Belfast Child

http://spoti.fi/2maU9Y4

I know they're Scottish, but the song that kept playing in my head in Ireland was Simple Minds' "Belfast Child."

There's this place in the city called the Oh Yeah Music Centre. Kinda like that song by Roxy Music? I don't think so, but you should check that one out, it's the best song on 1980's "Flesh And Blood," after the band decided to reunite, if you were never infected by Bryan Ferry's voice, you'll get it after listening to this.

"How can we drive to a movie show
When the music is here in my car
There's a band playing on the radio
With a rhythm of rhyming guitars"

That's what it used to be like, sitting, parked, you and your honey, listening to the radio, revealing your truth as a prelude to physical interaction.

And, be sure to listen to the end, for Phil Manzanera's subtle guitar solo. "Oh Yeah" is understated, yet majestic, from back when music was supposed to touch your soul as opposed to assault you.

Anyway, the Oh Yeah in Belfast was started by a bunch of locals, including Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, at the end of the last decade, as a place for acts to get started, and there's rehearsal space and offices and a mastering studio and a club and in the antechamber, painted on the walls, is a timeline of all the Belfast hits, some known and some unknown, at least to me, but if there was a denizen of Belfast involved the track is up there.

And I'd forgotten that Henry McCullough was from Belfast, but what stunned me was the endless number of hits by native son Gary Moore.

Most Americans know him from his work in Thin Lizzy.

And "Still Got The Blues" from his 1990 Virgin album of the same name. Do you know it? Phil Quartararo made it a hit when he took over the newly resuscitated Charisma in the U.S. Amazing what one person on a mission can do.

And then Mr. Moore was promptly forgotten over here, but when he succumbed to a heart attack induced by a night of drinking six years ago it was "Still Got The Blues" that played in my head, remember when guitarists were all infected by the Delta roots and returned there, back when guitars still mattered?

And U2 wasn't from Belfast, and neither were the Simple Minds, but it was their songs that were playing in my brain so...

I pulled them up on Spotify.

And that's when I found Simple Minds' "Acoustic" album.

Actually, to be honest, which writers rarely are, because oftentimes the truth is messy and it doesn't square with the story, I discovered the album a couple of months back but I did not give it as good a listen as I did last night in my hotel room in Belfast when it suddenly resonated, took me away, I couldn't turn it off, I was afraid of breaking the mood.

And to tell you the truth, "Belfast Child" is not on it. The song I played first was "Sanctify Yourself."

"Is this the age of thunder and rage"

MOST DEFINITELY! Even though the original was cut back in '86, but like it says you've got to open your eyes (and your ears!) and if I didn't tell you this was an acoustic recording you wouldn't know, it's nearly electrified, and it's not slowed-down and sotto voce searching for meaning, it's got just about the same energy as the original.

And I knew it way back then, but I got hooked when Virgin put out a double CD package "The Best of Simple Minds," in 2001, I played it again and again for days, one of the cuts that resonated so much was "Sanctify Yourself."

And "Waterfront." Which is on "Acoustic" too. But it starts out more mellow, although it does build, but the original incarnation is a TEAR! It starts out with a bass bleating which sounds more like a Kraftwerk record than something organic but then the whole thing explodes, like fireworks at Disneyland, or an SSRI in your brain not long after you've taken it, and that bass continues to beat and Jim Kerr rides the track like a jockey, imploring the band to victory, it sounds nothing quite like anything else, it enraptures you, COME IN, COME OUT OF THE RAIN!!

Something they had to do yesterday in Southern California.

But my favorite track from that two CD compilation is "Let There Be Love."

I missed it the first time around, even though I bought "New Gold Dream" back in '82, on gold vinyl no less, I didn't buy another LP thereafter, this was back when I was paying for music, before I started getting it for free, but someone sent me this Iva Davies CD and his cover of "Let There Be Love" resonates and it's not on Spotify and you can hear it on YouTube here: http://bit.ly/2lZrQg2 and I love it, but as magnificent as it is, it's still shy of the original. Which is not quite as good as the less in-your-face positively stellar extended mix where you can luxuriate in the sound, bask in the orchestral greatness filling up not only your head but the entire damn space.

Now where was I?

No, that's a joke, I know exactly where I am, making a parallel to Gary Moore, you see Simple Minds keep making music but without a champion in the States no one's aware of it. It's like "Acoustic" never came out, and if you're a fan you want to hear it, I found "Glittering Prize" fascinating, the same song yet different from the original.

And at this point Jim Kerr is famous for marrying Chrissie Hynde and recording "Don't You Forget About Me," the hit from the "Breakfast Club" which made the band a household name, however briefly, and pissed Jim and the rest off, that's right, let's not forget Charlie Burchill, who architected the sound, funny how these guys spearhead one band and never cross-pollinate, you'd think so many people would want to work with him and get some of that magic and...

I became a dyed-in-the-wool Simple Minds addict with 1995's "Good News From The Next World," an aural assault from back in '95 it was the last release in America for so long, the last one to make a dent, but it starts off on a tear and stays there, but the track you've positively got to hear, that encapsulates the genius of this LP, has all the magic, is "7 Deadly Sins," not that I expect you to check it out, either you're young and listening to hip-hop or old and need no more new music, but back then, when music was still scarce, we'd go to somebody's house and they'd play a track for us that we couldn't get out of our head and then we'd have to end up owning it ourselves. "7 Deadly Sins" jerks you by the wrist and pulls you away, it squeezes out everyday life and when you crank it up you think music is the greatest thing in the world and with it riding shotgun you can win, even if the game is rigged, because you know it's simply about how you feel and listening to it you feel GREAT!

But this all started with "Belfast Child."

It went to number one in the U.K. back in '89, it's meaningless over here, but one listen will tell you otherwise.

It's based upon the old Irish folk song "She Moved Through The Fair," but it's got Kerr's lyrics and that Simple Minds melding of majesty and melody, this is music that's subtle yet can change the world, "Oh Yeah" is intimate, playing to you and me, "Belfast Child" is playing to everybody!

And the song starts off a cappella, all quiet. And then the strings add support and gravitas but the sound that grabs you is the penny whistle, like on a Paul Brady record.

And if you think this is a wimpy number that belongs to the sands of time just wait until the drum starts to pound and the guitar starts to wail and the song starts to march through the streets and you cannot help but fall in behind.

"Come back Billy, won't you come on home
Come back Mary, you've been away so long"

There was a brain drain, the Troubles sent the youth away, there was no opportunity, but with the ceasefire the emigrant sons and daughters began to return.

The streets are no longer empty, and life goes on.

And I won't say that you can attribute this to music, but we all need strength to put one foot in front of another, get up every day and keep on keepin' on, and there's no fuel like music.

"One day we'll return here
When the Belfast Child sings again"

He's singing, I heard him, I can't wait to return.

--
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 --

Belfast

All anybody wants to talk about is Trump.

I was out with a group of concert promoters and they'd all seen the buffoon on TV last night and were laughing and scared at the very same time. They knew all the players, the cabinet members, even Elizabeth Warren, and I know almost nothing about their country. Other than the IRA and war.

Turns out the north is associated with the UK and the south is independent and it all got divided in 1922 and the Catholics and the Protestants have been fighting about it ever since. Everyone refers to the "Troubles." When rocks were thrown and bombs were planted and innocent civilians died and they credit Bill Clinton with bringing them together, along with Bono, I kid you not. Bill came and united them for peace and so did Bono. So there's your power of rock and roll right there. There was a referendum, to end the war, and a concert was held just before and Bono held up the arms of the enemies and they all asked for peace...AND IT CAME!

Well, not completely. There was more violence. And...you drive around and there are walls separating the Catholics from the Protestants. They don't mix. Intermarriage is rare, you can be excommunicated from your community, and when I saw the gate that closes off the two groups every night I was flummoxed, we think of these troubles happening in the Middle East, but they're here too. And on one hand you pooh-pooh them, to quote Rodney King, can't we all just get along? But the Catholics got the short end of the stick and Bobby Sands went on a hunger strike and died in prison and I know all this, it's deep in the memory banks, but when you come here you're confronted with murals, it's palpable. And they know everything about us and we know almost about them.

Like the Titanic being built here. I went to the museum. I could live in a museum, I love to soak up the information. And to be honest, I don't care that much about the Titanic and the exhibits about it washed over me to a degree, but the museum starts by setting the scene, when Belfast was Linenopolis.

You see linen comes from flax. And it was spun at home. And then came mechanization and factories. Study history and you find out what you think is new is not.

People railed against the change. And then women and children went to work in the mills. Where pay was low, health conditions bad, and hours long, six days a week, literally half the day. Which is how we ended up with unions. But somehow "union" is now a bad word. But I'm wondering about the future. Will everybody lose their job to technology or will they find places in the new economy and will they be better off or worse? I don't know. And I'm not sure anybody else does either.

And they had whiskey and tobacco and then shipbuilding. And when you look out and see the slip where they built the Titanic right next to the Olympic, you tingle. It happened, RIGHT THERE! But they don't build ships anymore. But Bombardier does build airplane wings. And they shoot "Game of Thrones." So, it's not only runaway production to North Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, the whole world is giving incentives, it all comes down to money.

And this morning I got a "Black Cab Tour" to Shankill Road, where the Troubles occurred. My driver, Norman, knew all the passersby, and also admitted he threw rocks, everybody did, his father was shot twice the night he was born, it's just the way it was.

And then there's the wall... Made even higher with barbed wired and fencing so no one can climb over and the stones don't cross. And a gate that closes every night, even at this late date. You know how you know where the Catholics live? There's a wall around their community!

Yes, they're outnumbered by the Protestants.

And then we went to the BBC for an interview/show/program with Wendy Austin. She's got an MBE, "Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire," because she was the voice on the radio when all the bad crap went down. And I used that c-word, instead of the s-word, and I had to rerecord what I said just in case the boss got upset. I thought the BBC was like HBO, and you could swear, but that's not so.

But all the equipment was modern and there were two engineers and in the U.S. the famous radio station you listen to is a hovel staffed by the voice you hear and one minimum wage engineer in support. The free market economy doesn't always work. Then again, someone told me 70% of the workers in Belfast were employed by the government, that can't be true, can it? But government is not a dirty word here like it is in the U.S.

And government is what we talked about at lunch. Why is it everybody but the Americans is so well-informed? We're dumb and vote for Trump yet they have dumb people who voted for Brexit and they're completely unsure what's gonna happen next. The whole world is in turmoil. And what struck me is we talked some music, who can sell tickets, but the hot topic was politics, we're all citizens of the world, and the destiny of the planet is in our hands, a heavy responsibility which we must shoulder.

And then Stuart took me on a tour of Van Morrison sites.

You've got to understand, Ireland is warm and green but it rains all the time. You could get mightily depressed, no wonder so many leave, yet so many come back, like Van himself, who supposedly lives eight miles away on the water.

But he grew up on the other side of the river and we parked as it sprinkled and went down into this little park with a stream... It was the HOLLOW!

"Hey where did we go
Days when the rain came
Down in the hollow"

Yup, it happened right here, this was the inspiration for "Brown Eyed Girl"!

And coursing through the park, which was anything but upscale, just a hole between two rows of houses, were the electrical lines, held up by the pylons!

We call them towers in the U.S., but these pylons are featured in "You Know What They're Writing About" from 1979's "Into The Music," where Van implores his baby to: "Meet me down by the water, Meet me down by the pylons."

And then we went by his house, where there's a plaque, and you're thinking HOW DID HE MAKE IT OUT OF HERE? Some are destined to stay where they are, others get out. And music is still a great way to rise above.

And then down the street where he washed windows, yes, that song was not fantasy.

And then up to Cyprus Avenue, which inspired that track on "Astral Weeks."

We think these artists live in a fantasyland far above us where they make all this stuff up, but the truth is we all have influences, they're the foundation of our creations, Van led a real life and sang about it, he still sings about it.

And then off to the Ulster Museum to learn more about the Troubles, where there was a whole section on Bloody Sunday and I couldn't help but sing the U2 song in my head.

And everybody tells me Ireland was backward. There were still outdoor toilets during the Troubles. There were no jobs. But there were people, thinking, experiencing, not looking to get ahead like Americans so much as living.

So, there are no high rises, no one would invest with all the unrest.

And downtown there are buildings that are fortresses, to protect against being blown up by bombs.

But the people, they're knowledgeable and friendly. They want to talk, wrestle with the issues, and I'd say we're all in it together, but...

They're still working on that in Belfast.

They built the Titanic in the slip on the left: http://bit.ly/2m4uOPr

On the other side is the Catholics: http://bit.ly/2lTygAt

This gate closes every night: http://bit.ly/2ls03qM

Bobby Sands died in prison on a hunger strike: http://bit.ly/2kxKoXx

Van Morrison grew up here: http://bit.ly/2m4CYre


--
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 --

Bobby Freeman

Now they die and it doesn't even make news, it's barely a ripple on the radar screen, Bobby Freeman passed on January 23rd and it didn't appear in the "New York Times" until yesterday, and the L.A. "Times" not at all. Is this the new normal, where progenitors of rock, part of our DNA, leave the planet and it's de rigueur, barely worth a shrug?

Bobby Freeman was a very big deal. He wrote "Do You Want To Dance."

A number five hit for him in 1958.

A number two for Cliff Richard and the Shadows in 1962.

A number seventeen for Bette Midler back in '72, it was the opening cut on "The Divine Miss M," it was slowed-down, it was her signature song, the one that broke her wide open.

And a number twelve hit as "Do You Wanna Dance?" as the opening cut in a sped-up surfer version on the Beach Boys' 1965 album, "Today!"

I owned that record. It's the one with the original version of "Help Me Rhonda," titled "Help Me Ronda," the hit version came on the follow-up, "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" one of my favorite records ever, it accompanied me to Camp Laurelwood that summer.

That's how big music was. I had to bring my record player and records.

This was long before Walkmen. Long before streaming. Long before music was portable. Back when you left the house and sang the songs to yourself, and when you got home you dropped the needle to experience that elixir that made your life complete.

Some people brought guitars and amps. But it really wasn't that kind of camp, all artsy and fartsy. It was mainly about baseball and swimming and trampoline and...

Socials.

Actually, I had a lead in "Oklahoma" the year before, but I dropped out to play ball. I lived to play baseball. When I wanted to be Mickey Mantle instead of John Lennon. But the British Invasion came along and the world was turned upside down. Music was the internet of its day, the AOL, the iPhone, all wrapped into one. It's all anybody talked about and we played the records so much they turned grey. And when I went to the first social that August...

Camp is where I had my first girlfriends, away from the prying eyes of my parents and classmates. At Camp Laurelwood I could be my real self, unburdened of all the baggage I normally carried around. Most attendees were from New Haven, I was from Fairfield, I was new blood, and when I went the year before...

Betsy Kimball took a liking to me. I'm not sure how it happened, but she definitely initiated it. But I dove right in and I'm not sure I've been that comfortable with a girl since. But the following summer Betsy went to Laurelwood in July and I went in August and I only had eyes for...

Jill Philipson. But she was going steady with Jimmy Calechman. But when I dropped the needle on "Do You Wanna Dance?"...

That's what no one ever talks about, how music empowers you, makes you do stuff you normally wouldn't.

A social was a dance. Maybe twenty or thirty people. You'd play records and dance and talk and maybe sparks flew, or maybe they didn't.

So at this first social of 1965, I brought my Beach Boys album and dropped the needle on "Do You Wanna Dance?" and walked straight up to Jill Philipson and asked her if she wanted to dance, and she said yes, and that was all they wrote, she was my girlfriend now, Jimmy Calechman was in the rearview mirror.

It happened just that fast. I can credit the Beach Boys for that. But Bobby Freeman wrote the song, which we all knew, even though it was a hit not long after we were born, because certain records...we all knew, we just did.

And we went to Mystic Seaport and we sat next to each other on the bus and I put my arm around her because everybody else was doing so and I felt uncomfortable but I was figuring it out as I went along. When you learned by experience, before the internet became a how-to manual, a cornucopia of sex.

And when we got home we wrote letters and when I went to visit the Drazen twins they implored me to call her and I did but she was hesitant, reluctant, and then I knew the rumors were true, she was back together with Jimmy.

Hmm... It's not that I did not care, but I did not want to hear, I wanted to continue indefinitely in my fantasy, it felt so good.

As did hearing Bobby Freeman's "C'mon and Swim." This was the era of dance crazes. And the swim was an easy one, especially if you'd spent time at summer camp, you just made like you'd jumped into the pool...you did all the strokes, it was just that easy, even easier than the twist, which it replaced.

And "C'mon and Swim" was cowritten by legendary deejay Tom Donahue and Sylvester Stewart, otherwise known as Sly Stone, who produced it too.

You see Bobby Freeman is a part of rock history.

And also a part of my personal history.

Because music and my life are intertwined.

And now my heroes, the makers of these records, are dropping like flies, and I don't know what to do about it.

So I'm telling you.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5740&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bobby+Freeman
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5740&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bobby+Freeman
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5740&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bobby+Freeman

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5740&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bobby+Freeman

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5740&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bobby+Freeman




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --

Uber To The Airport

Everybody's got a hustle.

I used to take a cab, once my friend Jeff told me there were coupons for flat rates. Before that I took SuperShuttle, I'm willing to travel with my brethren, but it picked you up so early so as to make sure you did not miss your flight and they had to pay off on their guarantee that it was frustrating.

Now I take Uber.

But I'm always worried how early to call one.

It's amazing how they've improved the app. And I know, I know, I should be taking Lyft, since Travis Kalanick does not know how to do the right thing, but the truth is I don't Uber every day and it's on my phone and it's easy so there.

And at first it says cars are 9 minutes away, then 4, then 3, and I don't want to make the driver wait, fearful of getting a low rating, so I wait until the last minute to request a car and then find out that the time for pickup has lengthened and I start to get uptight.

And I really got uptight when traffic was gridlocked.

It's not like the old days, where you guesstimated. I looked it up on Google Maps, I don't trust Apple, the time is always wrong, and everything looked copacetic but now we were not moving and I was getting spilkes and how far in advance do you have to get to the airport for an international flight anyway?

And usually I'm chatting up the driver, looking for that good rating, but I had a lot on my mind, but the guy started to talk...

After putting my bag in the trunk. A taxi driver does this reluctantly, I almost didn't have the balls to ask, but this guy picked up my overweight suitcase, I travel heavy, and slid it right into the trunk and the truth is we supposedly live in a divided country but one on one, we so often get along.

And he wanted to get me there fast.

So he scooted over towards Centinela.

And when that didn't work he doubled back to 19th Street and I'm freaking that we're wasting time all the way, but I don't want to be tell him what to do, everybody hates a boss, I want to get along.

And while we're waiting to merge onto Walgrove, this guy continues to talk.

Now I still haven't figured out the profile for Uber drivers. I've had name actors and nobodies. Lesbian basketball players and kids taking time off from college. You know where on the socioeconomic scale your taxi driver is, but your Uber driver?

And for those who don't live in SoCal, you've got to realize, it's ultra-casual. No restaurant requires a jacket and tie, and when your Uber driver picks you up wearing shorts and a t-shirt, flip-flops on his feet, you don't know if he's declasse or he just grew up here.

Mine grew up here.

But he lived in Sweden. For sixteen years. He played professional basketball.

Everybody's got a twist to their tale. They tell us we're all alike, pigeonhole us, but each of us is unique with our own special story and if you're curious, you can hear it.

He played at SMCC. Then transferred to Hawaii. And then got a gig in Upsala, the college town, where he played 33 games a year, 10,000 in all he figured in his lifetime, and he had to have a second job but he was thrilled to be doing what he loved.

What a concept, people pay lip service to it, but rarely follow this precept. Because they're too scared.

And he met a woman and had a child and that kid is now twenty and plays in a band, successfully. He posted a pic on his Facebook page but his ex was pissed off, because the band wears masks and are supposedly unidentifiable and some things never change, parents never get it right.

And then he met some woman in Brazil. I never did hear how he got to South America, but this led to a discussion of travel and the old saw is travel is for the rich, but that ain't so, and this guy was saying how it broadened his horizons and he just got back from three months in Sao Paolo and...

This is a new woman. An ex-dancer. The appeal? The zest! That's what's missing in our celebrity hype, we're led to believe looks and cash are the sole appeal. But the truth is that only goes so far, we want personality, we want life, we want our adventure on the planet to thrill and complete us, we want an E-ticket ride.

But she's uber-jealous. And that's a problem, but he just can't let go.

So he's driving for the cash, so he can get back there. He can make a grand a week, but he's working all the time. His friends say he's crazy, but he's determined. Ain't that always the truth, people inured to the old ways judge you, they want to be free but they can't.

And his plan is...

To import cars. He was reluctant to reveal the details, which he eventually did, and I don't want to blow his cover, but there's a vehicle down there that he can buy cheap and bring back and sell for beaucoup bucks.

But you can't bring that particular vehicle into California and there might be further regulations and he's investigating it.

Everybody's got an angle, everybody's got a dream. And some of them come true. Used to be America was about working for the man, but then the man stopped caring about you and it was every person for themselves but the truth is you can divide the country into two types of people, sheep and independent thinkers. The sheep want to be told what to do, and the independent people don't want to be constricted.

And in theory his plan makes sense. But the devil is in the details. But I'm sitting there listening and wondering, is the joke on me? Am I a sheep in independent clothing, do I pooh-pooh the indie ideas, talk about the long odds, believing if I have the idea someone else does too, and is the end result I'm left out?

Then again, he got in trouble with his girlfriend because ______ sent two _________ machines instead of one and he gave the extra to a woman who gave him a hammock, thinking it was a fair exchange for a friend, and I'm wondering if I'd do this, all of it, keep the extra machine, trade it for a hammock and I'm thinking...

These are the stories that make up America. Everyone's got a tale and they're all fascinating. And he who looks like a loser may end up a winner and vice versa. And you can judge people, but they know more than you think they do.

And the truth is our wits can deliver us from poverty, can grease the skids of happiness, as long as you make the effort.

Ain't that America.

The land of hopes and dreams.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5739&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Uber+To+The+Airport
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5739&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Uber+To+The+Airport
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5739&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Uber+To+The+Airport

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5739&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Uber+To+The+Airport

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5739&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Uber+To+The+Airport




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --

Apple Content

Why don't they just buy all the record labels? Or Paramount and the rest of the studios while they're at it!

That's the canard we were exposed to again and again and again, that Apple and Spotify, all the distributors were gonna become producers. So far it hasn't happened. Because their shareholders would scream. Distribution is a predictable business, creation is a license to lose money.

And they're not in the content business anyway.

At least they didn't used to be.

Netflix is the progenitor here. They leveraged a replacement for Blockbuster, DVDs by mail, into a streaming service that was so far ahead of its customers, never mind the industry, that everybody balked. People were pissed they couldn't get their DVDs by mail and Reed Hastings blinked and kept coming up with new names and new strategies when the truth is he was right to begin with.

And you've got trust your gut.

That's what Steve Jobs did, he never used consumer research.

It's about innovation, new products, which you leverage down the line. That's how Amazon got into the content business, via Prime. What else could they add to a two-day shipping service in order to get people to subscribe and buy more stuff. And now, Amazon has the Echo, an ecosystem which is driving further innovation and revenue. WHERE IS THE NEW APPLE PRODUCT??

If you want to talk about music streaming, talk about Spotify and Amazon. Apple is a zit on the ass of innovation, and it is coasting on brand name and we've seen that movie before, are you willing to overpay for a Sony product anymore? Never. As for Apple products... I've got an iPhone 7 Plus, love it, but the truth is outside America Android crushes Apple. And sure, Apple gets almost all the handset profits, but are you a user or a stockholder? Furthermore, I got one of those new Apple laptops, and now that my wallet is 4k lighter, I feel ripped off. I'm not gonna bitch about battery life and dongles, I don't really care, but why is it that I've got to overpay by so much for what is essentially a tool? As for the Touch Bar, why in the hell would you use it if you know how to touch-type? It's a gimmick at best. And my point here is if a dyed-in-the-wool Apple devotee like me is questioning Cupertino, SO IS EVERYBODY ELSE!

This is the same press that told us BlackBerry was gonna survive.

The truth is if Apple Music was branded something else, it'd be a nonstarter. It's only succeeding because of the brand name. There's not enough sizzle to entice those not blinded by the Apple light. And now they're gonna add bogus reality shows in a world of 450 scripted series and you expect people to care? My issue is too much content and not enough time, I don't need more "Carpool Karaoke," I don't even have time to watch James Corden when he's on after midnight, or even on YouTube. And a reality show featuring whored out celebrities voting on apps... Come on, everybody on the street knows that apps are a way to go broke. They've got to be free and they barely last. Sure, there are outliers, but are the purveyors of those gonna go on this cheap reality show? Never forget what sold "Idol" and is still selling the "Voice" is music. Of course there was drama, but you got to hear the songs. Exactly what is the appeal of "Planet of the Apps"?

Steve Jobs knew it was about pushing the envelope with new products that people did not even know they needed. Tell me again how these dopey shows fit that paradigm?

And, of course, there is consolidation. Everybody's bulking up. Facebook is into video and Google is a monolith of many elements and Amazon is a behemoth of one stop shopping and attention, but that does not mean everybody can execute!

The problem Apple has is no visionary founder. Which its competitors possess. No one with skin in the game who was there at the beginning. One can argue major labels are moribund because of this. Unless you personally are at risk, you don't get it. Who is at Apple who was there at the beginning? Nobody!

What Apple needs is a new product, hopefully hardware, not some also-ran creative plan.

And we've got to hear about the future of Apple services when the truth is everybody knows they suck. The sync is much worse than Google's.

And then there's Apple TV. Walter Isaacson reports that Steve Jobs says he's figured it out and what we've ended up with is an overpriced device with apps. Whoop-de-doo. And since everybody in Hollywood has seen this movie, no one will give Apple an inch. But suddenly Apple's gonna develop in-house!

But they've got Jimmy Iovine!

Who turns out to be a marketing genius, selling lame headphones to the masses.

But tech never made it on marketing, it always made it on products. And if lame TV shows pushed icons over the limit Yahoo would be sailing now. Remember when Terry Semel was gonna turn it into an entertainment juggernaut?

Disruption comes from outside. And when it comes to content, Apple was never even inside, it's a beginner. No one has any experience, but they're gonna beat Hollywood at its own game. Oh, they hired Ben Silverman. Go deep or go home. If they hired ten producers and invested billions...then maybe they'd be Amazon, chasing Netflix, which has a giant head-start. But instead, they're just bunting.

Where is the commitment?

So when you hear the press trumpet every Apple move again and again, ignore the reports. Listen to your friends on the street. People talk to me about Spotify every damn day. How often do I hear about Apple Music from a user? Once a month would be generous. There's no heat, there's no buzz, other than that which is coming from the company and the press.

I'd be excited if Apple announced an Echo competitor, hell, if Siri actually worked. But Apple launching TV shows is like Goldman Sachs making a new social media app.

There is no catalog in tech. You've got to innovate every damn day. You can't tread the boards playing your greatest hits decades down the line.

Phil Schiller insulted commentators by saying the Mac Pro proved Apple could still innovate. A device no one wants that has never been updated.

The Watch is a joke.

Hell, it took them eons just to update their laptops.

But this is the company that's gonna triumph in the future, by executing a formula that others have perfected.

I don't buy it.

And neither should you.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5738&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Apple+Content
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5738&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Apple+Content
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5738&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Apple+Content

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5738&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Apple+Content

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5738&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Apple+Content




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --

The Grammy Telecast

It's a mainstream show in a niche world, no wonder everybody is unhappy.

It's no longer 1985, MTV does not rule and we do not live in a monoculture where everybody knows the same hits. The internet blew that paradigm apart, but the old media lions did not get the message. Recorded music lost half its value yet TV and film believe they're immune. Thinking people respect their wares and execs are smart and the truth is we lived through the greatest disruption of our lifetimes and those in the arts still have not gotten the message.

The proletariat owns the arts. And when you try to falsely purvey to them they puke.

The truth is no one likes all the music sung on the Grammys.

And the show is playing to a theoretical audience that doesn't exist. One in which we love everybody and everybody's deserving of a trophy.

Whereas the truth is our nation has never been more divided in our lifetimes. And what music has done is to put its head in the sand. Selling the same sound over and over again. We've got the same damn spirit we had in 1969. The classic rockers are still traipsing the boards, country music is a pale imitation of what once was and rap has been ruling for so long, decades at this point, that one forgets that in the MTV era one sound replaced another every couple of years. Hair bands were replaced by grunge which was pushed aside by pop and hip-hop. Where's the new sound today?

No wonder nobody cares.

But you've got a cheerleading media beholden to the labels so you're told that music is healthy. Forget the business, music is on life support. Because the best and the brightest have abandoned it and everyone left in the building is solely about cash. Art is about speaking truth to power, where was the truth tonight?

Over on HBO, John Oliver was analyzing why Trump could get away with uttering falsehoods, why people believed them, what we could do about it.

And on CBS we had uneducated nitwits fawning over each other in duets as if we cared.

We don't.

Trump is the biggest rock star extant today. Because he got everybody's attention, and we live in an attention economy. Whereas most people avoid the Spotify Top 50 and you need a guidebook to listen to the music, you've got to be a history buff, it's so self-referential.

Trump understands shock and awe. Something Andrew Loog Oldham and the Stones specialized in, remember when Mick and the boys were dangerous, and Alice Cooper perfected. The world was against Vince Furnier, except for his audience. And one of Vince's big songs, after "Dead Babies" and "Under My Wheels," never mind the angst of "I'm Eighteen," was "Elected." He made a joke of the '72 election, which truly was. Who's poking fun at the political shenanigans today?

Vince/Alice freaks out the public with a record shrouded in panties and today the goal is to sell your own panties or hoodies or perfume, anything the lemmings who listen will consume. What happened to art? Art is all about conception. Housing your album in a school desk, brilliant. Hooking up with Samsung, lowest common denominator.

Music is ripe for disruption. And said disruption will be something inimitable that appeals to everybody. A new sound that's less niche and more mass. Kinda like Trump, a dividing line that got us all paying attention. The Donald, love 'em or hate 'em, but you can't stop paying attention to him. And the truth is however much it might bug you, he won.

And CBS and the artists were afraid of the blowback. Imagine if someone did take a political stand, a swipe at the President on the show, it'd be front page news, it would spread like wildfire over the internet. Instead, Adele won another couple of awards. For an album that's mediocre that wasn't on streaming services. There you have the music industry in a nutshell. Mercenary, hocking second-rate products. Read the press and you'd think Adele was the next Beatles, listen to "25" and you were bored silly, you wanted to take it off. But we had to hear how great she was again and again again. The same way these same wankers told us Hillary was gonna win.

But no one can say no to being on the show. They think by reaching everybody they've won. When the truth is it just demonstrates they're pawns in the game, tools of the system. Have a little self-respect. If duets were that popular they'd dominate the airwaves, and they don't. And all the trappings, the dancers on stage, in what world does that really happen?

And the truth is TV is bad for you, your image, your career. This is not the grainy clips of yore, rather you're broadcast in HD on the big screen and the end result is it makes you look small. Music is something you feel, and you feel it at the gig, not on TV. And first and foremost it's something you listen to, but that paradigm left the building eons ago.

Who cares who wins these awards? Other than those on the undercard who are trolling for bio material, the truth is everybody forgets who won and the awards have no impact, kinda like awards shows themselves. Remember when we all live-tweeted, well, the music has stayed the same but we've moved on, we realize no one is listening, does anybody on stage realize most people watching really don't care about them?

But we want something to care about, desperately. Give us some truth, sold with songs we can sing along to. We are your audience, not corporations. And no amount of hype will convince me any of the nominees were groundbreaking, one listen songs that will be repeated and listened to in the future. It's all grist for the mill. Everybody's shooting so low.

So you hated the show. Don't feel so unique. EVERYBODY hated it. You stayed tuned in to see your favorite, but they were compromised and you winced. And what you want to do most is crank up your favorite tune and forget the whole thing.

The future will not be ruled by CBS, never mind the Grammys. Music has historically been the hottest of media, the fastest to react with the truth, via songs embodying the character of those singing them. Come on, is that new Katy Perry track disposable or what? Overworked, as they all are, with multiple writers and producers and beats, how about a bolt of inspiration transferred to wax that we can all relate to? Like Keith Richards dreaming of "Satisfaction," singing it into a tape recorder by his bed and laying down the indelible riff that was inescapable way back when and still works today.

Art, especially music, is not about overlaboring, but pure inspiration, channeling the zeitgeist.

But there was no zeitgeist on television tonight, it was just a look in the rearview mirror.

And what scares me is today's youth have never been alive when music pushed the needle, when it was ubiquitous, written by the artists channeling their truth.

We've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

And nowhere do I see a new Joni Mitchell, the woman who wrote that song.

I've been wowed by technology, astounded by politics and all the while...

Music has become a second-class citizen.

You ain't gotta know how to sing, you ain't gotta know how to play, you need to know how to capture lightning in a bottle and lay it down on tape. Some of the greatest records are poorly recorded. Many of the legendary players can't read music. But they know art is about latching on to mood, laying down in sound that which you feel, so that others can resonate.

If you resonated with tonight's show you must be Neil Portnow or Ken Ehrlich.

As for the rest of us, we were sitting there dumbfounded, if we were watching at all.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5737&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Grammy+Telecast
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5737&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Grammy+Telecast
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5737&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Grammy+Telecast

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5737&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Grammy+Telecast

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5737&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Grammy+Telecast




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --