Can I recommend a book?
You remember books, that antiquated media model that requires dedication in our fast-moving society that is usually populated by quick-read genre trash.
"We Are Not Ourselves" is not that. If it were a TV show, they'd call it a family drama. But that would imply it's all about the interactions between personalities and that a lot of stuff happened, whereas in "We Are Not Ourselves" the only thing that happens is life, and that's much more scary and complicated and unpredictable than any TV show.
You see you grow up as a child of immigrants and you have dreams. Well, not everyone, but Eileen does, she wants more. She doesn't want to write an app and be in the WSJ, she wants her own house, a better life for her children, some comfort. Yes, in a world dominated by high achievers with outsized ambitions few focus on the rest of us, who are just trying to get along as we navigate this twisty turny adventure they call life.
Eileen is born in '41, the child of Irish immigrants. You may not have parents from another country, but almost all of you are descendants of those who decided to come for a better life, or like Big Mike, who were pushed to, because there was no opportunity left in the homeland.
And despite hauling kegs for Schaefer, a legendary New York brewery, Mike is a big man in the neighborhood. That's the way it used to be before social media. You hung out. We gravitated to those with charisma, who knew people, who gave advice, who could help out.
But Big Mike does have a drinking problem. And a gambling problem. Because no one's all good or all bad, we live in light and in shade.
But Eileen's parents are not the focus of "We Are Not Ourselves," which is quite lengthy. If you buy the hardcover, don't plan on traveling with it. No, this is the story of a pre-boomer, and her husband and progeny, of work and friends.
And there's a big plot twist that is foreshadowed and believable which unfortunately is in every review and I'm not going to mention it here, but all I'll say is if you believe life is all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, this is not the book for you. Furthermore, your life must be very disappointing, because it's all about the little victories, which most others never see, never mind acknowledge.
"The point wasn't always to do what you want. The point was to do what you did and do it well. She had worked hard for years, and if she had nothing to show for it but her house and her son's education, there was still the fact of its having happened, which no one could erase from the record of human lives, even if no one was keeping score."
That's the truth, no one is keeping score. You have a game in your head, punctuated by milestones, and if you're lucky the rules don't change and you win and smile, but no one knows but you.
And there's a bunch more wisdom in this book, even though it's not written to dazzle you, not so rewritten and packed with gems that it no longer resembles real life.
"he lacked that tolerance for superficial interaction every successful adulterer wielded."
EUREKA, THAT'S IT!
Adultery is all about seduction, getting your rocks off, making sure you still have game. It's got little to do with the other person and all to do with proving you're a god and can have a marriage and all this too. Because relationships are more than friction, it's the mind meld that counts.
"It was the kind of thing she imagined people did when they came to a point where the roads to the past and the future were equally muddy - retreat to the high ground of a major project."
I've never seen this articulated ANYWHERE! When confused and not sure where to turn we search for and ultimately dig our teeth into something grand, something so big it can't be finished in a day, but maybe in years, we do this not only to get ahead, but to get our minds off our pain.
"That was one difference between men and women. Men got along fine without revealing anything."
This is why I'd much rather hang with women. They talk about their feelings, men talk about the game. Concepts versus facts. Women break up and reveal all to their friends, sift through the details and bond over their humanity. Men crack a beer, slap each other on the back and watch the game, in pain.
I'm not gonna tell you any more, because I don't want to ruin the experience. This is what the highbrows don't understand, first and foremost it's a story, and the fun and the joy is in having it unfold unexpectedly.
And I don't think most of you will buy this tome, because you don't have time, life moves too fast and you've got to get somewhere. But as first time author Matthew Thomas, who took ten years to write "We Are Not Ourselves" while teaching high school, says in the interview at the end of the digital edition:
"I hope it might make some readers who live lives outside the margins of what the media considers 'important' feel recognized and perhaps less alone."
Yes, you are the star of your own movie. It's a role you cannot abdicate. And chances are, no one's watching it other than yourself. And it's thrilling and frightening and if you're a woman you share it and if you're a man you suck up everything but the victories and we all turn to art both to reflect back upon us and explain it to us. We want to identify, we want to feel connected.
And "We Are Not Ourselves" makes us so.
"But who knows? We can control only so much in life."
"We Are Not Ourselves": http://books.simonandschuster.com/We-Are-Not-Ourselves/Matthew-Thomas/9781476756660
"We Are Not Ourselves": http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Not-Ourselves-Novel/dp/147675666X
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Friday, 5 September 2014
Country Close-Up
HOME SWEET HOME
Somehow I missed this one. Then again, I'd equate listening to the Crue with the title of the album the original emanates from, "Theatre Of Pain."
Yup, Motley Crue was a product of the Sunset Strip metal/glam renaissance, loved by pubescent girls, but hated by the cognoscenti, until nascent A&R man Tom Zutaut signed them to Elektra and built both their career and his.
And in the San Fernando Valley there was a fan of this music known as Scott Borchetta who has released an album of country Crue covers on his Big Machine freight train.
Of course I knew the Crue's note for note cover of Brownsville Station's "Smokin' In The Boys Room" from "Theatre Of Pain," and Justin Moore's cover of "Home Sweet Home" is also not for note, but it feels so good, because of the anthemic chorus, which sounds straight out of a Skynyrd album.
"You know I'm a dreamer
But my heart's of gold
I had to run away high
So I wouldn't come home low"
Yup, "Home Sweet Home" was one of the original power ballads, a paradigm the "metal" acts ultimately overmilked to the point where pop took over MTV and the country as well, but that does not mean it was not a good idea at first.
"I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home"
Switch your allegiance from Active Rock, which has moved so far from center that it's lost the plot, forget Classic Rock, how many times can you hear "Free Bird," come over to Sirius XM's Highway and join the country rock party.
Hell, even if you never even liked the Crue, you'll get this. Justin Moore is a better singer than Vince Neil, and there are a lot of great pickers in Nashville, the guitarist is a nobody but he's a killer, and the truth is the digital era makes it much easier to produce songs, but no easier to write them. So, what was good before re-emerges.
AIN'T WORTH THE WHISKEY
Cole Swindell has a slew of writing credits, but the Highway takes credit for breaking him as a performing artist. That track was "Chillin' It," and the big hit from his March release is "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight,' but it's this that I love.
"I don't care that you done me wrong
'Cause I've already moved on
I don't care what his name is
Girl, it is what it is"
The truth is nobody moves on that fast, and when someone else is screwing your one and only it drives you crazy. But you try to buck up.
"It doesn't matter what your friends say
They never liked me anyway"
I LOVE THIS! That's what girls do when they're done, they call all their friends and rally around and trash you. The same exact women who were so nice to you just moments before. But love is tribal, and you're no longer a member of that team.
"But I'll drink to a country song
To another long work week gone
And I'll raise my glass to a long lost buddy I ain't seen"
Ain't that Friday night. And it's hard to drink to rap, but these anthemic country rock songs, they're great for drowning your sorrows.
CLOSE YOUR EYES
"It's all getting to what we've been waiting on
I'm gonna go and turn you and the night on
Coming on strong I'm gonna lay it on your lips
Might wanna close your eyes for this"
An interesting turn of phrase. Something that resonates.
This is just another journeyman track by the journeyman band Parmalee, but not everything can be memorable for decades, and while we wait for those superior cuts certain elements jump out of tracks and grab us. Write a chorus like this and you'll have a career.
IF I DIE YOUNG
I heard this LAST Friday night on the Highway, literally, driving back from Ian Rogers's birthday at the Malibu Inn, and I didn't write down the title figuring it'd be easy to find but little did I know it would take almost a week to hear it again, just after I'd given up, last night in an extended Highway listening session.
Turns out it's an old hit, from 2010, when I guess I wasn't listening to country radio, but if this doesn't make you feel good, you don't like women and you've got no heart.
I checked out the latest Band Perry album when it came out, but the act seems to have been caught up in the sophomore slump, the tracks are just not as good. But this is a killer. This is what Taylor Swift used to sell, before she decided to appeal to everybody. But that may grant you a momentary hit, but what lasts, what bonds people to you, is stuff much more personal, like this.
If you're a boomer, if you're a soft rock aficionado, if you think there's no good music, you'll positively marvel when this comes out of the speakers.
SURE BE COOL IF YOU DID
He's married to Miranda Lambert, he's all over TV, how'd Blake Shelton get there?
Via songs like this.
One of the rewards of being at the top of the country heap is you get the best material, if you don't hear the quality here you've got no ears, if you work in the music business make sure it's in marketing, not A&R.
This was a hit a long time ago, back in 2010. How are we supposed to find all this stuff?
I've got an unimpeachable source in Nashville who gives me recommendations. We live in an incomprehensible world, we're all ears, but where do we start?
When we elevate tastemakers to the perch they deserve, when we pay them like techies, music will rise like a phoenix.
FIRST ONE TO KNOW
Stoney LaRue. Know him? Not me, only the name, not the material. But my country connection sent me this and I was stunned, it's the closest thing I've heard to Ryan Adams's "Winding Wheel" since Ryan cut that.
The acoustic instruments, the sound... Be sure to listen to the end for the picking. This is close. Check it out.
GIMME SOMETHING GOOD
Listen to that guitar sound!
Speaking of Ryan Adams, here's the man himself.
It's country without the fiddle, then again, this is the sound Tom Petty perfected, if only he did it as well as Ryan here.
I first heard this on Sirius XM's Spectrum. That's the problem with good music today, there's not one place to hear it all. There are strict divisions between genres.
The guitar sound and the changes of "Gimme Something Good" will wow you. Unfortunately, the song doesn't go anywhere. And the other released song from Ryan Adams's new album, "My Wrecking Ball," is not as good as this.
But...
This demonstrates the difference between the greats and the also-rans, it illustrates the difference when you write the material as opposed to using hired guns, when you pursue your individual goal as opposed to giving the machine what it wants.
Adams can write and now produce. He gets it.
How come we don't elevate those who deserve it?
In other words, Ryan Adams blew all his cred and became a joke. But he's proof if you ever had it you still do, you've just got to dig down deep. If "Gimme Something Good" doesn't make you want to hear more of what Ryan Adams has to say, you're not listening.
ROLLER COASTER
This is a giant hit from Luke Bryan's giant album "Crash My Party" and it's all over the radio but the reason I include it is Cole Swindell is a cowriter.
I was pissed "Beer In The Headlights" was not the next single, but as much as the concept of the roller coaster seems hackneyed, the more you hear this the more you get it, it sneaks up on you.
And what I love about the material Luke Bryan sings is he's not the triumphant all-knowing nothing who populates the pop charts. He's insecure, he's not sure, like the guys who've been tarred and feathered along with the bad boys, despite not deserving it.
BEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS
The URGENCY!
Cole Swindell is one of three writers on this, whereas he was one of only two on "Roller Coaster," but still...
This is so TIGHT!
The intro gives you no idea where it's going, it seems like pure country, and then the guitars SLASH and then Luke Bryan RAPS?
And then he wastes no time getting to the chorus!
"Sittin' right here out here in the middle of nowhere
I swear I've never seen, ever seen nothing like you anywhere
I got the key turned back, windows down, I'm turning it up and you're spinnin' around
Takin' a sip, swinging' your hips, girl you're looking so fine
With your beer in the headlights"
You can stand there in your skinny jeans and nerdy glasses and decry this but the truth is this is exactly what you're looking for, to be pulled up at the lake with your heart's desire as she's demonstrating her wares.
CONCLUSION
None of the above tracks is as great as Keith Urban's "Stupid Boy." Too many are unfinished. They've got the hook, but they don't add more, believing one cute line is enough, and it is to make a hit, but not to be remembered.
And mainstream Nashville country has no room for the young outlaws, the thread Steve Earle began and others have picked up and carried.
Then again, Steve Earle has never quite equaled "Guitar Town" himself.
Yup, every week there's a new alternative country rock/Americana hope. And they might have one great song, but the rest of their albums are not up to snuff. And if your voice is not radio-ready, your material must be, it must be an A.
Then again, things could be worse. All of these cuts have elements, they're listenable, and that's a START!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1rQCu9l
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Somehow I missed this one. Then again, I'd equate listening to the Crue with the title of the album the original emanates from, "Theatre Of Pain."
Yup, Motley Crue was a product of the Sunset Strip metal/glam renaissance, loved by pubescent girls, but hated by the cognoscenti, until nascent A&R man Tom Zutaut signed them to Elektra and built both their career and his.
And in the San Fernando Valley there was a fan of this music known as Scott Borchetta who has released an album of country Crue covers on his Big Machine freight train.
Of course I knew the Crue's note for note cover of Brownsville Station's "Smokin' In The Boys Room" from "Theatre Of Pain," and Justin Moore's cover of "Home Sweet Home" is also not for note, but it feels so good, because of the anthemic chorus, which sounds straight out of a Skynyrd album.
"You know I'm a dreamer
But my heart's of gold
I had to run away high
So I wouldn't come home low"
Yup, "Home Sweet Home" was one of the original power ballads, a paradigm the "metal" acts ultimately overmilked to the point where pop took over MTV and the country as well, but that does not mean it was not a good idea at first.
"I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home"
Switch your allegiance from Active Rock, which has moved so far from center that it's lost the plot, forget Classic Rock, how many times can you hear "Free Bird," come over to Sirius XM's Highway and join the country rock party.
Hell, even if you never even liked the Crue, you'll get this. Justin Moore is a better singer than Vince Neil, and there are a lot of great pickers in Nashville, the guitarist is a nobody but he's a killer, and the truth is the digital era makes it much easier to produce songs, but no easier to write them. So, what was good before re-emerges.
AIN'T WORTH THE WHISKEY
Cole Swindell has a slew of writing credits, but the Highway takes credit for breaking him as a performing artist. That track was "Chillin' It," and the big hit from his March release is "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight,' but it's this that I love.
"I don't care that you done me wrong
'Cause I've already moved on
I don't care what his name is
Girl, it is what it is"
The truth is nobody moves on that fast, and when someone else is screwing your one and only it drives you crazy. But you try to buck up.
"It doesn't matter what your friends say
They never liked me anyway"
I LOVE THIS! That's what girls do when they're done, they call all their friends and rally around and trash you. The same exact women who were so nice to you just moments before. But love is tribal, and you're no longer a member of that team.
"But I'll drink to a country song
To another long work week gone
And I'll raise my glass to a long lost buddy I ain't seen"
Ain't that Friday night. And it's hard to drink to rap, but these anthemic country rock songs, they're great for drowning your sorrows.
CLOSE YOUR EYES
"It's all getting to what we've been waiting on
I'm gonna go and turn you and the night on
Coming on strong I'm gonna lay it on your lips
Might wanna close your eyes for this"
An interesting turn of phrase. Something that resonates.
This is just another journeyman track by the journeyman band Parmalee, but not everything can be memorable for decades, and while we wait for those superior cuts certain elements jump out of tracks and grab us. Write a chorus like this and you'll have a career.
IF I DIE YOUNG
I heard this LAST Friday night on the Highway, literally, driving back from Ian Rogers's birthday at the Malibu Inn, and I didn't write down the title figuring it'd be easy to find but little did I know it would take almost a week to hear it again, just after I'd given up, last night in an extended Highway listening session.
Turns out it's an old hit, from 2010, when I guess I wasn't listening to country radio, but if this doesn't make you feel good, you don't like women and you've got no heart.
I checked out the latest Band Perry album when it came out, but the act seems to have been caught up in the sophomore slump, the tracks are just not as good. But this is a killer. This is what Taylor Swift used to sell, before she decided to appeal to everybody. But that may grant you a momentary hit, but what lasts, what bonds people to you, is stuff much more personal, like this.
If you're a boomer, if you're a soft rock aficionado, if you think there's no good music, you'll positively marvel when this comes out of the speakers.
SURE BE COOL IF YOU DID
He's married to Miranda Lambert, he's all over TV, how'd Blake Shelton get there?
Via songs like this.
One of the rewards of being at the top of the country heap is you get the best material, if you don't hear the quality here you've got no ears, if you work in the music business make sure it's in marketing, not A&R.
This was a hit a long time ago, back in 2010. How are we supposed to find all this stuff?
I've got an unimpeachable source in Nashville who gives me recommendations. We live in an incomprehensible world, we're all ears, but where do we start?
When we elevate tastemakers to the perch they deserve, when we pay them like techies, music will rise like a phoenix.
FIRST ONE TO KNOW
Stoney LaRue. Know him? Not me, only the name, not the material. But my country connection sent me this and I was stunned, it's the closest thing I've heard to Ryan Adams's "Winding Wheel" since Ryan cut that.
The acoustic instruments, the sound... Be sure to listen to the end for the picking. This is close. Check it out.
GIMME SOMETHING GOOD
Listen to that guitar sound!
Speaking of Ryan Adams, here's the man himself.
It's country without the fiddle, then again, this is the sound Tom Petty perfected, if only he did it as well as Ryan here.
I first heard this on Sirius XM's Spectrum. That's the problem with good music today, there's not one place to hear it all. There are strict divisions between genres.
The guitar sound and the changes of "Gimme Something Good" will wow you. Unfortunately, the song doesn't go anywhere. And the other released song from Ryan Adams's new album, "My Wrecking Ball," is not as good as this.
But...
This demonstrates the difference between the greats and the also-rans, it illustrates the difference when you write the material as opposed to using hired guns, when you pursue your individual goal as opposed to giving the machine what it wants.
Adams can write and now produce. He gets it.
How come we don't elevate those who deserve it?
In other words, Ryan Adams blew all his cred and became a joke. But he's proof if you ever had it you still do, you've just got to dig down deep. If "Gimme Something Good" doesn't make you want to hear more of what Ryan Adams has to say, you're not listening.
ROLLER COASTER
This is a giant hit from Luke Bryan's giant album "Crash My Party" and it's all over the radio but the reason I include it is Cole Swindell is a cowriter.
I was pissed "Beer In The Headlights" was not the next single, but as much as the concept of the roller coaster seems hackneyed, the more you hear this the more you get it, it sneaks up on you.
And what I love about the material Luke Bryan sings is he's not the triumphant all-knowing nothing who populates the pop charts. He's insecure, he's not sure, like the guys who've been tarred and feathered along with the bad boys, despite not deserving it.
BEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS
The URGENCY!
Cole Swindell is one of three writers on this, whereas he was one of only two on "Roller Coaster," but still...
This is so TIGHT!
The intro gives you no idea where it's going, it seems like pure country, and then the guitars SLASH and then Luke Bryan RAPS?
And then he wastes no time getting to the chorus!
"Sittin' right here out here in the middle of nowhere
I swear I've never seen, ever seen nothing like you anywhere
I got the key turned back, windows down, I'm turning it up and you're spinnin' around
Takin' a sip, swinging' your hips, girl you're looking so fine
With your beer in the headlights"
You can stand there in your skinny jeans and nerdy glasses and decry this but the truth is this is exactly what you're looking for, to be pulled up at the lake with your heart's desire as she's demonstrating her wares.
CONCLUSION
None of the above tracks is as great as Keith Urban's "Stupid Boy." Too many are unfinished. They've got the hook, but they don't add more, believing one cute line is enough, and it is to make a hit, but not to be remembered.
And mainstream Nashville country has no room for the young outlaws, the thread Steve Earle began and others have picked up and carried.
Then again, Steve Earle has never quite equaled "Guitar Town" himself.
Yup, every week there's a new alternative country rock/Americana hope. And they might have one great song, but the rest of their albums are not up to snuff. And if your voice is not radio-ready, your material must be, it must be an A.
Then again, things could be worse. All of these cuts have elements, they're listenable, and that's a START!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1rQCu9l
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Rhinofy-Christopher Cross Primer
Maybe you don't want your dreams to come true.
Christopher Cross went from unknown journeyman to the biggest star in the land seemingly overnight and it killed his career. Who can put up with all that attention?
See Alanis Morissette for example. Sure, she'd tried to make it as a teenybopper years earlier under a different moniker, but "Jagged Little Pill" was so good and so successful it ended her career. After all, how could you follow that up? Suddenly the whole world is watching and you become inhibited, you can't do what came so easily just a year or two before.
RIDE LIKE THE WIND
He was so average-looking, they wouldn't even put him on the cover of his own album. But this track took off like a shot and went right up the chart and was ubiquitous.
Sure it was derivative, sure it sounded like the Doobies with Michael McDonald, who was so prominently featured in the background vocals, but the track had a certain haunting elan. Unlike today's hits, the singer wasn't singing his song in your face, rather despite having such a mainstream sound, it felt like a peak into the private world of a loner. And so many of us music aficionados are loners.
"It is the night
My body's weak
I'm on the run
No time for sleep"
You were immediately entranced. Listeners don't give you much time, you've got to grab them quick. And these introductory lyrics did so.
But it was the second verse that seals the deal...
"I was born the son of a lawless man
Always spoke my mind with a gun in my hand
Lived nine lives
Gunned down ten
Gonna ride like the wind"
There's just a bit more instrumentation, and the vocal is more free, less studied, you can feel the air blowing through your hair.
The girls got it first. The boys grudgingly acknowledged it. But "Ride Like The Wind" was a hit we all ultimately embraced.
SAILING
"It's not far down to paradise"
By this time Jimmy Buffett's hit single run was just about done, Kenny Chesney was on the brink of adolescence, suddenly Christopher Cross was the bearer of aquatic dreams.
We all want to do this, get away, that's the fantasy. For some it's the mountains, for some it's the sea, but it's always the same...it's about being free.
"Sailing" was completely unexpected after "Ride Like The Wind." It was most certainly the same guy, but it sounded completely different. This guy had range.
"Sailing" went all the way to number one.
The unsung hero is Rob Meurer, who plays the keyboard solo which knits the track together. He's a subtle feature on "Ride Like The Wind" too. It's always been about stars, but once upon a time the supporting players not only made a difference, they could earn a living doing so.
NEVER BE THE SAME
Sure, it's lightweight and derivative, but there's no denying its catchiness. This one only went to number fifteen, but it was sometime about now that I took the plunge and purchased the LP. Because something with this many hits was not only a good value proposition, it was evidence of talent.
And unlike today's "stars," Christopher Cross wrote all these songs. Quite an amazing feat.
SAY YOU'LL BE MINE
Now another death knell for Cross's career was the fact that he crossed over. At first "Ride Like The Wind" was featured on FM, it was highly spun on album radio. But by this time he was considered too lightweight and he lived in the netherworld of Top Forty radio, which is the kiss of the death, because you live and die by the hit.
Come on, four hits off your debut LP? Before the MTV onslaught, when LPs were still cheap and flew out of the store? Christopher Cross was truly riding like the wind.
ARTHUR'S THEME
When you're hot, everybody wants you, you get caught up in the machine, and you might have a hit, but it also might doom your career.
"Arthur's Theme" was cowritten by Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen, along with Cross, and it sounded like it. This was back when "pop" still had a stink. MOR was a no-man's land no one wanted to live in. This was long before Trent Reznor was scoring films, when it came to Hollywood, they wanted no risks.
The song is listenable, but it's saccharine.
Yup, just too sweet.
THINK OF LAURA
This was not supposed to be a hit. Probably because the establishment had decided that Cross was done. He'd had hits, but he had no hard core fans. Sure, he won the big four Grammys all in one year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist, but this was at a point long before Mike Greene came in and modernized the institution and made Grammys meaningful. And once again, if you're embraced by the mainstream...you're in trouble.
But at the time soap operas were peaking, "General Hospital" was huge, Luke and Laura were the key couple and Laura was missing. It was a big story, the Kardashians of its day.
Cross didn't write the song for the show, that's positively a twenty first century paradigm, but they picked it up and it became a hit.
And I love it.
"Think of Laura..."
The sound of the track is just incredible, Cross's vocals matched with the changes. He sounds just like Carl Wilson here, and that's the highest compliment I can pay.
ALL RIGHT
This too, like "Think Of Laura," was on Christopher Cross's second album, and Wikipedia will tell you it was a hit, but it was such a limp rendition of the sound established on the first album that it was easy to dismiss, it got radio airplay, but it didn't have huge cultural impact.
But I will admit it has a catchy chorus.
And there you have it. Cross continued to record, but no one cared. He seems to have been completely forgotten.
But Christopher Cross wrote and sang and played guitar on all these hits and if he repeated this feat today he'd be bigger than Katy Perry.
But we expected all that back then. We only trusted you if you wrote your own material. And we'd never heard of auto-tune. Sure, we wanted to know who you slept with, but the gossip was more about movie stars, musical acts were seen as the real talent.
These tracks are a time capsule of the early eighties, before MTV took the nation by storm and broke so many cultural limit testers from the U.K.
And most think that's a good thing. And I'll agree.
But I'll also say that Christopher Cross was one talented man who broke the bank once upon a time, and for that he should be remembered.
P.S. I want to also single out the production work of Michael Omartian, you need someone to pull it all together, to steer the ship, and Omartian sailed it all the way home.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1xdoeK4
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Christopher Cross went from unknown journeyman to the biggest star in the land seemingly overnight and it killed his career. Who can put up with all that attention?
See Alanis Morissette for example. Sure, she'd tried to make it as a teenybopper years earlier under a different moniker, but "Jagged Little Pill" was so good and so successful it ended her career. After all, how could you follow that up? Suddenly the whole world is watching and you become inhibited, you can't do what came so easily just a year or two before.
RIDE LIKE THE WIND
He was so average-looking, they wouldn't even put him on the cover of his own album. But this track took off like a shot and went right up the chart and was ubiquitous.
Sure it was derivative, sure it sounded like the Doobies with Michael McDonald, who was so prominently featured in the background vocals, but the track had a certain haunting elan. Unlike today's hits, the singer wasn't singing his song in your face, rather despite having such a mainstream sound, it felt like a peak into the private world of a loner. And so many of us music aficionados are loners.
"It is the night
My body's weak
I'm on the run
No time for sleep"
You were immediately entranced. Listeners don't give you much time, you've got to grab them quick. And these introductory lyrics did so.
But it was the second verse that seals the deal...
"I was born the son of a lawless man
Always spoke my mind with a gun in my hand
Lived nine lives
Gunned down ten
Gonna ride like the wind"
There's just a bit more instrumentation, and the vocal is more free, less studied, you can feel the air blowing through your hair.
The girls got it first. The boys grudgingly acknowledged it. But "Ride Like The Wind" was a hit we all ultimately embraced.
SAILING
"It's not far down to paradise"
By this time Jimmy Buffett's hit single run was just about done, Kenny Chesney was on the brink of adolescence, suddenly Christopher Cross was the bearer of aquatic dreams.
We all want to do this, get away, that's the fantasy. For some it's the mountains, for some it's the sea, but it's always the same...it's about being free.
"Sailing" was completely unexpected after "Ride Like The Wind." It was most certainly the same guy, but it sounded completely different. This guy had range.
"Sailing" went all the way to number one.
The unsung hero is Rob Meurer, who plays the keyboard solo which knits the track together. He's a subtle feature on "Ride Like The Wind" too. It's always been about stars, but once upon a time the supporting players not only made a difference, they could earn a living doing so.
NEVER BE THE SAME
Sure, it's lightweight and derivative, but there's no denying its catchiness. This one only went to number fifteen, but it was sometime about now that I took the plunge and purchased the LP. Because something with this many hits was not only a good value proposition, it was evidence of talent.
And unlike today's "stars," Christopher Cross wrote all these songs. Quite an amazing feat.
SAY YOU'LL BE MINE
Now another death knell for Cross's career was the fact that he crossed over. At first "Ride Like The Wind" was featured on FM, it was highly spun on album radio. But by this time he was considered too lightweight and he lived in the netherworld of Top Forty radio, which is the kiss of the death, because you live and die by the hit.
Come on, four hits off your debut LP? Before the MTV onslaught, when LPs were still cheap and flew out of the store? Christopher Cross was truly riding like the wind.
ARTHUR'S THEME
When you're hot, everybody wants you, you get caught up in the machine, and you might have a hit, but it also might doom your career.
"Arthur's Theme" was cowritten by Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen, along with Cross, and it sounded like it. This was back when "pop" still had a stink. MOR was a no-man's land no one wanted to live in. This was long before Trent Reznor was scoring films, when it came to Hollywood, they wanted no risks.
The song is listenable, but it's saccharine.
Yup, just too sweet.
THINK OF LAURA
This was not supposed to be a hit. Probably because the establishment had decided that Cross was done. He'd had hits, but he had no hard core fans. Sure, he won the big four Grammys all in one year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist, but this was at a point long before Mike Greene came in and modernized the institution and made Grammys meaningful. And once again, if you're embraced by the mainstream...you're in trouble.
But at the time soap operas were peaking, "General Hospital" was huge, Luke and Laura were the key couple and Laura was missing. It was a big story, the Kardashians of its day.
Cross didn't write the song for the show, that's positively a twenty first century paradigm, but they picked it up and it became a hit.
And I love it.
"Think of Laura..."
The sound of the track is just incredible, Cross's vocals matched with the changes. He sounds just like Carl Wilson here, and that's the highest compliment I can pay.
ALL RIGHT
This too, like "Think Of Laura," was on Christopher Cross's second album, and Wikipedia will tell you it was a hit, but it was such a limp rendition of the sound established on the first album that it was easy to dismiss, it got radio airplay, but it didn't have huge cultural impact.
But I will admit it has a catchy chorus.
And there you have it. Cross continued to record, but no one cared. He seems to have been completely forgotten.
But Christopher Cross wrote and sang and played guitar on all these hits and if he repeated this feat today he'd be bigger than Katy Perry.
But we expected all that back then. We only trusted you if you wrote your own material. And we'd never heard of auto-tune. Sure, we wanted to know who you slept with, but the gossip was more about movie stars, musical acts were seen as the real talent.
These tracks are a time capsule of the early eighties, before MTV took the nation by storm and broke so many cultural limit testers from the U.K.
And most think that's a good thing. And I'll agree.
But I'll also say that Christopher Cross was one talented man who broke the bank once upon a time, and for that he should be remembered.
P.S. I want to also single out the production work of Michael Omartian, you need someone to pull it all together, to steer the ship, and Omartian sailed it all the way home.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1xdoeK4
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
The Nude Picture Scandal
How dumb can you be?
Excoriate Perez Hilton, come down on 4chan, but what I want to know is why these celebrities have nude photos on their phones to begin with?
Maybe I grew up in the dark ages, when you had to go to the porn shop to buy European magazines to see naked ladies, when it was a breakthrough when "Penthouse" printed pictures of women below the waist. But despite being aged, a veritable antique, I'm fully aware that if you don't want anybody to know anything, don't put it on the Internet!
No, let me restate that. If you're going to do anything illicit, do it alone, in the bathroom, in the dark.
Is it any wonder the public is interested in nude photos of celebrities? Isn't that what they're selling? There aren't that many unattractive actors and actresses in America. No, you won the gene derby, you worked on your craft and you made it. Congratulations! But do you have to be so dumb?
I mean exactly why do you need to take nude photos of yourself to begin with? When did that become the highest form of art? Ain't that America, where sex is taboo, but you flaunt your naked body nonetheless. I mean which way do we want it, European style, with naked boobies on the beach, or buttoned-up puritanical?
Oh, of course I feel sorry for Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton and the rest of the cadre whose names I don't recognize. But it really makes me wonder if they live in the real world. Are they so busy flying private and staying at the Four Seasons that they don't know what's going on?
There's a camera in every store..
There's a camera in the taxi.
There's a black box in your car.
And I believe we should definitely be debating privacy. But when I can go online and see a list of everywhere I've ever lived, the residence of my ex-wife, even the assets owned by my long deceased dad, I don't enter anything in a field that I don't want everybody to know.
Kind of like addresses... Want to buy something illicit on the Internet? Don't ship it to your home. That data is there...FOREVER! Kind of like Jennifer Lawrence's nude pics.
We've had leaked sex tapes, we've been living in this Internet era for nearly two decades, and suddenly we've got actresses stunned that their data isn't safe?
You never got your phone stolen? You've never lent it to another to take a picture? If you're famous, no one's ever snapped a photo of you without asking first? Hell, this has happened to me, and my fame can fit in a thimble compared to that of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton.
That's the society we live in.
As for iCloud... Read this story:
"The Police Tool That Pervs Use to Steal Nude Pics From Apple's iCloud": http://www.wired.com/2014/09/eppb-icloud/
Furthermore, Google keeps your search history. So when you're at home, surfing porn, know that you are not alone, big brother is watching.
So what are we gonna do about this?
SELF-POLICE!
This was a crisis on Facebook a few years back. Drunken pics of college students went on their permanent record and prevented them from getting jobs. Did we beat up the corporations for using this data? Hell, we couldn't even get Facebook to give an adequate response. No, we educated ourselves and stopped posting that information. A big activity became scrubbing photos from Facebook the night after a party. Everybody woke up.
Why can't the actresses involved in this scandal wake up?
The last time I checked I had a body. Not that I'm proud of it. But I'm not taking naked photos of it and sending it to my girlfriend, because then they'd exist. On my phone, in the cloud, on my computer. If someone wanted to blackmail or humiliate me...
And I'm not demanding my girlfriend send me these photos either. I can get enough of her live.
Come on, Snapchat is all the rage because it evaporates, however imperfectly, and famous people get a pass for taking permanent photos and being astounded they leaked? THAT'S HOW THE INTERNET WORKS!
Perez Hilton has proven he's got no morals. He's a product of the Internet era, where personal fame is everything. Your brand trumps your talent and if you cross the line you apologize.
But if we stopped clicking on the links, he'd go out of business.
But we can't help ourselves. Because we're animals, human beings, with curiosity and desire. We love gossip because it's about us, people. We're evaluating others' fashion choices and word choices and love choices all the time, frequently modeling ourselves after them.
Furthermore, the Internet is filled with nobodies posting their own naked photos in an effort to get famous. Just Google your favorite predilection, photos and videos will come right up.
But no, the famous are inviolate.
Anthony Weiner resigns from Congress because he doesn't understand Internet privacy and makes poor choices but Hollywood is immune?
Hogwash.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Excoriate Perez Hilton, come down on 4chan, but what I want to know is why these celebrities have nude photos on their phones to begin with?
Maybe I grew up in the dark ages, when you had to go to the porn shop to buy European magazines to see naked ladies, when it was a breakthrough when "Penthouse" printed pictures of women below the waist. But despite being aged, a veritable antique, I'm fully aware that if you don't want anybody to know anything, don't put it on the Internet!
No, let me restate that. If you're going to do anything illicit, do it alone, in the bathroom, in the dark.
Is it any wonder the public is interested in nude photos of celebrities? Isn't that what they're selling? There aren't that many unattractive actors and actresses in America. No, you won the gene derby, you worked on your craft and you made it. Congratulations! But do you have to be so dumb?
I mean exactly why do you need to take nude photos of yourself to begin with? When did that become the highest form of art? Ain't that America, where sex is taboo, but you flaunt your naked body nonetheless. I mean which way do we want it, European style, with naked boobies on the beach, or buttoned-up puritanical?
Oh, of course I feel sorry for Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton and the rest of the cadre whose names I don't recognize. But it really makes me wonder if they live in the real world. Are they so busy flying private and staying at the Four Seasons that they don't know what's going on?
There's a camera in every store..
There's a camera in the taxi.
There's a black box in your car.
And I believe we should definitely be debating privacy. But when I can go online and see a list of everywhere I've ever lived, the residence of my ex-wife, even the assets owned by my long deceased dad, I don't enter anything in a field that I don't want everybody to know.
Kind of like addresses... Want to buy something illicit on the Internet? Don't ship it to your home. That data is there...FOREVER! Kind of like Jennifer Lawrence's nude pics.
We've had leaked sex tapes, we've been living in this Internet era for nearly two decades, and suddenly we've got actresses stunned that their data isn't safe?
You never got your phone stolen? You've never lent it to another to take a picture? If you're famous, no one's ever snapped a photo of you without asking first? Hell, this has happened to me, and my fame can fit in a thimble compared to that of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton.
That's the society we live in.
As for iCloud... Read this story:
"The Police Tool That Pervs Use to Steal Nude Pics From Apple's iCloud": http://www.wired.com/2014/09/eppb-icloud/
Furthermore, Google keeps your search history. So when you're at home, surfing porn, know that you are not alone, big brother is watching.
So what are we gonna do about this?
SELF-POLICE!
This was a crisis on Facebook a few years back. Drunken pics of college students went on their permanent record and prevented them from getting jobs. Did we beat up the corporations for using this data? Hell, we couldn't even get Facebook to give an adequate response. No, we educated ourselves and stopped posting that information. A big activity became scrubbing photos from Facebook the night after a party. Everybody woke up.
Why can't the actresses involved in this scandal wake up?
The last time I checked I had a body. Not that I'm proud of it. But I'm not taking naked photos of it and sending it to my girlfriend, because then they'd exist. On my phone, in the cloud, on my computer. If someone wanted to blackmail or humiliate me...
And I'm not demanding my girlfriend send me these photos either. I can get enough of her live.
Come on, Snapchat is all the rage because it evaporates, however imperfectly, and famous people get a pass for taking permanent photos and being astounded they leaked? THAT'S HOW THE INTERNET WORKS!
Perez Hilton has proven he's got no morals. He's a product of the Internet era, where personal fame is everything. Your brand trumps your talent and if you cross the line you apologize.
But if we stopped clicking on the links, he'd go out of business.
But we can't help ourselves. Because we're animals, human beings, with curiosity and desire. We love gossip because it's about us, people. We're evaluating others' fashion choices and word choices and love choices all the time, frequently modeling ourselves after them.
Furthermore, the Internet is filled with nobodies posting their own naked photos in an effort to get famous. Just Google your favorite predilection, photos and videos will come right up.
But no, the famous are inviolate.
Anthony Weiner resigns from Congress because he doesn't understand Internet privacy and makes poor choices but Hollywood is immune?
Hogwash.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Today
SALES ARE DEAD
The fact that news outlets trumpet them is testimony to their ignorance, not the stats' relevance. It's almost like it's the year 2000 all over again, when the public knew what was going on but the media did not. Something is happening here and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? Bob Dylan famously sang that about a "Time" reporter, but at this point it's the acts that are ignorant. They continue to believe in old paradigms that are now history. Tchotchkes generate revenue. It's called merch. Your CD/vinyl is a souvenir, see it that way.
KATE BUSH
If she'd put out a new album, the hype would already be history. But whether consciously or unconsciously, by doing dozens of live shows she's keeping her story alive, and in today's world it's all about making the story last.
Forget the ridiculous hype about multiple albums flowing back into the chart after the gigs began. Those sales are anemic and irrelevant. Today it's all about whether anybody is listening to your music. By generating heat, Kate Bush has not only reignited the passionate, she's caused those previously not in the know to pay attention. And hopefully they'll check her material out. The barrier to streaming entry is very low, it's just a click away, just a click away, and your goal is to get someone to make that click and hopefully become infected.
BUDWEISER MADE IN AMERICA IN L.A.
Its only reason to exist is cash. The lineup made no sense, the site had no shade and once you actually put the sponsor in the name you're no different from Playboy Jazz, and everything involved in that is fading. Boobies are free on the Internet, the festival is small and irrelevant, and jazz is something believers trumpet and everyone else ignores.
RELEASE
We know whether your album is good in a day, if not an hour. We anticipate the work of the superstars, the rest of the acts are just grist for the mill. Unfortunately, everything is equally hyped and therefore almost all of it is ignored. In other words, just because the newspaper writes about your new album, that does not mean anybody will listen to it. You're now your own hypester. Your biggest asset is your mailing list, yes, e-mail still counts. You want to know who your fans are and how to reach them and you shouldn't worry whether the media covers your release at all, that's old school thinking, purely twentieth century, when music was scarce and buying an album was an expensive proposition that you pondered a long time.
HITS
When there's too much noise, you up your game. You now have to shoot for the stratosphere or play to the niches, there is no middle class. And if you're shooting for the stratosphere you've got to be perfect. Which is why the labels employ Max Martin, because he's got experience and can do it better than anyone. Don't lament the game, understand it. Know that you won't have a hit unless it's as catchy as Max's work. Good is not good enough.
COUNTRY IS THE NEW ROCK
If you think rock is dead, you haven't listened to country music, which may feature a banjo or a fiddle, but really sounds like nothing so much as Skynyrd and the rest of the seventies icons. But it's not totally retro. There are electronic elements and rap and it's all very exciting. Country is taking over America, it's not just a red state thing.
THE HIGHWAY
Is the tribal drum of country music. It's America's radio station. It's where chances are taken and acts are broken. This is the biggest story in radio today. Forget Pandora, one program director has taken over a whole format by focusing on the future, not the past. It's an amazing tale. One of risk-taking and audience consolidation. Clear Channel fans the flames of the media, but it's the Highway that is the blueprint for tomorrow. We used to go to radio to discover. Radio used to be a community. The Highway provides both. It's positively twenty first century. We gravitate to one winner. All we need is someone to grab the reins and pull ahead!
And you thought Sirius XM was irrelevant.
ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
What were we doing in Iraq a decade ago anyway? Saddam Hussein may have been a dictator, but he kept the peace. Yup, Bush and Cheney destabilized the region and we continue to pay the price. And we can debate politics all day long but my point is just because you apologized, just because you went to rehab, that does not mean people don't remember. You're building your rep every day. People remember they were tricked, they were spammed, that you took the expedient route, that you sold out to a sponsor. What looks like a blip on the radar screen today could haunt you forevermore. Go by your heart, not your wallet. If your heart steers you wrong, we'll forgive you.
AT&T UNLIMITED DATA
No it's not. Hit 5 gigs and they'll throttle you. Furthermore, Sprint's 4G sucks and T-Mobile's got little coverage. So the truth is if you want high speed data everywhere you've got to pay, through the nose. It sucks, but it's the truth.
AMAZON
Could be killed by Alibaba, eBay's threatened too. Amazon may look like Engulf and Devour but the truth is the tide is turning on the company. It's just not consumer friendly. Who cares if your package comes on time if it's going to hollow out the world with only Jeff Bezos benefiting. Remember when Microsoft was the behemoth? Nothing is forever, never forget that.
MISTAKES ARE NOT TERMINAL
Facebook had a flawed mobile strategy and then it scrapped it and is now triumphing in the sphere. Don't dig your hole deeper, pivot!
FAST COMPANY
Buy a subscription. Today. It's about smart people doing smart things. The writing may not quite be at the level of the "New Yorker," but there's no self-satisfied attitude. This is what the music business used to be like. The people profiled in "Fast Company" have big dreams, they want to change the world, and unlike the teen dweebs, they're neither delusional nor uneducated. Hell, Tory Burch graduated from Penn. Same as it ever was.
PREVIEW ISSUES
How publications sell advertising.
NIKKI STINK
Nikke Finke is the new Mike Ovitz. Powerful and hated she has now gotten her comeuppance. You may not know what I'm talking about, but Google is your friend, and if you're under thirty you may not know who Mike Ovitz is either. You can't criticize people for being fat when you are. You can't be anonymous yet use the Internet to spill your bile. We're all in it together these days. Yup, you may fly private but you depend on us to be the wind beneath your wings, and we can stop blowing at any time. Really.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
The fact that news outlets trumpet them is testimony to their ignorance, not the stats' relevance. It's almost like it's the year 2000 all over again, when the public knew what was going on but the media did not. Something is happening here and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? Bob Dylan famously sang that about a "Time" reporter, but at this point it's the acts that are ignorant. They continue to believe in old paradigms that are now history. Tchotchkes generate revenue. It's called merch. Your CD/vinyl is a souvenir, see it that way.
KATE BUSH
If she'd put out a new album, the hype would already be history. But whether consciously or unconsciously, by doing dozens of live shows she's keeping her story alive, and in today's world it's all about making the story last.
Forget the ridiculous hype about multiple albums flowing back into the chart after the gigs began. Those sales are anemic and irrelevant. Today it's all about whether anybody is listening to your music. By generating heat, Kate Bush has not only reignited the passionate, she's caused those previously not in the know to pay attention. And hopefully they'll check her material out. The barrier to streaming entry is very low, it's just a click away, just a click away, and your goal is to get someone to make that click and hopefully become infected.
BUDWEISER MADE IN AMERICA IN L.A.
Its only reason to exist is cash. The lineup made no sense, the site had no shade and once you actually put the sponsor in the name you're no different from Playboy Jazz, and everything involved in that is fading. Boobies are free on the Internet, the festival is small and irrelevant, and jazz is something believers trumpet and everyone else ignores.
RELEASE
We know whether your album is good in a day, if not an hour. We anticipate the work of the superstars, the rest of the acts are just grist for the mill. Unfortunately, everything is equally hyped and therefore almost all of it is ignored. In other words, just because the newspaper writes about your new album, that does not mean anybody will listen to it. You're now your own hypester. Your biggest asset is your mailing list, yes, e-mail still counts. You want to know who your fans are and how to reach them and you shouldn't worry whether the media covers your release at all, that's old school thinking, purely twentieth century, when music was scarce and buying an album was an expensive proposition that you pondered a long time.
HITS
When there's too much noise, you up your game. You now have to shoot for the stratosphere or play to the niches, there is no middle class. And if you're shooting for the stratosphere you've got to be perfect. Which is why the labels employ Max Martin, because he's got experience and can do it better than anyone. Don't lament the game, understand it. Know that you won't have a hit unless it's as catchy as Max's work. Good is not good enough.
COUNTRY IS THE NEW ROCK
If you think rock is dead, you haven't listened to country music, which may feature a banjo or a fiddle, but really sounds like nothing so much as Skynyrd and the rest of the seventies icons. But it's not totally retro. There are electronic elements and rap and it's all very exciting. Country is taking over America, it's not just a red state thing.
THE HIGHWAY
Is the tribal drum of country music. It's America's radio station. It's where chances are taken and acts are broken. This is the biggest story in radio today. Forget Pandora, one program director has taken over a whole format by focusing on the future, not the past. It's an amazing tale. One of risk-taking and audience consolidation. Clear Channel fans the flames of the media, but it's the Highway that is the blueprint for tomorrow. We used to go to radio to discover. Radio used to be a community. The Highway provides both. It's positively twenty first century. We gravitate to one winner. All we need is someone to grab the reins and pull ahead!
And you thought Sirius XM was irrelevant.
ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
What were we doing in Iraq a decade ago anyway? Saddam Hussein may have been a dictator, but he kept the peace. Yup, Bush and Cheney destabilized the region and we continue to pay the price. And we can debate politics all day long but my point is just because you apologized, just because you went to rehab, that does not mean people don't remember. You're building your rep every day. People remember they were tricked, they were spammed, that you took the expedient route, that you sold out to a sponsor. What looks like a blip on the radar screen today could haunt you forevermore. Go by your heart, not your wallet. If your heart steers you wrong, we'll forgive you.
AT&T UNLIMITED DATA
No it's not. Hit 5 gigs and they'll throttle you. Furthermore, Sprint's 4G sucks and T-Mobile's got little coverage. So the truth is if you want high speed data everywhere you've got to pay, through the nose. It sucks, but it's the truth.
AMAZON
Could be killed by Alibaba, eBay's threatened too. Amazon may look like Engulf and Devour but the truth is the tide is turning on the company. It's just not consumer friendly. Who cares if your package comes on time if it's going to hollow out the world with only Jeff Bezos benefiting. Remember when Microsoft was the behemoth? Nothing is forever, never forget that.
MISTAKES ARE NOT TERMINAL
Facebook had a flawed mobile strategy and then it scrapped it and is now triumphing in the sphere. Don't dig your hole deeper, pivot!
FAST COMPANY
Buy a subscription. Today. It's about smart people doing smart things. The writing may not quite be at the level of the "New Yorker," but there's no self-satisfied attitude. This is what the music business used to be like. The people profiled in "Fast Company" have big dreams, they want to change the world, and unlike the teen dweebs, they're neither delusional nor uneducated. Hell, Tory Burch graduated from Penn. Same as it ever was.
PREVIEW ISSUES
How publications sell advertising.
NIKKI STINK
Nikke Finke is the new Mike Ovitz. Powerful and hated she has now gotten her comeuppance. You may not know what I'm talking about, but Google is your friend, and if you're under thirty you may not know who Mike Ovitz is either. You can't criticize people for being fat when you are. You can't be anonymous yet use the Internet to spill your bile. We're all in it together these days. Yup, you may fly private but you depend on us to be the wind beneath your wings, and we can stop blowing at any time. Really.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Sunday, 31 August 2014
Re-I Gotta Try
Most times you write a song and you never know if anyone's going to "get" it.
When Mike and I wrote "Gotta Try" I thought it was the third best thing we'd written, just behind "This is It" and "What a fool…" We had high hopes. But we both missed the nerve, and it became the one that got away. (I learned the hard way that when you write with McD, you gotta use him on the recording. Not just singing, but also especially playing! He is unique that way.)
But as to songs like "Gotta Try," the one thing I've learned over the years is that the ones who need that kind of lyric will hear it when it's time. You got it exactly as we intended it. The timing was perfect.
I was really glad to read that. Thank you.
You might be interested to know that that tradition of writing songs that will hopefully matter to someone continues today with myself, Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman, the three of us calling ourselves Blue Sky Riders. If inclined, feel free to check out a song of ours that Georgia sings on our newest CD, ("Finally Home"), called "Little Victories." (Here is a link to a fan's video of a live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tNQcafH_2k
BSR is a fool's paradise for me, a chapter three that exists for us to get to keep exercising our creativity and hopefully prolong some inkling of sanity.
So thank you again for understanding "Gotta Try" and writing about it. I feel vindicated now. :)
Oh…and you should know that Michael's still writing great songs. Mike is the musical equivalent of dark chocolate, so the world OD'ed on his stuff in the '80's. But miraculously, his voice had that amazing comeback when Motown signed him to make a few cover records. But his own compositions were off limits. Hopefully some day he'll get back to recording his own stuff before his time is up. I consider him an American Treasure."
Thank you,
Kenny Loggins
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
When Mike and I wrote "Gotta Try" I thought it was the third best thing we'd written, just behind "This is It" and "What a fool…" We had high hopes. But we both missed the nerve, and it became the one that got away. (I learned the hard way that when you write with McD, you gotta use him on the recording. Not just singing, but also especially playing! He is unique that way.)
But as to songs like "Gotta Try," the one thing I've learned over the years is that the ones who need that kind of lyric will hear it when it's time. You got it exactly as we intended it. The timing was perfect.
I was really glad to read that. Thank you.
You might be interested to know that that tradition of writing songs that will hopefully matter to someone continues today with myself, Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman, the three of us calling ourselves Blue Sky Riders. If inclined, feel free to check out a song of ours that Georgia sings on our newest CD, ("Finally Home"), called "Little Victories." (Here is a link to a fan's video of a live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tNQcafH_2k
BSR is a fool's paradise for me, a chapter three that exists for us to get to keep exercising our creativity and hopefully prolong some inkling of sanity.
So thank you again for understanding "Gotta Try" and writing about it. I feel vindicated now. :)
Oh…and you should know that Michael's still writing great songs. Mike is the musical equivalent of dark chocolate, so the world OD'ed on his stuff in the '80's. But miraculously, his voice had that amazing comeback when Motown signed him to make a few cover records. But his own compositions were off limits. Hopefully some day he'll get back to recording his own stuff before his time is up. I consider him an American Treasure."
Thank you,
Kenny Loggins
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)