Spotify playlist: http://bit.ly/46h9uze
1
Which is half an hour away. At least. A totally different mind-set. I'm sure there are people living in Thousand Oaks commuting to L.A., but not many, it's just too far.
And just too far for the rock aficionados, the business honchos, the lifers, to drive out for a gig. This is more akin to your local PAC than the Greek, never mind the United Theater, where the band played last time.
Well, who was coming?
That is always the question. 10cc had a few hits back in the seventies, but that's fifty years ago. Is that enough to get people out to see them?
Not a full house.
But those who were there...
2
I just couldn't understand the rapturous reception. The standing ovations. It's one thing to clap for "I'm Not in Love" or "The Things We Do For Love," but they were applauding non-hits with vigor. Who were these people?
Well, it's California so everybody is casually dressed. Like they just came from the beach, or a picnic. And they were old. Then again, so am I.
How many of these people had purchased those 10cc albums and salivated over them?
I loved, loved, LOVED the first LP with "Rubber Bullets," but until I moved to L.A. I didn't know another person who'd bought it. You'd read about it in the rock press, that's how I found out about it, but there was no radio play, the way you reached customers back in the day.
The second album?
FM rock played "Wall Street Shuffle." A little bit. No more.
The third album, "The Original Soundtrack"? Not as good as what came before, but it contained the aforementioned legendary hit, "I'm Not in Love."
The follow-up, "How Dare You!," had even less penetration in America than the first two albums.
Then the band split in half. There was 1977's giant hit "The Things We Do For Love," and then the band was essentially done.
Well, close to it anyway. "Dreadlock Holiday" was a hit everywhere but the U.S.
10cc didn't come up in conversation. They were a private luxury, for those in the know. Who knew Graham Gouldman had written those Yardbirds and Herman's Hermits hits and Eric Stewart had sung "Groovy Kind of Love" and...
This was not the bombast of seventies AOR. The thing about 10cc was they had a sense of humor, with a dash of intelligence thrown in. They weren't brain dead and nor where their fans. But where does that leave you in the world of rock and roll? Fans were passionate about the music, but not the band, they didn't get tattoos of 10cc, it was only about the music.
As it was Friday night.
3
Now if you're of a certain vintage you remember when everybody bought a guitar and there were battles of the bands... This was as mainstream as today's influencer culture. And unlike so much of today's music, you had to be able to play or it didn't work. There were no tape loops, never mind hard drives. Either you could play or you couldn't. There was no auto-tune, if you didn't have a great voice you had to be a phenomenal lyricist, and oftentimes that still wasn't enough.
The band took the stage, and that was it.
As it was Friday night.
There was a row of amps and guitars, and that was it. No backdrop, no video, no special effects, NO HARD DRIVES!
There was only one prerecorded moment, that breathy vocal "Big boys don't cry" in "I'm Not in Love," otherwise what you saw was what you got, LITERALLY!
And that was a revelation. Far from today's world. Because there were no TRAPPINGS!
Forget production, there were no fancy outfits, just people playing music.
And that's when I realized my perspective had changed. The musicians, the bands, used to be gods. Now I know they're just regular people. They used to be seen as rich, living a glamorous lifestyle. Now there are tons of people richer than musicians, and not every musician is rolling in dough. You're putting on a show. That's it. After doing a post mortem with Graham he told me he had to go, they had an early wake-up call. Sound glamorous? An endless string of one-nighters for a modicum of pay at this age? You've got to love it, because that's all there is...the aura, it's gone.
4
Now the one thing about the band on Friday night was they were TIGHT! I mean IMPOSSIBLY tight. It was positively astounding. Like they'd rehearsed to the nth degree, or maybe in this case have done the same show so many times they're a well-oiled machine.
Now you can turn up the amps and create a wash of sound that covers up your mistakes, but that was not what was happening, not at all. They were playing the music, faithfully, all these years later. But with the ensuing years, some of the lyrics gained new meaning. Or maybe it was already there and I just uncovered the wisdom.
Like in "Art for Art's Sake."
"Money for God's sake," I know, I know, but...
"Gimme a silver, gimme a gold
Make it a million, for when I get old"
Wow, that's what all these musicians are living on... THEIR PUBLISHING ROYALTIES! Which is why they're being sold for millions. Their hit days are way behind them. They're living on the past, if not in the past. All those credits? Ownership? Done on somewhat of a whim back then, absolutely crucial today.
"Keep me in exile the rest of my days
Burn me in hell but as long as it pays"
The lyrics are prescient. Forget where I am in the future, as long as I have my ROYALTIES, I'll be okay!
And then there's "The Wall Street Shuffle."
"Oh, Howard Hughes
Did your money make you better"
Forget the platitudes, the truth is life is better with money, but to assume everybody with money is happy is just plain wrong. As a matter of fact, many are not. They were ruthless in accumulation and now have few friends and can trust almost nobody. Never mind those who inherited it and have lived a life of debauchery.
You definitely need a yen to make a mark. It doesn't rain down from the sky willy-nilly. Yet the musicians of yore liked the money, but it was secondary to the tunes and the lifestyle, being in control of your own destiny.
All of this is encased in these 10cc songs. Which were too smart to be hits. Too insightful. Too FUNNY!
5
Now the amazing thing about this show is all the whiz-bang effects you know from the records are replicated on stage. All the percussion hits. It's a fan's dream.
Assuming you're a fan.
Like I said, the applause was astounding. "Feel the Benefit" is a tour-de-force, I can see people appreciating it without knowing it, with its various movements and solos...
But for this level of reaction, for this many people to stand up clapping, you had to know the song.
Or did you?
There was a fiftysomething woman in the row behind me who knew more than the hits, but when I turned around a few songs before the end, she was gone. As were a number of the other attendees.
Now I can understand leaving if you're not into it. Then again, tickets were not so cheap you would go on a whim. What was going on? It certainly wasn't traffic, there is none in Thousand Oaks, and the parking structure is huge and was far from full. Is this the new normal, had they had enough, was it just too late? I'd say they were going home to relieve the babysitter, but this generation's kids were already out of the house. Gray and white hair was rampant.
So they came out, loved it, and then had enough? Like small children, they'd reached their limit?
But the show plowed on.
6
Now I'd seen the show a year ago so it wasn't like it was brand new, but I was dying to hear "Feel the Benefit," and the band delivered. And their a cappella version of "Donna" is a showstopper. But what resonated most Friday night was a song I liked, but never previously loved, "I'm Mandy, Fly Me."
It was a hit in the U.K., was released as a single in the U.S. but if you heard it on the radio, it was probably at three in the morning.
The title says it all. An in joke with sexual connotations. But what truly puts "I'm Mandy, Fly Me" over the top are the various movements, from the intro and throughout it's anything but predictable, you're constantly surprised. And then comes the refrain...
"I'm Mandy, fly me"
It comes around now and again, there is melody, it's uplifting, there's a raw optimism that's absent in so much of today's music, the song starts in the brain and then travels down the body as opposed to so much that begins in the genitalia and just stays there.
You listen to stuff like this and you're on the edge of your seat, waving your arms, conducting the band like an orchestra.
I listened to the new Sabrina Carpenter album. It's pop music, which used to be anathema back in the seventies, the lowest common denominator. But then MTV created a monoculture and Madonna came along and the Top 40 became everything and either you were on it or you weren't. Whereas in the old days you had a vision, you executed it, and sometimes songs crossed over to the hit parade, but it was all about exploration and your statement on wax.
Like 10cc.
7
Who knows if 10cc will ever tour America again. After all, it's a business. And if everybody is not making money, it doesn't happen.
Roxy Music will never be seen on these shores again. They played arenas the last time through, people went, but Live Nation lost too much to do it again.
Never mind the aging of these performers. Graham Gouldman is 79. Spry, with all his marbles, never mind an amazing ability to play the bass, but no one is forever. You do it until you can't. And that day always comes. And then you can see the band no more.
So many of the acts you've already seen. But probably not 10cc, who waited nearly fifty years to come back to America.
If you're a fan of the hits, it's your choice. But if you were a fan of the albums you must go. Because you've got a group of guys loving to play this music and nailing it. And if you played those records in your bedroom or on cassette in your car like I did and you were enraptured by the sound...
You may never get this chance again.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Sunday, 31 August 2025
The Col. Tom Parker Book-1
"The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership that Rocked the World": http://bit.ly/480ozGy
I never got into Elvis until I went to Graceland.
You've got to go. As a matter of fact, you've got to go to Memphis, which may be in Tennessee like Nashville, but is completely different. Memphis is truly the south, Mississippi is only a stone's throw away.
Elvis was already over by time I gained consciousness. No, scratch that, he was already making movies, had been making movies, and they were seen as pulpy and exploitative and no one I knew went to see them. However, I always loved the theme song from "Viva Las Vegas." And "Suspicious Minds." And that was it. Maybe "In the Ghetto," but not really. Elvis was pre-Beatles, he represented the past, and then he came back with that TV special, parked himself in Vegas and then died. I remember where I was when I heard Elvis died, do you? One of those legendary moments, like the assassination of JFK and landing on the moon that are indelibly seared into my brain.
That was 1977. Nearly fifty years ago. If Elvis Presley were alive today he'd be ninety. Older than all the classic rockers from England, never mind America. As a matter of fact, so much time has passed that his merch numbers are off, his fans are dying. Will Elvis experience a resurgence like Sinatra? Anything's possible, but right now it doesn't look like it.
So the thing about Graceland is it's not that big. Far from what we consider a mansion, even back then. And you start to get the feel that Elvis was a hillbilly. You always heard that, but until I went to Graceland and saw the relatively tiny Jungle Room with its three Trinitrons I didn't realize it. And in the north people know nothing of hillbillies.
As a matter of fact, the ethos of the north is education. You go to school to get a leg up. But Colonel Tom Parker did not. And many of the self-starting hustlers still in the music business don't have college diplomas. If anything, their degree is in life.
So...
If you wan to be in the music business, you can go to a program at a college, get an internship and go to work for the man. But the music business is not about the man, it's about these individual hustlers, who are born, not made. If you're going to school to get a job at the label or with the promoter you're doing it wrong. One thing is for sure, the music business is always based on talent. Can you find it, sign it and promote it. This is what they don't teach in school, the art of persuasion.
And hard work. And perseverance. Success in the music business is more about personality than education, and always will be.
So...
Colonel Tom Parker has a bad reputation. He took fifty percent of Elvis's earnings and never took Presley overseas because he was born in the Netherlands and was an illegal alien.
FIFTY PERCENT!
Unheard of today. Unless you're Joe Bonamassa, who has created a career completely outside the conventional system. And to do that you must believe in yourself. And very few believe in themselves that much, such that they're willing to sacrifice and put it all on the line.
Although Parker was always interested in carnivals, he was not destined to be in the music business, he didn't have this desire, as a matter of fact he bounced around for years before he found his niche. Proving that you don't have to start early to make it. Oftentimes life experiences pay dividends down the road.
So everywhere he goes he ingratiates himself with people. They take him in, they love him. But he constantly moves on, he needs more.
And after a tour in the military he starts working for carnivals based out of Florida.
And the key to success was promotion. The advance man. Who'd go to the next town and gin up excitement.
When he finally got in this role, Parker would do more than put up posters. He'd make sponsorship deals, all kinds of deals to get the town leaders invested in the show.
But I must say, this was after running the Tampa Humane Society, completely out of the business, for years.
But then Parker attached himself to talent. And he wanted it more than some of the acts. He was willing to make the effort, no one ever criticized him for being lax. He was working around the clock, to the point where he had a heart attack.
And then he saw Elvis Presley.
You know it when you see it and you rarely see it.
Amateurs are unaware of this. Pros know. It's a feeling, an electricity, the way the crowd reacts. It's not something you can put into words, just something you can experience, something that affects people that they want more of.
So, Elvis was signed to Sun, which is venerated in modern society. But Sun was too small for Parker, he needed Elvis to be on RCA. Once again, conventional wisdom was it was about the money. Not at all. Sam Phillips did not have the muscle, the funds, the distribution to drive Presley where he needed to be.
And throughout although Parker might tell a while lie or two, he was not a ruthless scumbag. Rather than pressure, he was willing to walk away. Until the other side realized what they were missing out on. You've got to value your own work.
And do whatever it takes to make the deal work. Parker made a deal with Phillips without the authority to do so and ultimately wrote a $5000 advance himself. On trust.
This is what those not in the business don't realize. You're truly only as good as your word. Contracts are secondary. Only for extreme circumstances. Some of the biggest managers in the business don't have contracts, never mind sunset clauses. It's a partnership, you're either in it together or not.
As far as Elvis... Would he have been this big without the Colonel?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Elvis was not completely unknown, he had records out, he was doing some shows, but he wasn't ubiquitous. It took Parker's efforts. Was this worth fifty percent? Well, fifty percent to the artist is better than nothing at all.
--
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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I never got into Elvis until I went to Graceland.
You've got to go. As a matter of fact, you've got to go to Memphis, which may be in Tennessee like Nashville, but is completely different. Memphis is truly the south, Mississippi is only a stone's throw away.
Elvis was already over by time I gained consciousness. No, scratch that, he was already making movies, had been making movies, and they were seen as pulpy and exploitative and no one I knew went to see them. However, I always loved the theme song from "Viva Las Vegas." And "Suspicious Minds." And that was it. Maybe "In the Ghetto," but not really. Elvis was pre-Beatles, he represented the past, and then he came back with that TV special, parked himself in Vegas and then died. I remember where I was when I heard Elvis died, do you? One of those legendary moments, like the assassination of JFK and landing on the moon that are indelibly seared into my brain.
That was 1977. Nearly fifty years ago. If Elvis Presley were alive today he'd be ninety. Older than all the classic rockers from England, never mind America. As a matter of fact, so much time has passed that his merch numbers are off, his fans are dying. Will Elvis experience a resurgence like Sinatra? Anything's possible, but right now it doesn't look like it.
So the thing about Graceland is it's not that big. Far from what we consider a mansion, even back then. And you start to get the feel that Elvis was a hillbilly. You always heard that, but until I went to Graceland and saw the relatively tiny Jungle Room with its three Trinitrons I didn't realize it. And in the north people know nothing of hillbillies.
As a matter of fact, the ethos of the north is education. You go to school to get a leg up. But Colonel Tom Parker did not. And many of the self-starting hustlers still in the music business don't have college diplomas. If anything, their degree is in life.
So...
If you wan to be in the music business, you can go to a program at a college, get an internship and go to work for the man. But the music business is not about the man, it's about these individual hustlers, who are born, not made. If you're going to school to get a job at the label or with the promoter you're doing it wrong. One thing is for sure, the music business is always based on talent. Can you find it, sign it and promote it. This is what they don't teach in school, the art of persuasion.
And hard work. And perseverance. Success in the music business is more about personality than education, and always will be.
So...
Colonel Tom Parker has a bad reputation. He took fifty percent of Elvis's earnings and never took Presley overseas because he was born in the Netherlands and was an illegal alien.
FIFTY PERCENT!
Unheard of today. Unless you're Joe Bonamassa, who has created a career completely outside the conventional system. And to do that you must believe in yourself. And very few believe in themselves that much, such that they're willing to sacrifice and put it all on the line.
Although Parker was always interested in carnivals, he was not destined to be in the music business, he didn't have this desire, as a matter of fact he bounced around for years before he found his niche. Proving that you don't have to start early to make it. Oftentimes life experiences pay dividends down the road.
So everywhere he goes he ingratiates himself with people. They take him in, they love him. But he constantly moves on, he needs more.
And after a tour in the military he starts working for carnivals based out of Florida.
And the key to success was promotion. The advance man. Who'd go to the next town and gin up excitement.
When he finally got in this role, Parker would do more than put up posters. He'd make sponsorship deals, all kinds of deals to get the town leaders invested in the show.
But I must say, this was after running the Tampa Humane Society, completely out of the business, for years.
But then Parker attached himself to talent. And he wanted it more than some of the acts. He was willing to make the effort, no one ever criticized him for being lax. He was working around the clock, to the point where he had a heart attack.
And then he saw Elvis Presley.
You know it when you see it and you rarely see it.
Amateurs are unaware of this. Pros know. It's a feeling, an electricity, the way the crowd reacts. It's not something you can put into words, just something you can experience, something that affects people that they want more of.
So, Elvis was signed to Sun, which is venerated in modern society. But Sun was too small for Parker, he needed Elvis to be on RCA. Once again, conventional wisdom was it was about the money. Not at all. Sam Phillips did not have the muscle, the funds, the distribution to drive Presley where he needed to be.
And throughout although Parker might tell a while lie or two, he was not a ruthless scumbag. Rather than pressure, he was willing to walk away. Until the other side realized what they were missing out on. You've got to value your own work.
And do whatever it takes to make the deal work. Parker made a deal with Phillips without the authority to do so and ultimately wrote a $5000 advance himself. On trust.
This is what those not in the business don't realize. You're truly only as good as your word. Contracts are secondary. Only for extreme circumstances. Some of the biggest managers in the business don't have contracts, never mind sunset clauses. It's a partnership, you're either in it together or not.
As far as Elvis... Would he have been this big without the Colonel?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Elvis was not completely unknown, he had records out, he was doing some shows, but he wasn't ubiquitous. It took Parker's efforts. Was this worth fifty percent? Well, fifty percent to the artist is better than nothing at all.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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