, unknown to most, Todd Snider got some of the most glowing obituaries I've ever seen. Lengthy, with not only biographical information, but lyrical quotations...if one was not a fan a reader would think they'd missed out on something.

If only Todd Snider was alive to see them.

I was not the biggest Todd Snider fan. Actually, I was not that much of a fan at all. I was paying attention at the advent, when he released his first album on Jimmy Buffett's label Mailboat, distributed and promoted by MCA.

You see there was a triumvirate of AOR promotion people at Atlantic. Dedicated, successful and fun, and one, David Fleischman left the New York office for L.A., to work for MCA. Supposedly a soul singer in Memphis before he switched sides (and subsequent histories of Memphis soul have confirmed this), Fleischman was called "Flash," and he was anything but, flashy that it is. He sold the music in a low-key way. And the first project he worked for MCA was Todd Snider. Who had this track "Alright Guy."

"You know just the other morning I was hanging around in my house
I had that new book with pictures of Madonna naked, I was checking it out
Just then a friend of mine came through the door
Said she'd never picked me for a scumbag before
She said she didn't ever want to see me anymore
And I still don't know why

I think I'm an alright guy
I think I'm an alright guy"

Now if that doesn't bring you back... When Madonna was surfing the zeitgeist of popular stardom, testing limits all the while. Today pop stars bare their wares on OnlyFans, and Google will show you so much T&A you'll end up bored.

But that's kind of my point. Remember how big Madonna was back then?

Nobody's that big anymore. Never mind today it's more about money than pushing the envelope. Multiple copies of vinyl albums. Show grosses. What is being sold underneath has the nutritional value of cotton candy.

But not Todd Snider.

And just like Madonna, Snider was the beneficiary of the major label machine, but after a couple of albums that ended and he became indie before you wanted to be. And today EVERYBODY is indie. Seems like only the brain-dead want what the majors purvey, akin to the network television of yore, made for the most people and appealing directly to few.

So what is stardom today?

Now let's be clear, most acts posting to Spotify don't deserve stardom, never mind failing to achieve it. But there is a certain level of artist...

2

So it's not only the over the top obituaries that is weird, but the way Snider passed. In that just before he was involved in this altercation in Salt Lake City... Outside a hotel he got into it...

Well, that was the original story. Which didn't make complete sense, since the police ended up arresting Snider...

More details have now come out, and you can read them here:

https://tasteofcountry.com/todd-snider-arrest-body-cam-footage-salt-lake/

But the point is this is not the average behavior of a nearly sixty year old troubadour. Who then cancels his tour, goes back home, enters the hospital and promptly dies.

And 59... If you think that's old, you haven't reached that threshold. That's positively young, musicians don't tend to die before that unless it's a case of misadventure, and they said that Snider died of...PNEUMONIA?

So it was a double-whammy.

I mean I hadn't seen a Todd Snider show recently... I'm trying to think, I definitely met him and we interacted momentarily back in the MCA days...but when you're a singer-songwriter and you've never opened for Taylor Swift, you not only don't play arenas, you end up in tertiary venues where your hard core supports you. Usually you're not making much more than a living. And you have to work to get paid.

Now at this point...

Just because you had a major label deal once, that doesn't mean you're entitled to make a living from your music thereafter. But the more you read the obituaries, the more you read the lyrical quotes, you had to admit it to yourself, this guy was GOOD!

This was in the "New York Times," from the song "Just In Case," about a prenuptial agreement:

"I can't love you enough
But I also can't afford to lose half of my stuff."

You have to be smart to be funny. A tradition back in the sixties, humor has been excised from today's material, everything's so damn SERIOUS! Albeit in many cases laughable.

From that same "Times" obituary:

"'A lot of this record is about how poor people sometimes cope with pain and hardship,' Mr. Snider told The Times. 'A little drugs here, a little sex here, a little denial there.'"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/arts/music/todd-snider-dead.html

There's more truth there than there is in a month of opinion pieces in major media.

And then, "Variety" quoted from Snider's HQ Aimless's post:

"May your hope always outweigh your doubt
Until this old world finally punches you out
May you always play your music
Loud enough to wake up all of your neighbors
Or may you play at least loud enough
To always wake yourself up"

https://www.instagram.com/p/DRFN5XnEXKH/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=eacce54d-bdc7-4cd6-9eaf-bab77c79c7aa

This is not the boomers who sold their souls for the almighty dollar in the eighties. This is not about gated communities and private jets. This is the rock and roll ethos, which has been snuffed out. The other, who doesn't fit in and knows it, but is unwilling to compromise.

3

Where does Todd Snider end up in history? Will be be like Nick Drake, discovered and kept alive after he dies or...will he just fade away and not radiate.

But one thing is for sure, we live in a weird era... Where nobody gets universal purchase on the public's attention, never mind the zeitgeist.

But, sans that major label push... You can live your whole live on the outskirts, as part of the sideshow.

Now Todd put out some records on John Prine's label "Oh Boy," but don't confuse his status with that of the label owner. John Prine had SEVEN major label albums before he went independent. And he got a ton of ink when the rock press was alive and thriving. And Bonnie Raitt made one of his songs a standard. And then there's "Hello In There" which Bette Midler amplified and..

Todd Snider had none of this mindshare.

So today the acts with mindshare are either old, riding on the coattails of their major success decades ago, or the few pushed by the major labels... As for the rest...

It's the great unwashed. Good luck trying to get ahead.

And, once again, most don't deserve the notice.

And you put out records and have fans but that does not mean you're rich, that your problems are solved. Snider got addicted to Oxycontin...

So... Not only do the acts who deserve it not get attention, many acts don't even get started, or give up early. The road is fraught with obstacles. And the fault is not streaming, that's a bogeyman, it's the impossibility of gaining attention, with not only musicians and influencers but news outlets and other sites competing for the eyes and ears of the audience.

Now if Todd Snider had just passed, and hadn't gotten obituaries in not only the big three, the NYT, WSJ and the WaPo, but elsewhere, it'd be no big deal. Sad for fans, not even a shrug from the mainstream. But these obits testified, AT LENGTH!

How come we can't give some of these acts this attention when they're still alive?

Then again a media push doesn't mean what it used to. Most of the articles are placed, they read as promotion. But there's only honesty in an obituary, where everybody agreed Todd Snider was a cut above.

I wish he'd known.

Because he was an ARIGHT GUY!

Like so many of us... We're misread, misunderstood, they want us to conform, but inside...

"I know I ain't perfect, but God knows I try
I think I'm an alright guy!"


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Tom Freston-This Week's Podcast

Tom has a new book, "Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu."

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tom-freston/id1316200737?i=1000738658172

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6cASLWs2jZNI5QrQv4BsTm?si=PoaCd-k1Q4WgLe1SJDAx2A

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/tom-freston-309630282/

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/cbd6f24f-9fb7-48c0-9c2e-aeeee9b684a8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-tom-freston


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Update

So I'm sitting here writing about Jimmy Cliff and in my mind I can hear the blowback.

Believe me, I've always gotten negative responses, but not with the vociferousness, the put-downs, the holier-than-thou attitudes of correspondents today. Is it about me or is it the nature of the world at large? Or maybe it's just the nature of the internet.

I mean on one hand I'm cracking up. Wondering who these people think I am. Like I'm some god who must be torn down. No, I'm just a guy with education and opinions who has built an audience based thereon. It's totally an opt-in list, you'd think I was pushing myself and my pronouncements down their throat, that there was no way to avoid me/sign off from the mailing list. But this is patently untrue.

Now most people don't respond at all. But today, a bunch of responses bothered me...

If I get one more e-mail hipping me to the fact that Desmond Dekker's 1969 smash "Israelites" was the first reggae hit, I'm going to tear what little hair I have left out of my head.

No, "Israelites" is SKA!

Listen to the track, does it sound like anything from the Wailers' Island repertoire? The other icons of reggae?

Ska predated reggae in Jamaica. Furthermore, at the end of the seventies there was a ska renaissance in the U.K., which bled all over the world. With acts like the Specials, Selecter, The "English" Beat... Would you call "Mirror in the Bathroom" reggae? No. I'd say I'm splitting hairs here, but really I am not. Because the evolution from ska into reggae is historically very important.

As for places online where you see "Israelites" labeled reggae... What you've got here is self-anointed experts half a century after the fact, oftentimes people who weren't even alive in 1969, weighing in. What was that cliché you learned in elementary school? "Don't believe everything you read"? Or "Everything in the newspaper isn't true"?

Once again, all you've got to do is listen and you can hear the difference, and the difference is important.

And believe me, when I was writing the piece, I THOUGHT about "Israelites," how it was ska and people would e-mail me that it was reggae, and voila! My dreams came true, ha!

One other pet peeve...

I constantly get e-mail from people tapping me on the shoulder, making me aware of some fact that is evidenced in what I wrote IF ONLY THEY'D READ IT! Did you know that "The Harder They Come" played at the Orson Welles in Boston for years? Yes, I WROTE THAT! But that's not enough. If you're going to take the time to correct me, wouldn't you make sure you're correct first yourself? No.

And then there are those who wonder why I no longer spell out swear words, i.e. f*ck and sh*t... BECAUSE IF YOU DO YOU CAN'T GET THROUGH SPAM FILTERS!

Once again, people don't ask, they just put me down, laughingly correct me in their holier-than-thou fashion...if you sent e-mail for a living you would know that it's almost impossible to reach people. These corporations have triggers that bounce e-mail and...

Then there are the people who castigated me for saying that the American Dream was now more achievable in Canada and parts of the EU.

These honkies who can't believe the U.S. is not perfect, who are oblivious to facts... Believe me, I knew I'd hear from them when I was writing too.

But of course what I was saying was right.

I can be wrong, of course... But I am reading ALL DAY LONG! I subscribe to four newspapers. I read three of them cover to cover each and every day. You'd be stunned what you learn. And over time there is context. Whereas those blowing back are running on emotion, not facts. As for saying you don't trust mainstream media, which as I stated above can be wrong, then who can you trust? Nobody?

So I'm reading all day long and I learned the power of analysis at an elite institution but when I say something that doesn't feel right to you, if I don't hew to conventional wisdom, rather than checking the facts before you blow back, you fire up your keyboard and insult me and...

Believe me, I can take it. But in this case, I want to set the record straight.

I'll quote from last week's "Wall Street Journal." LAST WEEK! If you were following the news instead of bloviating, if you were willing to pay for news, you might have read it:

"The Economics of Income Mobility - I believe in the American dream, but the data show that some people have an advantage in realizing it."

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-economics-of-income-mobility-c0a5bd3e?st=Es5FyA&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Here's the money quote:

"Although economic mobility is a core American ideal, the U.S. now ranks below the Nordic countries, Canada and much of Europe in overall mobility, including the classic rags-to-riches story of starting in the bottom and working your way to the top."

BINGO!

I could cite the numerous articles that state this point that come up in a casual Google search, but to satisfy those who only believe in AI, this is what Google's AI response is:

"The 'American Dream' is often seen as more achievable in Canada and parts of Europe due to greater social mobility, a stronger social safety net, and better access to education and healthcare compared to the United States.

"While America may offer a more dynamic startup scene and top-tier universities, Canada and European nations are frequently cited for their lower economic inequality and higher rates of upward mobility, where it's more likely for individuals to improve their economic standing regardless of their background."

I love a good debate, I love to analyze, argue the nuances, but I HATE, HATE HATE arguing over facts. I mean if we can't agree on the same facts, how can we have a discussion at all?

And the irony of everything I said above is I'll still get e-mail from people saying that "Israelites" is reggae and that the American Dream is achievable foremost in America, but both of those are UNTRUE!

Welcome to my world.


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Jimmy Cliff

DON'T F*CK WITH ME!

If you ever saw "The Harder They Come," you know this scene. If you haven't watched the movie, you should.

They started to promote reggae. Only this was in a world with no YouTube, never mind the internet. We weren't sure how to PRONOUNCE IT! Was it like "Reggie" in the "Richie Rich" comics or was it like "gay" or... You see the way they promoted something back then was via the press. There were articles in "Time" and other magazines, there was a big push, but there was no radio airplay.

Most of the push came with the release of the Wailers "Catch a Fire," their first "rock" album, produced and released by Chris Blackwell. Marley and the group were stranded in London, needing cash, and Blackwell gave it to them in return for this record that he adjusted for white audiences. Which didn't catch a fire whatsoever, not in the U.S. That didn't happen for Marley until five albums later, with the release of "Live!," which percolated in the marketplace during 1976 and is a one listen smash...all you need to hear is the opener, "Trenchtown Rock." After that...Marley and the Wailers were stars. And it was definitely Bob Marley and the Wailers, he pointed to the emblem on his white BMW and said that was what it stood for.

But before that...

The first reggae hit to break in the U.S. was by an American! Johnny Nash, with his original "I Can See Clearly Now," a phenomenal track that one can never burn out on. The attendant press said it was reggae, but the success of the track transcended the hype, it was EVERYWHERE! And if you bought the album it was littered with Marley covers, it opened with "Stir It Up," but no one in the U.S. knew who Marley was.

But before Marley gained traction, there was the 1972 film, "The Harder They Come," directed by Perry Henzell and masterminded by Chris Blackwell. It was not released in America until 1973, part of the reggae push, but unlike "Catch a Fire," "The Harder They Come" did ignite, albeit slowly, via word of mouth after continued exhibition, especially in the college student mecca of Boston, where the film had a seven year midnight run at the Orson Welles Cinema.

But it wasn't only the film, within which Jimmy Cliff starred as Ivan, it was also the SOUNDTRACK! A cornucopia of reggae's greatest hits featuring first and foremost the work of Cliff, the album caught you immediately with "You Can Get It If You Really Want."

"But you must try, you must try..."

I never heard this on the radio. But I bought the album and the music was undeniable.

The record also contained the Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon," and the Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad," and the Maytals' (soon to be known as "Toots and the Maytals") "Pressure Drop, but...

As good as those tracks were, and they were great, they were superseded by the work of Jimmy Cliff, the title track and then "Rivers of Babylon" and the piece-de-resistance..."Sitting in Limbo."

"Sitting here in limbo
But I know it won't be long
Sitting here in limbo
Like a bird without a song"

You'd never heard something quite like this. It was a giant leap forward. Soft, hooky, ethereal and meaningful, wow!

But as big as the movie and these songs were, "The Harder They Come" was still a cult item. Not a cult item like today, a small vertical, but without mainstream AOR airplay only dedicated music fans and those who'd seen the movie were exposed. And for them...the album was a staple of their collection, that never went out of style.

And Jimmy Cliff was the biggest star in reggae. Eclipsing Bob Marley by far. Whose Island career really didn't gain any significant traction until "Rastaman Vibration," four studio albums in.

But when Jimmy's 1973 Island album "Struggling Man" did such, despite the movie, Jimmy jumped ship. To the major labels. EMI in Europe and Reprise in the U.S. It was like he sold out, in search of stardom, he was not an authentic Jamaican spliff-smoker, he was part of the machine, he was no longer one of the struggling originals. And this perception spread from the island to the mainland, and the small group who were reggae fans shunned Cliff, he was for everybody else, not them.

But Reprise couldn't break Cliff, not in the traditional way. Meanwhile, Marley was percolating up from the bottom, and when he and his group finally got a toehold, it was not radio that spread the word, but the public, who adored the Wailers like fans adored the Grateful Dead. The Wailers got even less radio airplay. But word was you just had to see them. And people did, and the legend grew.

Jimmy put out "Give Thankx" in 1978, and it received a push from Reprise, I bought it and liked it, but sans Chris Blackwell, sans being part of the Island reggae cult, sans a hit (which even Marley and the Wailers did not have), Jimmy Cliff was just another major label act trolling for radio airplay to rocket them into the stratosphere, and that never happened.

And then Jimmy Cliff converted to Islam, when reggae fans were all over Rastafarianism. And this sealed his outsider status. And reggae fans knew. Jimmy was not a pariah, he was just a sideshow, a very small sideshow... Reggae lifted the boats of everyone playing it except for Jimmy, the wind was no longer in his sails.

Jimmy even switched to Columbia, worked with the Stones' producer Chris Kimsey, but the reggae cult shrugged its shoulders.

Meanwhile, Bob Marley had died of cancer, and it's impossible to compete with a dead man. Marley was seen as the epicenter of reggae, true believers considered him the god, and Jimmy Cliff was just a guy who starred in a movie. But he wasn't!

But in music back then, commercial success was everything. And you couldn't sell many tickets without it. Furthermore, tickets were still cheap.

So...

Jimmy Cliff continued to live, he made records, but he was now seen as separate from Jamaica.

Now the last time I saw Jimmy Cliff was in 2012, at Coachella, on the main stage, in the afternoon, when not only are there few in attendance, there are not many in front of the main stage. And neither was I... But I heard this voice... I remember immediately looking to the sky. Who is this? And I turned around and...

It was Jimmy Cliff. Who was promoting a new album, "Rebirth," but you didn't have to know the record to get the performance.

It was the kind you never forget. Sans big production, in the sun, which is not conducive to impact, Jimmy seemed to hover twenty or thirty feet above the stage, that's how powerful his voice and music were. It was astounding.

And now he's dead.

Coda:

The news is everywhere. Boomers and Gen-X'ers know his name. Youngsters? I've never heard one of them reference "The Harder They Come," even though Jimmy Cliff was more than that, much more...

There was "Vietnam," released in '68, but most people did not catch on until after the war was over. There was no internet to provide alternative airplay, sans the radio...you were dead in the water, or close to it.

And then there was "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" in '69... Another track that didn't really gain traction until later, in the seventies.

As for "You Can Get It If You Really Want." This used to be the ethos of America, the so-called "American Dream," which today is more achievable in Canada and certain European nations than the U.S. But it was even harder to move up the ladder in Jamaica...but at the time...as many tickets as today's musical acts sell, as many streams as they have, acts were much bigger fifty years ago. Music was beyond entertainment, it was laden with meaning, it drove the culture, music was IT! And the best way to go from nowhere to somewhere was to have a hit, not be on a reality TV show or concoct some scam in Silicon Valley.

As for the movie's title track...

"Well they tell me of a pie up in the sky
Waiting for me when I die
But between the day you're born and when you die
They never seem to hear you even cry"

There's more truth in that verse than you find in today's Spotify Top 50. An honest appraisal of the human condition. Today they're selling fantasy, back then reality triumphed.

And in the song Jimmy ultimately did:

"So as sure as the sun will shine
I"m gonna get my share now, what's mine
And then the harder they come
The harder they fall, one and all"

This is not the false braggadocio of a rap record, this is not the trappings, this is the essence...through sheer will I'm going to lift myself up, all by lonesome, because no one is helping me, and as far as those who held me back...F*CK THEM!

"Many Rivers to Cross"?

"Many rivers to cross
And it's only my will that keeps me alive"

Live long enough and you struggle. You think you're flying high, then you lose your job, your spouse...it's not clear sailing for anybody, ANYBODY! And it's hard to put one foot in front of another. It's only sheer will that keeps you alive.

"And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's such a drag to be on your own"

When you've got nothing, nobody wants to be your friend, no one wants to date you, you're alone, in the wilderness, and staying upright and functioning is extremely difficult, not that you'll learn about this in today's music...where too many are complaining they're not yet rich or famous, or from internet influencers, who believe by laying themselves bare and talking about how screwed they are that this resonates...even though what they're really looking for is attention...and money.

And then there's "Sitting in Limbo," alone with your thoughts on the beach.

"Well they're putting up resistance
But I know that my faith will lead me on"

Faith in yourself. That's how you break through.

"Sitting here in limbo
Waiting for the tide to flow
Sitting here in limbo
Knowing that I have to go"

To succeed you must take action. You must confront your issues, your problems, your naysayers. You cannot cower, you must hold your head high.

Like Jimmy Cliff.


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More Dark Songs-SiriusXM This Week

(Due to a technical snafu, there was a rerun last week.)

Tune in Saturday November 22nd to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863 

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz


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Yemi Oyediran-This Week's Podcast

Yemi Oyediran is the director of the must-watch documentary "King of Them All: The Story of King Records" presently airing on PBS.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/yemi-oyediran/id1316200737?i=1000737576785

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3yhjXPTRhrtVSgGZipxxxV?si=L_iLz31GT02JfQ9LkZHNXA

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/yemi-oyediran-308198183/

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/0197154e-0fe1-4421-896b-a1b595ce0db7/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-yemi-oyediran



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Re-Herb Alpert

I co-manage Herb Alpert and want to thank you for your piece today.  So thrilled that you enjoyed the show and were willing to spread the good word.   

When Herb decided to do this tour in honor of the 60th anniversary of Whipped Cream and his 90th year on this mortal coil, he wanted it to really celebrate the music, and that feeling that his original live band and studio players captured (Note- the wrecking crew recorded on Whipped Cream), but also feel real, vibrant and current.   We all agreed to hand pick images, film clips, musicians, lighting fixtures, and even off-stage staff who would amplify his joy for this music, simple but powerful presentation, and the kindness/authenticity he insists upon with all those who surround him.  Herb shares himself up there, and along with his fantastic band, we are so glad to see the ripple effect it's having on his fans and beyond.  I saw people checking out of the hotel next door on Sunday morning.  It was pouring rain, and yet they were all still smiling, having travelled far and wide to see this hometown show!   What a blessing...

Thanks again for your glowing endorsement, as I hope others will get to come spend time with us in the near future... XS

Alexander (Xander Smith) Wolton
________________________________________

I'm Herb's agent…glad you enjoyed the show.  I had the pleasure of experiencing the tour in different cities across the country this year and I'm pleased to report the response is always the same — happiness, joy and multiple standing ovations.  To me, this is not nostalgia for nostalgia's sake…the songs are hits, the melodies are timeless, the archival videos are integrated perfectly to help tell the story…and maybe most importantly it's a little welcome break from tough times.  Herb put together the revamped Tijuana Brass for 2025 and it has been the under the radar tour of the year - 39 consecutive sellouts (and counting), 36 cities and over 65,000 tickets sold.

Michael Morris
MINT Talent Group
________________________________________

The fascinating story behind "The Lonely Bull" can be found in "Hollywood Eden." The most intriguing aspect t me is that there was no ready market for this music -- it was born wholly of Herb's imagination and there was really nothing like it (unless you count those oddly popular bullfight music albums, which don't really count). Also keep in mind that Herb got his start alongside his songwriting partner Lou Adler writing and producing Sam Cooke. Flea told me he used to see sheet music at Fairfax High with Herb's name still on them. 

Cheers,

Joel Selvin

PS: Check the composer credit on "Whipped Cream."
________________________________________

Love Herb I saw him at Vibrato right before Covid hit. His playing is still great as is his voice and he has a ton of great stories that he loves sharing. And those songs were the best and as you mentioned crossed genres. My dad started his career in Cleveland and ended up running a big distribution company,  A&M was one of the labels they handled. I remember Jerry Moss staying at our house in Cleveland before the label started selling in big numbers. When we moved to LA dad was named Head Of Sales at A&M. Whipped Cream was the largest selling record of the year in America. The Peter Whorf cover was brilliant and certainly didn't hurt the sales.

Michael Rosenblatt
________________________________________

Saw Herb & TJB at the Buffalo State Performing Arts Center back on March 28, and it was like time had stopped, and/or was irrelevant. A night filled with pure joy and rediscovery. Having Lani Hall of Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 (who's also Herb's wife, I believe) come out and perform four songs mid/late set was also a treat.

I immediately went and found my Audiophile Series edition of their Greatest Hits LP, ordered the 60th anniversary picture-disc LP reissue of Whipped Cream, and then went and bought the reissue LP of Rise in a local record store since I never owned it. Pure magic.

Herb's going back out in 2026, and I'd see him/them again in a heartbeat.

Mike Mettler
Editor, Analog Planet
________________________________________

I was only 8 years old. My uncle owned a record store so we got albums early and often. With hindsight, I think my first fantasies about women probably came about thanks to the album cover art for "Whipped Cream and Other Delights."

To this day, I still enjoy that music. To this day, every mention of this album triggers a vivid memory of the album cover.

Mark McLaughlin
________________________________________

I attended Herb Albert at the Dolby on Friday night. As one of the younger members of the crowd at almost 63, it brought back sweet memories of my mom playing HATB on the family hi-fi. She loved music! Then again, she might've liked his dimples too, lol. What a handsome man he was, and still so charming. I could have listened to his bits (have no doubt he has tons of stories), and music all night.

I agree with you. His music has a certain optimism to it even for the slow tunes. It brought back the feeling of that era. It was impossible not to hum and bop along to the perfectly arranged songs. By the end of the night, my face hurt from smiling. 

So many people don't know the extent of the effect that Herb had on the music business/scene. He is a living legend.

I'd forgotten abou Laugh-In, and Teaberry. It evoked glimpses of my childhood that made me teary eyed. My parents both gone. My oldest sister's favorite gum, she's gone too. Yet somehow I felt content and fulfilled after being in his presence as he walked us all back in time.

I'm so thrilled that I finally got to see him perform, and urge anyone who grew up during that era to get a ticket, get in the car, just go! You won't regret it.

Sincerely,

Janine Weltman
________________________________________

A year ago I asked Siri to play Herb Alpert on Spotify and it brought me back to the sixties.  I had forgotten about the Teaberry Shuffle and the TJB song played when introducing contestants on the Dating Game.  The theme from Casino Royale was also a gem.  His music was simply fun.  I was in elementary school at the time and one of my best friends was Herb's nephew, Derek.  Derek's family lived next door to my aunt & uncle in Studio City so whenever we would visit, I would go next door to play at Derek's house.  Uncle Herb was there once when I visited and he sat Derek, Randy and myself down and played us "We Can Fly" by the Cowsills.  Apparently their MGM contract was expiring and he was considering signing them.  I gave the record a big thumbs up but Derek & Randy were not as enthusiastic.  Oh, well.  When I ran for student office at Carpenter Avenue Elementary School in 1968, Derek was my campaign manager.  Our teacher suggested that each candidate display a poster on the side of one of the bungalow classrooms.  Derek went to A&M and had one of the techs use backdrop material to fashion a "poster" that was probably 15 feet long which covered the entire side of the building.  After Derek was asked to explain how this was a "poster," he replied that he was not told of any size limitations at which point the teacher let out an "F-Bomb" and suggested we get lost. Rather that "get lost," I won the election, in no small part due to Derek's planning and execution.  Good times.  Bob Paris 
________________________________________

Herb often does a Q&A with the concert audience, and when I saw him backstage a couple of tours back, I told him I would have asked which band on A&M he thought should've been big but wasn't. He immediately replied, "The Flying Burrito Brothers." How about that!

Richard Pachter
________________________________________

Herb Alpert is still the only artist to hit No. 1 with an instrumental (1979's "Rise") and a vocal ("This Guy's In Love With You" 1968).

Vince Welsh
DeLand, FL
________________________________________

The show was incredible. Holy cow. I wasn't sure what to expect knowing he's 90...then he came skipping out and me and my 77 year dad got so excited we giggled.

I love the way he loves his wife...and how he gets choked up with talking about how much he loves her. Any partner should be so lucky. My dad noted that it was neat that the images on the big screens of them together were essentially re-created when she came out on stage.

His stories were so informative - I could listen to him talk about his experiences for hours. His story about his horn teacher Caruso in NY was interesting. "You are the instrument, this is just a piece of plumbing" Good stuff. His wit and ability to deliver info is spot on - he's sharp as a tack. He is a master class in how it's done. His label is also a master class in how it's done. He can create social content on the fly, he knows what he wants and delivers it EVERY TIME. To be 90 and firing on all cylinders is pretty awesome. We should all be so lucky.

This one will go down in the memory books for sure.
Oh, and the Tijuana Brass band was spectacular. I mean, wow.

Jocelynn Pryor
________________________________________

We saw this show in Winnipeg recently - and it was the show we didn't know we needed.  Easily a hi-lite of the year!  The crowd here was mixed for sure, but definitely leaned into the demographic who grew up with his music. 

He even brought out his adoring wife (and she was spectacular)!!! 

I'd go far as to say - not only one of the best of the year, but one of THE most memorable in quite some time.  

What an incredible treat to see this 90 YEAR OLD perform as though he was…at least a much younger version of many people of his vintage. 

Dale Robertson
________________________________________

Loved yoir review of Herb Albert and The Tijuana Brass. 
I saw him in Dallas 1.5 years ago. He blew me away how vital, unbowed, still excited, etc that he is at this age.
An inspiration. 
And yes, his show is like being in his living room.

Colin Boyd
________________________________________

We saw Herb in May and he blew that horn in every song for the whole two hours. Videos for almost every song on the background scrim, but his video budget was helped no doubt by his being the "A" of "A&M Records."

His stories between songs were the best. 

How Jerry Moss didn't think much of " A Taste of Honey," but the crowd reactions on the road were enthusiastic. Then he and the band play it for us, I roll video, and at the end the crowd is on their feet, I'm closing in on Herb's face and his eyes are swimming in tears. He is overwhelmed, after this song, every night of this tour, by how the fans still react.
You cannot buy a better feeling than that, just being there: him enjoying us enjoying him.

Only in America.
—Emory Damron
________________________________________

My wife and I saw Herb Albert last year without the Tijuana Brass.  Herb was playing with his wife Lani Hall (previously lead vocalist for Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66) and a small backing band.  It was a magical concert.  Herb would tell a story, play a song, tell another interesting story, play a song, etc.  I wasn't sure at 90+ years old he still had the musical chops, but he did not disappoint.   What a discography!

Denis Konouck
________________________________________

Saw him w TB 1963.   My 1st live show ever at The Greek

Art Geier
________________________________________

Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss, Chris Blackwell - the most incredible music men I have ever had the privilege to meet ....understated , gracious, authentic and always about the music first.

It was my privilege as an entry level PR guy to put Lonely Bull to No:1 in NZ ..,and lucky enough to meet Herb at the A&M 20th Anniversary celebrations many years later!

Victor Stent
________________________________________

When I was producing music videos back in the late 70s/80s etc., we used to use the Chaplin Stage at A&M Records, on La Brea, all the time. It was a favorite with a lot of music video production companies - the great director Wayne Isham was once the production manager there.  Herb's office was close by and he was often there - always approachable and always gracious.

One video my partner Jim Yukich and I shot there was Jeff Beck's "Ambitious", in 1985. We had the conceit of people "auditioning" with Jeff and had them actually sing the song live over the track (Donny Osmond and Marilyn McCoo were standouts!). We asked Herb to make an appearance and he did, coming in right at the end. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaGfW2Ifuts

He is, as you note so well, a class act.

Paul Flattery
________________________________________

Thank you...

For your beautiful and heartfelt words about Herb. I too was there Saturday night and felt this same kind of happiness hearing all those songs and seeing a true master (and one of my main mentors in life and music) at work. 

He had that entire audience in the palm of his hands—I didn't want it to end! And all the while I'm thinking…would I be able to play like that ALL night when I'm 90? Uh, doubt it. :)

His life is like one of his pieces of art…he sets quite the example of how to live a creative life. 

I'm so glad you wrote that piece, as this is a must-see show for as long as this sold out run lasts. Lucky for us we got in to see it!

Much love, DK. 

—
Dave Koz

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AI "Hits"

"Walk My Walk" went to number one!

And the media couldn't stop talking about it. Musicians are freaking out about it. And my inbox is filling up about it.

And there's no story here.

The truth is Breaking Rust's AI song "Walk My Walk" sold digital singles, which are weighted artificially high in the "Billboard" chart.

Let me ask you, when was the last time you bought a digital single? Probably more recently than a wax cylinder or player piano roll, but the iTunes Store was a thing twenty-odd years ago, and is in the rearview mirror just like 8-tracks and cassettes (and if I read one more story hyping the return of cassettes...even if you can manufacture them, who has the equipment to play them?)

So "Walk My Walk" is not a hit. It does have 4,604,867 streams on Spotify, but if you think that's a success, you're probably a wannabe musician wondering why you can't get paid on a thousand streams... Drives me crazy that this is common perception, Bill Maher even referenced it on Friday night, who is going to pay the artists? Spotify IS paying the artists, a ton of money, more than 60% of revenues, and the business does not scale, i.e. royalties go up with revenues, and stars are making beaucoup bucks on the service and if you own your own material you can be nobody and make bucks and if you're streaming in quantity and signed to a major and not seeing the lion's share of the money it's because you have a bad deal. But nothing I or anyone else says can change public perception.

To grind dirt in your eye, have you seen the clip by Jimmy Carr about Ticketmaster? I could explain it, but it's easier just to watch it:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zMmjKRettxA

You too can have a number one record on the iTunes sales chart... Doesn't take much, a few thousand dollars at most...think of the publicity you'll get, worth every penny! You can trumpet your status and the brain dead media will repeat it sans analysis and...

Can we all just agree that AI in music is here to stay? Can we start there? Can we acknowledge thirty years of internet/digital development?

One of my favorite stories I read this week was about how manufacturing jobs can't come back in America and we need to focus on service jobs. That manufacturing jobs are even dying in China...automation is taking over! But everybody lamenting the aftereffects of NAFTA believes that if we can only bring manufacturing back... And it's not only the left, but Trump too...and manufacturing has gone DOWN since he's been in office. It's just like this #1 AI song...the truth is overrun by distortion and paranoia, it's completely disconnected from reality.

"What Even Is a Good Job?"

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/opinion/good-jobs-policy.html

So:

1. Rights holders should be paid by AI music companies for the scraping of their songs so the service can learn. Definitely. A no-brainer.

2. If an AI song can compete with a human-made song, kudos. That means people desire it more. And it's not like we live in a bygone era where there are labels and gatekeepers who can make something a success, the majors can't break ANY act, whether it be human or AI, so if an AI track is more palatable to the masses than one made by people, so be it.

3. You can write an AI song in a vacuum, with basic prompts. But there are also people writing lyrics and using AI to create songs. So... Right now there is no copyright in AI-generated songs. Should there be copyright if someone writes new lyrics and creates a song...it's a case by case basis now, but I'd say yes. Let me see... Lil Nas X bought the beat online and created "Old Town Road"... That's not a whole hell of a lot different. Sure, a human created that beat, but... As for vocals... Where does the problem lie...with singers being put out of business or songwriters who've been disenfranchised by the internet/the ability to only pull the hits. If you can write but not sing, maybe AI is a benefit.

4. Presently AI cannot create anything new. It can reconstitute what actually exists, but it cannot make a great leap forward, it cannot create "Lux." Maybe if you create new, innovative prompts... Then AI is a tool, just like a drum machine. Then it's an ADVANTAGE! It might help you make something that cannot be created sans AI. Both in concept and sound.

The past is never coming back. But each and every day the media and self-congratulatory ostriches are trying to return to the days of yore that weren't so good to begin with.

The number one target is the smartphone... Thank god for the smartphone, all that information at your fingertips! Do you want to try and CALL to order something in the future, sans research? As for social media... It's SOCIAL media, meaning people are connecting. Can it have deleterious effects? Yes, but so can TV, so can certain medications, that does not mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater.

As fort AI not being able to perform live... To a great degree, that's true. And that should inspire acts to do something different, as opposed to performing with hard drives to click track. AI is not human, and if it can ever achieve that status it's a LONG way off... Right now AI is about reconstituting the past to give you an answer. Which is why it has to scrape/learn from what already exists. When it comes to raw innovation, the Homo sapiens are king.

Before "Walk My Walk" there was Xania Monet's "How Was I Supposed to Know," with the same attendant press story about chart success... What a joke. The looky-loos have streamed the song 6,578,950 times on Spotify because they want to check it out, not because it's a desirable hit. But people are gaming the system, for the press. They're coming up with these AI songs, buying them from iTunes, getting radio stations to play them a few times in the middle of the night and you get the impression of success, when nothing could be further from the truth.

So please, the next time you see a story fearful of AI music...laugh at the writer/talking head. They bought the hype, there is no story there. And if they're in the music business, like I said, we've had the electric guitar, the drum machine, synthesizers...they're all tools in making great music, and you can always sit down with your acoustic and play live if you want to.

And will there be an AI live show that draws crowds? Probably, look at the success the Abba's "Voyage" is having. As are tribute bands. But something new, cutting edge?

It can only be done with people. Who might be using AI as a tool, an instrument.

Own AI. It's HERE!

P.S. I was on CNN last week talking about AI music, you can watch it here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/business/video/ai-singer-music-billboard-charts-music-michael-jackson-thriller-the-lefsetz-letter-bob-lefsetz-tsi


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Herb Alpert & the TJB At The Dolby Theatre

The sixties weren't only the Beatles and Vietnam.

I was reminded of this on Saturday night.

Who didn't own "Whipped Cream & Other Delights"? Who didn't like Herb Alpert? The aforementioned Beatles triumphed alongside the Southern California trumpeter, but a dividing line between the two was not there. Herb was not part of what came before and was excoriated thereafter, like Perry Como, even youngsters like Fabian and Bobby Rydell. No, we LIKED Herb Alpert and his music. It and other instrumentals sat alongside the British Invasion on Top 40 radio and these were cuts that both our parents and we could enjoy.

And I know these songs by heart, but they've been disconnected from the era over the ensuing decades. Saturday night, they were placed in time, and oh, what a time it was.

One of optimism.

For all the protests, the youthquake, the dissatisfaction, the sixties were a time of belief in the future. Things were good and we only wanted them to get even better. Sure, there was poverty, then again, LBJ had a campaign against it, I remember wearing my "War on Poverty" button to school.

And nostalgia for what came before was not a thing. No one wanted to return to the black and white fifties, never mind the war years before, no...we experienced a sunny explosion.

There were the colors. Bright and shiny, electric orange, pink and yellow. The sixties were an era of graphic experimentation. Everything was up for grabs, we thought we were taking a great leap forward, there were smiles on our faces.

So the funny thing about Saturday night's show is it was definitely 2025, but none of the dissension, the disagreements, the divide of today's' era was extant. We were all in it together, no one cared what political party you were from, we were there first and foremost for the music, we did not expect the cultural journey to yesteryear.

You see there was a lot of video. "What's My Line?" I'm sure a kid would be flummoxed by that title. And watching the footage of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"...you HAD to watch on Monday night to discuss the skits in school on Tuesday. It was a cultural requirement.

Not only the skits, but the syncs... Like the one for Clark's Teaberry gum... God, that was a thing back then, but I didn't remember until Saturday night when the dots were connected. This was my life, I was fully alive back then, and seemingly everybody in the audience was too, this was our life.

But not the life of the youngsters who were not in attendance. But the funny thing is I believe youngsters would have LOVED the show. Because you didn't have to know the songs to enjoy it. That's part of the magic of instrumental music. Also, kids have never lived in an era where instrumentals are hits. Sure, there's EDM... But everybody knew "A Taste of Honey," never mind "Love Is Blue" and "Java" and so many more.

So the show began with "The Lonely Bull," my personal favorite.

And this was kind of weird, he was starting with one of his biggest hits... Most acts save them for the end of the show. But in truth, Herb has so many greats.

And his horn dominated, but there was full instrumentation from the Tijuana Brass. A cohesive sound with nothing on hard drive, this was definitely the sixties...when we thought everybody on stage could play, otherwise why be there?

And the thing about "The Lonely Bull" is it's wistful. The music I love most creates a mood. You marinate in it. Your mind is set free. You feel fully alive, despite journeying solely in your mind.

And there was another quick song and ultimately Herb started to speak.

This was not a performance. It was more like being in Herb's living room with him telling you the backstory of the songs and his career in between numbers. It was fascinating and edifying. And all these years later we credit Herb's partner Jerry with steering A&M, but Herb showed how important to the partnership he was on Saturday night. He not only created the initial hits, he brought Sérgio Mendes to the label, and worked with the Carpenters and...

There was footage of Herb with all the heroes of the era, even Satchmo. You see back then it was really a club, and you were either in it or not. There were not smartphone cameras. What happened even in the great wide open was unknown by most. It was a floating party in Hollywood, and only Hollywood. And we felt it elsewhere, it was cool, if only we could be involved.

And Herb's playing one song after another. And I'm thinking to myself...he's ninety, can he sing "This Guy's in Love With You"?

Not only did he sing it, he told the story of it! How he was doing a TV special and the producer thought he should sing a song... Herb was game, but his range was narrow, he needed someone who could write within it. So he called Burt Bacharach (like I said, everybody knew everybody), who was instantly in, who concocted the number with his partner Hal David. And they were in the studio, and Herb was doing a rough take, sort of talk/singing, getting ready to cut the real vocal, but when they played it back Burt said THIS IS IT, THIS IS THE ONE! Herb didn't agree, but it was released and soon went to number one. Because it was featured in the special! That was the power of TV back in the day.

I forgot Herb covered "Love Potion No. 9." That was the highlight of the night for me. It was originally done by the Clovers, the Searchers had the British Invasion hit. But Herb's version, sans lyrics... It swung in a way none of the hit versions did, was almost akin to Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger," and I'm swinging along with it, mentally singing the lyrics about Madame Roux...you know, that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth!

Then there was the latter day hit, "Rise," which was released on 1979, just like Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall," and comfortably sits in the same groove...sounds just as hip. A modernistic leap forward from the sixties.

And I'm waiting for the big hit...

It wasn't first, but it was Herb's true breakthrough, his take on "A Taste of Honey"... talk about bringing you back and making you smile. This take encapsulates the buoyancy of the sixties, with just a hint of gravitas...and that was the era.

And there was all that video shot by the label as promotional footage. That I'd never seen, and most people probably have not either. Herb performing with Charlie Chaplins on the A&M lot which was originally Charlie Chaplin's studio.

There was none of the dourness of today. None of the cynicism. But without being fake upbeat. This was Herb's career, he earned his success.

And unlike many of his contemporaries, money is not his issue, after the sale of A&M thirty five years ago, so...this is not a mercenary venture. Herb's not hawking a single, merch, he's just performing... Blowing his horn and talking like a much younger man. Herb has all his marbles, his functionality, and the weird thing is so many of his contemporaries are no longer with us.

But Herb survived and so did we.

Now once the Beatles hit, going to a show... It was anything but a passive event. It was hard to get a ticket and just to be in the presence of a star... You forget that it was such a big deal that girls were screaming so loud that it was hard to hear the music.

And that extreme passion for stardom is still a feature of most modern concerts, by the ones who've achieved superstar status or are riding a current hit. You pinch yourself, you can't believe you're there.

This was something different. The trappings, the aura was gone. It was just Herb and the music. It was human, anything but artificial.

And people care. Brian Martin, the promoter, told me this was the fortieth straight sellout.

If you have any interest at all, GO! The show will put you in a mood, jet you back to what once was without completely disconnecting you from today. I'm not sure where else you can get this experience.

And unlike so many concerts... It was Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass only. No opening act. He played for two hours. You got enough and then he was gone.

He was thrilled, and so were we.

And that's what we're looking for.


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Books

"Flesh": https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CW1GSGLP/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

This won the Booker Prize. And I was surprised. Because this is the first time I've ever read one of the winning books before it was anointed. Furthermore, I usually find the winning books close to unreadable. They titillate the committee, academics, but they are not for the proletariat.

But "Flesh"?

At first I couldn't even figure out what country they were in.

And the original plot line... I would have handled it differently from the main character.

But what ensues...

Is a life.

We're used to reading about winners and losers. Not regular people. But István both wins and loses in "Flesh," and you don't expect it.

The interaction with the two women after he gets out of the military, what happens in the bathroom... You never know what is inside another. Someone who looks stiff can be loose. Someone who appears easygoing can be judgmental. It's part of growing up. You encounter different types, have different experiences, and find out where you lie on the spectrum, who you should be wary of.

And then the way things play out in the U.K...

But that's life, you can fall into things, get lucky, and just as easily fall out of them.

So... I think the average person will be somewhat bewildered at the beginning of "Flesh." But hang in there. Because once István gets out of the military, you'll have a hard time putting the book down. You'll be enthralled by this alternative universe. It's not you, it's not people you hang out with, but you have met people like this...who are victims of circumstance, who fall into situations both good and bad.

And the reviews all laud the lack of character description, the tropes of traditional graduate school writing, but despite that I can't say that the words always flow, that it's smooth. But it's all about what happens to István, and the relationships. You're taken into another world. You're completely removed from your everyday world, and isn't that what the best fiction does? And it will have you questioning what life in Eastern Europe is really like, the opportunities and lack thereof.

And I'd contemplated writing about "Flesh" when I read it over a month ago, but I thought it was a bit too outside, not for everybody, but then it won the Booker Prize and...

If you're contemplating diving in, I recommend it.

If you're wary...you're on your own.

P.S. The book is so unclear and so staccato at first you think it's a translation, but it was written in English by David Szalay

"Heart the Lover": https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Lover-Lily-King-ebook/dp/B0F1ZBZLMS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1LNCUXY2372QA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7E-vUI4E0E9Kf5XSZtHlnSVpRPjWfO6ZXb2ChC2RPbtWbl19uBiHYzUvUuK--uaQrkbY5EQkuijJa4qr00TsrhV2jDNgKRXT6Jksmx5fnOq6GRky_WrP5Rl6Mk9B5XGQ7ebc4WlLb3ojD1X2-NBkuhDXP_0W7A4dwGO06-5Gi7x5nBlnJNIRNXrjNyw4KzA_UNGscQA14z4H0QqlYJuMtcqZbCImuYNjhwnmF4pdOqM.PdvFsJOvSbELP-SnJZFsCxHEuaPCEbfswDhxzM2Vv_w&dib_tag=se&keywords=lily+king&qid=1763244900&s=digital-text&sprefix=lily+king,digital-text,274&sr=1-1

Women love Lily King. Love, love, LOVE her and her work!

But I thought her previous books... Weren't exactly chick lit, but ultimately punted, in that they went for lowbrow predictable, satisfying the audience, as opposed to going deeper and becoming more complicated and ultimately risking alienation of the reader.

To tell you the truth, I'd about given up on her, was not going to read another one of her books. But then I read the reviews of "Heart the Lover," reserved it on Libby and decided to give it a chance.

And for the first third it was WONDERFUL, SPOT-ON!

Now the funny thing is unlike with her previous novels, I thought I was not highbrow enough for "Heart the Lover." You've got literature/writing students talking about authors and books I've never heard of, never mind read. I felt inadequate, I had to tell myself I knew a lot of records.

But despite that...

Yes, the first half of "Heart the Lover" is a campus novel, and many feel too old to return to those days, but King nails connection and love so well, SO WELL, that was I was riveted and smiling. Pretty soon you know what is going to happen, but you're still eager to see it play out, how it plays out.

Ultimately "Heart the Lover" is a treatise not only on college love, but love and life in general. The choices we make... We end up in places we didn't foresee, maybe stable and happy, but that connection from back when...we just can't break it.

And what is most important, said connection or livability, coexistence?

The last half of the book... There's a lot of good stuff there, but it devolves into typical Lily King territory. You want more depth... The feelings are there at times, but the plot is somewhat predictable and...

I felt the connection of love in the first half of this book. It resonated with me, it was exactly what I was looking for.

But unlike with a record album, where a few good tracks are enough, a novel must be solid, or close to it, the entire way through.

I've learned from feedback that many men are a lot softer than they're portrayed. For every guy who will only read business books, needs their reading to advance them, there are many others who want a book to affect them, touch their feelings. So there's a cadre of men who will like "Heart the Lover." Girls will LOVE "Heart the Lover," based on what I've read and traditional reaction to King's books. It's not a huge commitment, and I wasn't going to write about it, but since I wanted to talk about "Flesh," which affects you on a visceral level, which is hard to shake, I decided to put down my thoughts.

"Heart the Lover" is not a slam dunk. But it does get to you.

And...how many sacrifice their college ambitions? They're going to be artists, set the world on fire, and they become professionals, or work for daddy's company, sacrificing their hopes and dreams.

I'll let you contemplate that.


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The Beast In Me

Netflix trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iNHGKcP0cM

Are you watching this?

We didn't start until finishing "Death By Lightning" first, which I do not recommend, despite all the positive reviews. The dialogue is positively stilted. Just because the action took place over a hundred years ago, that does not mean people spoke in a stiff, non-colloquial way. It's only four episodes, and we continued because we wanted to know the history, but at this point, I wish I'd just read the Wikipedia page.

"Death By Lightning" is American filmmaking at its worst. Concentrating on look as opposed to dialogue and story. Yes, "Death By Lightning" looks fantastic, takes you back to the pre-automobile days, but...

Shea Whigham as Roscoe Conklin is fun to watch, but he reminds me more of comedian Kevin Pollak than any politico I've ever encountered/witnessed.

Nick Offerman is such an oaf, the role of Chester Arthur is played so broadly, that there's no way this guy could be nominated for Vice President, NO WAY!

Matthew Macfadyen as assassin Charlie Guiteau... At times delved into Forrest Gump territory. A cartoon. Sometimes he was believable, other times not.

And Michael Shannon as Garfield himself is so retiring, so downbeat, that this guy never could have been elected president, NEVER!

So when "Death By Lightning" was over I was wary of watching another American production, so I made a deal with Felice, first we'd watch an episode of "Delhi Crime," and then one of "The Beast In Me." I needed something foreign, to clean the palate, to keep me interested.

And it was fun to see the old characters in season 3 of "Delhi Crime," although the human-trafficking plot and the constant changing of locations gave me the idea they'd run out of ideas, that maybe the series had continued too long, but it was good, and we will finish it, but then we pulled up "The Beast In Me."

Hype. You can feel it for the new Vince Gilligan show on Apple, "Pluribus." With news features about Rhea Seehorn and Gilligan himself. But in the modern era a series dripped out week by week is so antique. You think you're building buzz, but in truth you're crippling it. Because if you can binge, you get really excited about a show, there's a lot to talk about and you do!

And people will be talking about "The Beast in Me."

Then again, it's hard to take the temperature of the public in today's America. It's hard to know what is going on.

I point you to this article in today's "New York Times":

"Conservative Media Picks an Epstein Story Line and Sticks to It - Right-wing outlets have focused on a single redacted name in the 23,000 pages of correspondence related to Jeffrey Epstein that were released on Wednesday."

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/business/media/epstein-trump-emails-conservative-media.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1U8.O3JY.nBEXq85oEne_&smid=url-share

I might be the only American who doesn't really care about Epstein. After all, he's dead. But a moralistic nation has to punish anybody attached to him and...

The release of the e-mails was all over the news on Wednesday. It dominated.

Unless you were on Fox. I scanned the website and had to scroll down, down, down for a reference, and the next day I couldn't find one at all, although maybe if I scrolled ad infinitum...

There are two different narratives here. And that's laughable, since it was the Republicans who were so interested in Epstein and the e-mails/information.

So what's a poor boy to do?

They used to play in a rock and roll band.

Now they scroll TikTok and watch streaming television.

And "The Beast in Me" is now number one on Netflix, America's, the world's, number one streaming service, and that means more people are exposed than...are even watching cable TV news.

So you should watch "The Beast In Me," I want to know your take.

Like "Death By Lightning" (and why that title?), "The Beast In Me" is impeccably shot. It captures the east coast feel, made me yearn for the area. The greenery, the change of seasons, the rain...

So we don't know exactly what is up with Claire Danes's character. And she's portraying anxiety/nervousness so well. These tics... Is Danes the new Meryl Streep or is she always like this?

I never saw "Homeland," but I did watch the Israeli show it was based upon, "Prisoners of War," which the "New York Times" said was the best foreign series of the decade, and I'm not sure I agree, but it was wrenching. All I really know about Claire Danes is she was in "My So-Called Life," a cult show before it was stripped by MTV. She was an atypical teenager, with a crush and...then Danes went to Yale and now she's 46 with three kids. How did that happen?

But Danes demonstrates an inner strength in "The Beast In Me," she's got her ideals straight in her mind, even if she's wavering on the periphery.

And then you've got Matthew Rhys...

Who somehow I didn't even recognize. He was softer in "The Americans," too soft for "Perry Mason," but he's so intense here...I guess I identified him more with the type than the underlying identity.

I know people like this. This is the modern paradigm. Men who have so much money they think things should always go their way...they believe they're right and entitled. And if you stand in their way...they've got tons of cash and lawyers to make you go away.

So to what degree do you cope with a bad neighbor?

I squirmed watching Rhys's dogs come into Danes's yard. People love their dogs, they can do no wrong, complain and you're a pariah.

Are you entitled to peace and quiet?

I kept thinking if I was Danes in this show, I'd move...because I didn't see Rhys ever bending.

But then Danes interacts with Rhys... She doesn't want to, she's squeamish, and he tries to steamroll her and she is flummoxed, but she stays true to herself, and he doesn't like it.

But you can never say no to a man like this.

He ultimately traps/convinces Danes to go to lunch and doesn't obey traditional rules of conversation. It's not exactly that he's browbeating her, but he's digging deeper and deeper and... Is this a connection?

I've only seen one episode. Don't tell me if you've watched more, and you probably have, this show is hard to turn off, but...

Where exactly is this going? Is this a traditional American production, a ramping up of hostilities, or something more nuanced, with unexpected plot twists.

Now what happens at the end of the first episode disappointed me, it was foreshadowed and predictable.

But Danes living alone, in a large dark house...

This show is creepy.

And despite not wanting Rhys's money, she needs money.

And...

Check this show out.


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More Dark Songs-SiriusXM This Week

Tune in Saturday November 15th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863 

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz


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The Dead

Were selling culture.

We're bombarded with stories talking about the Grateful Dead paradigm, how to be successful. Most focus on allowing fans to tape and share live recordings.

But the real story is the Dead created a culture. BY ACCIDENT!

It's hard to create a new paradigm intentionally, it usually happens by accident. As a result of you following your inner turning fork and declining to do that which doesn't feel right.

Now it's possible to have hit records and then a culture, but usually it happens in reverse. It's the little engine that could. You start from outside and you grow steadily and you may never cross over to the mainstream, but you end up with a big enterprise.

The best example of this today is BTS. They call it the BTS Army. Did they get turned on to the music via radio? Traditional marketing outlets? Was it a PR campaign? No, the internet broke BTS the same way it broke One Direction.

And BTS was ready. You might see it as fanciful KPop, dancing fools, but fans...each member of BTS has a backstory, you can have your favorite, you can become involved and invested in the act. Furthermore, you can find your tribe online. And part of being a member of the BTS Army is putting down those who are not members, who pooh-pooh the act, but the true satisfaction comes from being a member of the group, like-minded people who feel the same way who you can interact with online.

And culture is never instant. And it's hazy until it ultimately comes into focus. It looks like nothing is there and all of a sudden there's a monolith. Like KPop itself. We've been hearing it's going to cross over to the U.S. for in excess of a decade. Seemed hard to believe, but then it did, ferociously. You've got to work at it and work at it to gain critical mass. Those looking for overnight success today...good luck having traction tomorrow, fans become dedicated over time via more music and more information. You might be able to sell out arenas on your first tour but never come close to that again in the future.

So the Dead did not have a great singer and didn't play commercial music. They were the antithesis of the Airplane...and it's funny how no one talks about the Airplane anymore. The Airplane had Grace Slick and "Somebody to Love," but how many hard core fans did the band truly have?

The vocals were better in Quicksilver Messenger Service, but they did not have the live rep the Dead did.

Not only did Big Brother have Janis Joplin, its biggest success came with covers. But before she passed, Joplin's career was on a downswing. Then again, it's hard to be a woman in music, the media focuses on you, you can't stay off the radar...how you look, what you say is reported, people form an opinion on you oftentimes without even hearing your music.

It's a Beautiful Day? Good vocals and more traditional song structure.

While other bands were champing at the bit for success, the Dead were going their own way. If you believe Joe Smith, who signed the band to Warner Brothers, he finally convinced them to make something commercial, i.e. "Workingman's Dead." Although he told me this more than once, I'm not sure I believe it. However, one thing is for sure, every Dead album before that was uncommercial. The songs were long and meandering and the rap was you had to hear the band live. So they cut a live album, "Live/Dead," which got better reviews than anything previously released but was still a commercial stiff.

But if you were paying attention, and those who start a culture always are, there was a buzz about the band's live performances, primarily in California, the Dead didn't mean much in the east.

But ultimately Bill Graham threw down the gauntlet. Not only did he book the band at the Fillmore East, he promoted them in the program distributed to every attendee. The back page had a photograph of people standing at the show with the caption "2600 Happy People at the Grateful Dead." 2600 was the capacity of the Fillmore East, as for the photograph, here it is:

https://morrisonhotelgallery.com/products/grateful-dead-at-fillmore-east-january-2-1970-hm8gi5

So you saw this picture and you felt LEFT OUT!

Furthermore, the ad was for shows beginning at midnight. When traditionally there were two shows a night, at 8 and 11:30. This was something different.

So Bill Graham helped. But you can never do it alone, you always have help, people who believe want to aid you in your journey, because there's very few people you can believe in.

And then came "Workingman's Dead." Suddenly you heard "Uncle John's Band" on the radio. But, the true breakthrough did not come until the fall of 1970, with "American Beauty," that's when all those interested in album rock, not those addicted to the Top 40, took notice.

And when you took notice of an act back in the day, you went to see them live.

And the nascent rock press told you the New Riders were going to open and the show was going to be long and you went and...

It was not a typical show. It was not exciting from beginning to end. People wandered around in a haze.

But the show built and built to a finale, you'd experienced something, and one thing was for sure, you couldn't experience it anywhere else, especially as music was being consolidated, as songs were written to cross over from AM to FM. Which the Dead wanted to do, but were unsuccessful at.

And then they started their own record label. A horrible idea, but it endeared them to their fans, the band was doing it their own way, they were sticking it to the man, and they were hemorrhaging money doing it.

And this is an important point. There were very few record/publishing royalties, it was all about the money made on the road. And this was a big band with a big entourage and... Sure, they were different, but, once again, they were sustaining, they were not getting rich, nowhere near as wealthy as the FM rockers of the day.

And that's when the shows and the taping became legendary.

So there were the original Deadheads. Most of them truly dead at this point. The ones in the picture on the inside of "Live/Dead." They're pushing eighty, if the drugs and low economic status haven't gotten them already.

So really, it was about the Boomers.

But what put the Dead over the top was Gen-X, which came online during the days of MTV. The Dead were the antithesis. They were scruffy, they didn't wear spandex, AND THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY HITS! It wasn't even about the recordings...which were not released that regularly. The thunder had been stolen from Gen-X, they lived in the wake of the Boomers, and as greed took over in the eighties, the Dead pointed in another direction, they were something to believe in.

And the road goes on forever.

So the point here is there was no plan. As well as a lot of bad decisions, like the aforesaid independent record company.

And the Dead did not play by commercial rules. And were unsuccessful as a result. Their albums were never juggernauts or big sellers. Oh, they tried, making "Terrapin Station" with Keith Olsen and "Shakedown Street" with Lowell George, but it didn't work. So they kept on doing what they were doing, going on the road and improvising.

Of course eventually the Dead had an MTV hit with "Touch of Grey," but that was already 1987 and it was kind of a joke, a laugh, that this old band finally broke through.

So it was all an accident. Run on instinct and perseverance. And if you're sitting at home trying to replicate it...

Are you willing to walk into the wilderness? Are you willing to experiment? Are you willing to starve?

Most people are not. But the Dead were rooted in the hippie culture of San Francisco, and by time that evaporated, they were finally on their way. The band was a product of its time.

Making music unlike anybody else. Slogging it out on the road endlessly before it broke through.

Now you can point to modern jam bands and say it's the same thing, but it's not. Sure, there are Phishheads, but Phish doesn't penetrate the world outside its borders. You either adore Trey or have no idea who he is. And the rest of the jam bands...they may noodle, but that does not mean there's a culture.

So if you want to replicate the Dead paradigm you've got to focus on culture, you've got to grow culture.

And you've got to nurture culture. Pour too much water on the plant and you drown it. People have to feel ownership. That they came to themselves. If something is overhyped, embraced by the mainstream early, culture is eviscerated.

Once again, it's KPop that is doing the Dead better than any jam band, better than any other act out there. Because KPop focuses on the fan first. Not going on television and saying they love their fans, they owe it all to their fans, but superserving the people who care with endless information, even if no one else other than the hard core is paying attention! Even the Dead, they didn't reach out, you had to come to them. As for philosophy, Jerry was labeled "Captain Trips" and would drop philosophy in periodic interviews and the band's fans took it as guidance, because unlike seemingly everybody else, he was not caught up in the starmaker machinery behind the popular song.

You don't have to do it the Grateful Dead way. There are tons of successful acts who haven't. But if you want to emulate the Dead, don't look at the specific steps the band took, but rather focus on the end result, culture, how can you establish a culture?

You must have an identity. And share it and stay true to it. And put the fans first, not take sponsorships, endorse something just for the money. The benefit must be for the fan. And you can't complain when others leapfrog you and have success. You have to stick to your guns, playing the long game. Knowing you can't really have a plan anyway, you've just got to keep on truckin'.

Sound like an easy formula?

NO!

So stop looking to the Dead for guidance unless you're truly going to do it their way, as delineated above, playing without a net, which very few people are willing to do.


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