I'm not sure whether this works or not.
Not quite a year ago, before the circus began, I said that if Bloomberg ran, he'd win.
But he didn't, run that is.
That surprised me, since you don't become a billionaire, certainly on Wall Street, without an ego. Didn't he have the law changed so he could run for a third term in New York City? That takes chutzpah. I figured Michael had skeletons in his closet, or believed he was just too old.
But the story today is he believed Biden would win, so he stayed out. How delusional is he? I knew Biden had no chance, first and foremost because he'd blow himself up, he has a long history of this. Furthermore, we know there are Biden fans in Scranton and Delaware, but anywhere else? He's like an opening act, a favor for the agent, someone tolerable if you come late, who you don't mind missing.
Now in tech, where Bloomberg made his money, there's a first-mover advantage. The key is to run so fast, as Mark Zuckerberg once said, "move fast and break things," so no one can catch up. Bloomberg owns the terminal space, even when it was discovered the company was spying on its customers, despite there being talk of an upstart, nobody challenged the behemoth.
So...
Getting in late is kind of like RFK in '68. Yup, RFK didn't think he could win, but then when Gene McCarthy was getting all that traction, he felt it'd be easy, like taking candy from a baby. Unfortunately, Kennedy was shot, and ultimately in a year of unrest, where the convention itself was a site of protest and police overreaction, the candidate was Humphrey, and Hubert lost.
Biden isn't even Humphrey. But the lesson of '68 is there are incalculable grass roots, disaffection with the status quo, that the inside players and the media aren't in touch with.
So that brings us to George McGovern. 1972 was not 1968. The younger generation was licking its wounds, the mass protests were over, it was the wrong time. Which is the lesson the DNC does not get, it's not 2016 anymore, it's 2020, and people have changed.
Which brings us to Dukakis. That's the paradigm the DNC is afraid of. It believes Warren is Dukakis, but it's not 1988 anymore. Sure, it's important to study history, but also not to be blinded by it. If history repeats at all, it's with a twist.
And the history we're talking about is 2016, and the twist is now. Trump tapped into discontent. The DNC and its cronies believe it was all white supremacists, hogwash! I know three people right off the top of my head who voted for Trump, all friends. One a famous musician, from one of the bluest states. Trump pointed out the flaws in globalization, the raw deal for the rank and file. And Hillary was damaged goods, the right had defined her.
And now the right has defined Adam Schiff. They pushed back and Schiff shut up. WRONG! Anybody will tell you you stand up to the bully. As for this newfangled b.s. that you need to campaign without mentioning Trump's name... THAT'S NOT THE WAY HE PLAYS! Get into the street fight!
If the Democrats had balls, Trump would go, long before the election. If they stopped being such wimps and went on every TV show and sold their position, spread it online, it would help the cause. Instead, the Dems allow the pundits, the media, the usual suspects, to say that there's no way Trump gets convicted in the Senate. WRONG! You've got to shame the Republican Senators. Make it about the vaunted Constitution. Paint them as traitors to subsequent generations. Declare them enablers. Trump is like a five year old with crumbs on his lips who says he didn't raid the cookie jar. Just because the evidence is in plain sight, that does not mean they're not guilty.
So these same wimps in D.C. have a fantasy that the public wants a centrist. Huh? What Trump taught us was just the opposite, you play to the disaffected, you speak truth, you bring the voters to you, and not vice versa. If Bloomberg had gotten in early and attacked Trump he would have run away with the race. Now he looks like an opportunistic billionaire, when everybody hates billionaires except the people themselves and those sucking on the tit of them. I know I'll never become a billionaire, I don't think there should be billionaires, I'm sick of the billionaires pontificating, thinking just because they have money they're right and we should listen to them. And Bloomberg played right into the hands of Warren and Sanders, who both pushed back today. Once again, Bloomberg is too late.
As for Bernie, there's no doubt that he would have beaten Trump in 2016. But he was an outsider who didn't play the game so the DNC got behind Hillary, saying it was "her turn." When I hear that crap I cringe. It's nobody's turn, nobody's earned it, that's what we've learned in music, in Hollywood, where there are feuds and the only people who sustain are running on fumes, playing their old hits, because the younger generation doesn't care and the old fans don't want to hear new music.
Warren is today's Sanders.
But it gets worse for the DNC. They may have a dozen people at the debate, but there are only three candidates, Warren, Sanders and Buttigieg. Biden is done. Klobuchar has got no chance. As for Harris, the media built her up but there was no there there, she didn't really have any fans. As for Buttigieg...he was the great gay hope ten months ago, then he couldn't control chaos in his own city and moved to the center and lost his credibility. It's not that he's gay, but because he's got a bad track record and no one can get excited about his new stances.
So I can't get excited about Bloomberg, I just saw him as somebody who could win. And then the media said Warren had no chance when she came from behind to be the frontrunner. Showing you how much these pontificating nitwits know. Warren is tapping into mistrust, a feeling of being screwed over, those who didn't have the money to pay Rick Singer to get their kids into an elite college. I mean I jumped through all the hoops and now I'm a loser, a chump? That's how I feel when I compare myself to the billionaires. The government used to be on my side, and then Reagan labeled it inefficient and needing to be pruned and the right stayed on message and the media bought it and now the biggest crime in Presidential politics is saying the word "tax."
Which undercut Warren. She was sailing smoothly and wouldn't answer the question directly. I winced, was this her Billy Squier moment? At least she finally released a plan, who cares if it'll work, it'll never be enacted, but it illustrates her heart is in the right place. And Warren keeps fighting back! Something Hillary didn't and Biden choked on Ukraine, let the President define him, and Bloomberg wouldn't even enter the race.
It's about passion people. Kids believe in Billie Eilish. With the baggy clothes hiding her body and...
If you talk to kids today, they chastise you when you use a plastic water bottle. But somehow the right owns this issue, making California a laughingstock with its banned straws. If you run with the climate crisis it will energize those who've given up hope, those who say the game is rigged.
Yup folks, this is the same DNC, the same insiders, who got it wrong last time and are still getting it wrong today. It's almost like they want Warren to lose to make a point. That you play their game or you're out.
Of course Warren can win. The worthless polls keep telling us that. As for Trump, everybody said he couldn't win. But even those on the left, even the "New York Times," thought he was not really a crook, and that he was smart. Now we know he's a narcissistic buffoon, you think that people aren't aware of that? Look at last year's elections, and last Tuesday's, do you see the blue surge?
But the funniest thing is writing about the Democrats I'll hear from the Republicans, defending Trump and laughing at those on the left. Where are the people on the left working the refs? Everybody on the left is so worried about offending somebody that they don't take action.
As for identity politics...a minor story involving few people, ignore it. Candidates should say these are issues that need to be addressed once they're elected, that they want to support minorities, but that without power there is oppression.
And it's not even about stretching health care, but making sure coverage doesn't shrink.
And the tariffs and sale of public lands and everything people are passionately against...crickets.
So Bloomberg will come along and satiate the DNC, but other than that organization and some rich people, maybe even left wing billionaires, nobody will get excited. We're not looking for daddy to save us, we're looking for someone ready for a knife fight, a leader, who will attack the other side. For Bloomberg to win, he's got to come out punching...but no, he's a quiet mastermind, the wrong guy for the time.
So, the DNC and its cronies are alienating their base. I know it sounds impossible, but they are, the same people who voted for Jill Stein last time around, the same people who are new voters, they think they're being ignored. They want to send a message, that it's not business as usual, they want to storm the asylum, and the DNC wants to bring the asylum back?
Who are these mysterious centrists? Are you really telling me African-Americans won't vote for Warren?
Statistics and polls will tell you where you've been, not where you're going.
It's no longer business as usual. It's closer to 1968 than 1988. The youth are restless. And Trump will do his best to scare those who voted Democratic and then switched to Republican last time. And what will the Democrats do? Have a circular firing squad.
They call this disruption. The DNC should read Clayton Christensen's "Innovator's Dilemma," institutions super-serving the usual suspects are overthrown by enterprises that appear to be fringe and then go mainstream and take over.
All this b.s. about infrastructure. A man with Bloomberg's money and relationships can build it in a day, or close to it.
But will the hoi polloi buy it?
They just might not.
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Thursday, 7 November 2019
Richard Griffiths-This Week's Podcast
An agent, a publisher, a label majordomo and now a manager, not only has Richard Griffiths worn all the hats, he's a seer when it comes to careers. Richard and his partner Harry Magee and their firm Modest! Management were honored with the 2019 Music Industry Trusts Award on November 4th in London. Modest! has steered the careers of One Direction, the Spice Girls, 5 Seconds of Summer, Olly Murs, Niall Horan...
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/richard-griffiths-52303078/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/77EuQiz0YqrtW6xinEQfV5
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-griffiths/id1316200737?i=1000456146764
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=65120067
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/richard-griffiths-52303078/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/77EuQiz0YqrtW6xinEQfV5
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-griffiths/id1316200737?i=1000456146764
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=65120067
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Wednesday, 6 November 2019
Lee Abrams On Radio (and more...)
THE BIG TEN
Radio is in an undeniable position of strength in terms of accessibly, but as a fan of the medium, it has the potential for long term extinction in its current form. Overly dramatic maybe, but there are a lot of red flags that need to be addressed:
1. MERGERS, WALL STREET, THE ECONOMY AND ACQUISITIONS:
If you observe the radio business, the conversation is focused almost exclusively on the economic side. That's great…this is America. But—when was the last time you heard or read about a radio content war, or a station that's tearing up a market with a new sound. Content brilliance needs to be part of the conversation. If the excitement in radio is all about the deals, where does that leave the listener who could care less about who owns who. Death by deal is a real possibility as media's eye is SO far off the content ball, that we simply can't compete to win in the Google/Apple era. The business side is what makes it rock, but content is what makes it roll, and you need both. Deals will be done, but it's the magic that comes out of the speakers and screens that'll move things forward, and that needs to be the conversation every bit as much as the economics.
2. THE PLAYBOOK HASN'T BEEN UPDATED IN 40+ YEARS:
I heard a "new" Rock station recently and they presented;
–A "big voice" yelling at you about how hard they rock (that worked in 1979 when rock stations needed to re-enforce their manhood against the disco invasion….but that's over)
–Star Wars laser sound effects complete with 'man in the box' filtered effect. (The Empire was destroyed in the 70's…time to move on..if radio is "theater of the mind" I heard theater of the lame)
–Blocks, Two-fers, commercial free sets (Another relic of the 70's. That was 40 years ago)
–Lunch. Not sure if it was a retro lunch, an electric lunch or whatever, but it was a "lunch"
–A station van. Cool in '71 when hippies carried their pot and guitars in vans, now a soccer mom symbol that defines not cool drives a van
–DJ's selling Free Bird. (What can POSSIBLY be said about Free Bird in this day and age?)
The station was on 70's focus group auto pilot. We're in the era where competition from other music sources is on steroids, but radio is in the "K108 plays more variety era. The Simpsons and Onion parody this stuff.
Stations should install cliche buzzers—three buzzes and you're fired. That should thwart "new" ideas like "The _____ Lunch"
Of course this station was raving about how cool they were. Embarrassing.
3. THE STARS OF RADIO:
50's- Deejays
60's- PD's
70's- Consultants
80's- Researchers
90's- Group Heads
00's-beyond —- Bankers
God bless bankers, but we are in a creative crisis as much as an economic one. Time to recruit, enable and inspire creative content stars, and not just Talk hosts… but content creators. Radio seems to hire based on purely operational aptitude, driving those with heavy creative aptitude to other industries. That 19 year old creative star will probably look at TV and Radio as the last place they'd want to be. This is a problem IF media has any interest in entering the content war. We have to make our media a creative oasis for thinkers to thrive. Read a job posting from any major traditional media company. Sounds like HR hell. Then read the Apple postings. Wonder why they get the future stars?
4. BALANCE NOT BULLSHIT
It is a content war out there and Apple/Google seem to have the advantage. But Radio and TV have the eyes and ears. Without a balanced people/function configuration, you're doomed to lose. Need STARS in;
-Business
-Revenue
-Technology
-Operations
and Creative.
I'm not talking about Morning Shows. I'm talking about creative leadership that, though actions and execution, create a creative priority that is equal to revenue priority. Working in sync to win the battle.
I recall waking into a TV station and seeing a mission statement in the lobby. It included lines about being cutting edge, innovating, leading, etc…. I asked the GSM if this was true. He smirked and said—Nope compete BS. Those statements exist throughout media. When you hear "Content is King"…run! It's not king. Revenue is. Content drives revenue.
Speaking of Bullshit. Stop with the old school slogans. No one believes them. Like in TV News–EVERY station is "Best, First, On Your Side, In It For You, Accurate….etc….. America is too BS savvy to buy that anymore.
5. DENIAL & ARROGANCE:
You hear a lot of;
–Spotify only has a small share of listenership. Ha Ha
–Radio is great. When a tornado hits, you don't go to Spotify (Maybe not yet, but then again, what about the 358 non tornadic days?)
–We're #1
STOP! If you're talking to Agencies and Wall Street…OK. BUT—internally….STOP!
This stuff sounds like General Motors in 1980.
We are at the most dramatic crossroad in Media History and to be self congratulating with denial and arrogance is frightening. It's NOT OK…it's war. You gotta pull out the weapons, kill the denial and start creating content that'll win on 21st Century terms. The denial and arrogance is deafening. It's worse in Radio/TV than newspapers where they still think it's 1935.
6. THE DIGITAL EXCUSE
Digital is now…and the future. Pretty obvious. But–it's often an excuse. A short cut that undermines the REAL issue—Dated and tired 80's rooted content. If a station is tired and dull, a new App won't magically make it great, but that's the thinking out there.
You constantly hear how a product is "moving forward" and entering the digital space. Well, that's simply survival. What is being avoided like the plague is the core product…the brand itself. Fix the product first. I recall being at a newspaper and they were raving about their innovations and it was stunning. But when I asked about the printed paper, I got blank stares and a "we can't touch that…it's sacred" response. Same thing in radio and TV. WHAT COMES OUT OF THE SPEAKERS OR SCREEN is the problem that won't be fixed by migrating it to online/mobile. Take TV News. It's laughably dated with the Ultra Doppler super action weather, NORAD sets and big haired modern Ted Knight anchors. Will migrating that to Ipad save the day? Of course not. Fix the product first. Get the product in sync with 2020 before you start praying the delivery system will save you.
Then there's "interacting" with your radio. That's great, but not at the expense of the listening experience. Listen first…then interact. No one wants to interact with something tired and increasingly irrelevant.
7. THE SECRET CONSPIRACY
Seems there's some secret law that says a Technology company can innovate daily. Version 2, Version 3, Upgrades, White IPhones, etc… Radio? Same playbook with new slogans. Even TV and Fashion has "New Fall Seasons"…radio is on innovation autopilot at a time when, to prosper in the Google/Apple era you need to innovate DAILY. American media is getting beaten by the Phone and Cable companies in terms of innovation.
That's wrong.
Radio has become a stagnant commodity hoping a new App will fix everything at a time when Tech companies have embraced the 21st Century. This ain't 1975 where you plug in a format and go. It's a new world requiring constant updating.
8. BUT WE'RE LOCAL!
No you aren't. Well, the WGN and WLW types breathe local, but most stations are generic. When I was a kid, we'd drive from Chicago to Miami on Holiday. Indy, Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami. Every city had stations with character. Maybe it was the Southern accents on WQXI in Atlanta or the undeniable pride that permeated every break. Make that same trip today and it's a generic wasteland. Everyone sounds the same. Again, you'll hear the denial. we have a local morning show…we do a blood drive every summer. Big deal. Stations should do a "local audit"…audit their sound and marketing and you'd find hundreds of missed opportunities. In Chicago, there are several billboards and outdoor vehicles, I've yet to see ONE that says "Chicago's W—-"….
Incidentally, "local" can be an excuse too. We are becoming more Global by the minute. But if you commit to local…then DELIVER in EVERYTHING that you touch.
9. YOU CAN'T ABBREVIATE MAGIC
New station launches: "We have AM Drive, billboard, a tested library, some promos and an App—we're good to go"
HUH??!! You can't design the future until you understand the past. Look back to KHJ, KCBQ, THE LOOP, KFOG and scores of other ground breaking stations. They created a plan—completeness. Schwartzkopf style planning…a mission. Right down to how the receptionist answered the phone. Some say this/I'm old fashioned and you can't do that today. Why? Is media so full of itself that a great game plan that REALLY reinvents is old fashioned? I'm one that believes ANY old media product can reinvent itself and kick ass in any market. Money? Imagination is free. In fact, the most passionate and gifted people are the ones you want in there, and they're not about money. Of course media is driving them away. Winning media wars is hard. It takes emotional and managerial command. Media has to stop living in the Ad Club world and create teams that fight for brilliance…and deliver.
Todd Storz had a timeless line: "First program…then sell."
Media is entertainment…not utility. In some cases both, but always entertainment. The environment is too cluttered to think call letters, history and an abbreviated game plan will win.
10. MEDIA & INFORMATION IS THE NEW ROCK N ROLL.
Rock and roll is arguably on life support as is music radio. It's may not be apparent yet, but when it starts looking backwards, the best days are behind it. But that's OK, you can learn from it and build on the NEW Rock n Roll. By Rock being dead, I mean as a driver of culture. Whereas Elvis drove culture, nowadays it's Facebook…and News. The world is having a nervous breakdown and that's what s moving the culture. I doubt if a new Beatles will emerge that make everything right…culture is all about media and information. BUT–The M.O. of Rock n Roll is timeless and we need Rock n Roll THINKING, regardless of format or style. The characteristics of Rock n Roll thinking include:
ECCENTRICITY…ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK
INNOVATION AS A DRIVER IN EVERYTHING YOU DO
ATTITUDE…A SPIRIT
SWAGGER…A SENSE OF CONFIDENCE
NEWNESS…THE STRUGGLE TO BE FIRST
BIG—MASS APPEAL
RE-INVENTION…A DESIRE AND MOTIVATION TO
CREATES FANS NOT "USERS"
POWERFUL…CULTURE MOVING
CHANGING…ALWAYS PUSHING FORWARD
COMPETITIVE…FIGHTING FOR SUCCESS
ARTFUL…CREATING COMMERCE THROUGH ART (ART IS NOT A BAD WORD UNLESS IT'S BAD ART)
INSTINCTIVE…NOT RELYING ON YESTERDAYS INFORMATION
REBELLIOUS…AGAIN, A FIGHTING SPIRIT
INTELLIGENT…IN A MASS APPEAL WAY
NON ELITIST…FOR THE MASSES
SUMMARY:
Get back to the roots. What a listener/viewer hears and sees from the speakers, the screens and on the streets. Stop with the excuses—Everything will be fine when the economy improves…we have a new App…We've been here since 1942….we're local because our tower is here. Radio has one incredible thing going for it—Reach. Everyone has a radio. Radio and TV are in a position of strength. Just imagine if EVERYone had a Mac. Do you think Apple would call it quits? Radio and TV have, as mediums, given up the content fight at a time when THE MAGIC OF WHAT COMES OUT OF THE SCREENS AND SPEAKERS is more powerful than ANY technology. Combined with technology, it's untouchable. Time to get on war footing and start to create the magic on 2020 terms.
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Radio is in an undeniable position of strength in terms of accessibly, but as a fan of the medium, it has the potential for long term extinction in its current form. Overly dramatic maybe, but there are a lot of red flags that need to be addressed:
1. MERGERS, WALL STREET, THE ECONOMY AND ACQUISITIONS:
If you observe the radio business, the conversation is focused almost exclusively on the economic side. That's great…this is America. But—when was the last time you heard or read about a radio content war, or a station that's tearing up a market with a new sound. Content brilliance needs to be part of the conversation. If the excitement in radio is all about the deals, where does that leave the listener who could care less about who owns who. Death by deal is a real possibility as media's eye is SO far off the content ball, that we simply can't compete to win in the Google/Apple era. The business side is what makes it rock, but content is what makes it roll, and you need both. Deals will be done, but it's the magic that comes out of the speakers and screens that'll move things forward, and that needs to be the conversation every bit as much as the economics.
2. THE PLAYBOOK HASN'T BEEN UPDATED IN 40+ YEARS:
I heard a "new" Rock station recently and they presented;
–A "big voice" yelling at you about how hard they rock (that worked in 1979 when rock stations needed to re-enforce their manhood against the disco invasion….but that's over)
–Star Wars laser sound effects complete with 'man in the box' filtered effect. (The Empire was destroyed in the 70's…time to move on..if radio is "theater of the mind" I heard theater of the lame)
–Blocks, Two-fers, commercial free sets (Another relic of the 70's. That was 40 years ago)
–Lunch. Not sure if it was a retro lunch, an electric lunch or whatever, but it was a "lunch"
–A station van. Cool in '71 when hippies carried their pot and guitars in vans, now a soccer mom symbol that defines not cool drives a van
–DJ's selling Free Bird. (What can POSSIBLY be said about Free Bird in this day and age?)
The station was on 70's focus group auto pilot. We're in the era where competition from other music sources is on steroids, but radio is in the "K108 plays more variety era. The Simpsons and Onion parody this stuff.
Stations should install cliche buzzers—three buzzes and you're fired. That should thwart "new" ideas like "The _____ Lunch"
Of course this station was raving about how cool they were. Embarrassing.
3. THE STARS OF RADIO:
50's- Deejays
60's- PD's
70's- Consultants
80's- Researchers
90's- Group Heads
00's-beyond —- Bankers
God bless bankers, but we are in a creative crisis as much as an economic one. Time to recruit, enable and inspire creative content stars, and not just Talk hosts… but content creators. Radio seems to hire based on purely operational aptitude, driving those with heavy creative aptitude to other industries. That 19 year old creative star will probably look at TV and Radio as the last place they'd want to be. This is a problem IF media has any interest in entering the content war. We have to make our media a creative oasis for thinkers to thrive. Read a job posting from any major traditional media company. Sounds like HR hell. Then read the Apple postings. Wonder why they get the future stars?
4. BALANCE NOT BULLSHIT
It is a content war out there and Apple/Google seem to have the advantage. But Radio and TV have the eyes and ears. Without a balanced people/function configuration, you're doomed to lose. Need STARS in;
-Business
-Revenue
-Technology
-Operations
and Creative.
I'm not talking about Morning Shows. I'm talking about creative leadership that, though actions and execution, create a creative priority that is equal to revenue priority. Working in sync to win the battle.
I recall waking into a TV station and seeing a mission statement in the lobby. It included lines about being cutting edge, innovating, leading, etc…. I asked the GSM if this was true. He smirked and said—Nope compete BS. Those statements exist throughout media. When you hear "Content is King"…run! It's not king. Revenue is. Content drives revenue.
Speaking of Bullshit. Stop with the old school slogans. No one believes them. Like in TV News–EVERY station is "Best, First, On Your Side, In It For You, Accurate….etc….. America is too BS savvy to buy that anymore.
5. DENIAL & ARROGANCE:
You hear a lot of;
–Spotify only has a small share of listenership. Ha Ha
–Radio is great. When a tornado hits, you don't go to Spotify (Maybe not yet, but then again, what about the 358 non tornadic days?)
–We're #1
STOP! If you're talking to Agencies and Wall Street…OK. BUT—internally….STOP!
This stuff sounds like General Motors in 1980.
We are at the most dramatic crossroad in Media History and to be self congratulating with denial and arrogance is frightening. It's NOT OK…it's war. You gotta pull out the weapons, kill the denial and start creating content that'll win on 21st Century terms. The denial and arrogance is deafening. It's worse in Radio/TV than newspapers where they still think it's 1935.
6. THE DIGITAL EXCUSE
Digital is now…and the future. Pretty obvious. But–it's often an excuse. A short cut that undermines the REAL issue—Dated and tired 80's rooted content. If a station is tired and dull, a new App won't magically make it great, but that's the thinking out there.
You constantly hear how a product is "moving forward" and entering the digital space. Well, that's simply survival. What is being avoided like the plague is the core product…the brand itself. Fix the product first. I recall being at a newspaper and they were raving about their innovations and it was stunning. But when I asked about the printed paper, I got blank stares and a "we can't touch that…it's sacred" response. Same thing in radio and TV. WHAT COMES OUT OF THE SPEAKERS OR SCREEN is the problem that won't be fixed by migrating it to online/mobile. Take TV News. It's laughably dated with the Ultra Doppler super action weather, NORAD sets and big haired modern Ted Knight anchors. Will migrating that to Ipad save the day? Of course not. Fix the product first. Get the product in sync with 2020 before you start praying the delivery system will save you.
Then there's "interacting" with your radio. That's great, but not at the expense of the listening experience. Listen first…then interact. No one wants to interact with something tired and increasingly irrelevant.
7. THE SECRET CONSPIRACY
Seems there's some secret law that says a Technology company can innovate daily. Version 2, Version 3, Upgrades, White IPhones, etc… Radio? Same playbook with new slogans. Even TV and Fashion has "New Fall Seasons"…radio is on innovation autopilot at a time when, to prosper in the Google/Apple era you need to innovate DAILY. American media is getting beaten by the Phone and Cable companies in terms of innovation.
That's wrong.
Radio has become a stagnant commodity hoping a new App will fix everything at a time when Tech companies have embraced the 21st Century. This ain't 1975 where you plug in a format and go. It's a new world requiring constant updating.
8. BUT WE'RE LOCAL!
No you aren't. Well, the WGN and WLW types breathe local, but most stations are generic. When I was a kid, we'd drive from Chicago to Miami on Holiday. Indy, Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami. Every city had stations with character. Maybe it was the Southern accents on WQXI in Atlanta or the undeniable pride that permeated every break. Make that same trip today and it's a generic wasteland. Everyone sounds the same. Again, you'll hear the denial. we have a local morning show…we do a blood drive every summer. Big deal. Stations should do a "local audit"…audit their sound and marketing and you'd find hundreds of missed opportunities. In Chicago, there are several billboards and outdoor vehicles, I've yet to see ONE that says "Chicago's W—-"….
Incidentally, "local" can be an excuse too. We are becoming more Global by the minute. But if you commit to local…then DELIVER in EVERYTHING that you touch.
9. YOU CAN'T ABBREVIATE MAGIC
New station launches: "We have AM Drive, billboard, a tested library, some promos and an App—we're good to go"
HUH??!! You can't design the future until you understand the past. Look back to KHJ, KCBQ, THE LOOP, KFOG and scores of other ground breaking stations. They created a plan—completeness. Schwartzkopf style planning…a mission. Right down to how the receptionist answered the phone. Some say this/I'm old fashioned and you can't do that today. Why? Is media so full of itself that a great game plan that REALLY reinvents is old fashioned? I'm one that believes ANY old media product can reinvent itself and kick ass in any market. Money? Imagination is free. In fact, the most passionate and gifted people are the ones you want in there, and they're not about money. Of course media is driving them away. Winning media wars is hard. It takes emotional and managerial command. Media has to stop living in the Ad Club world and create teams that fight for brilliance…and deliver.
Todd Storz had a timeless line: "First program…then sell."
Media is entertainment…not utility. In some cases both, but always entertainment. The environment is too cluttered to think call letters, history and an abbreviated game plan will win.
10. MEDIA & INFORMATION IS THE NEW ROCK N ROLL.
Rock and roll is arguably on life support as is music radio. It's may not be apparent yet, but when it starts looking backwards, the best days are behind it. But that's OK, you can learn from it and build on the NEW Rock n Roll. By Rock being dead, I mean as a driver of culture. Whereas Elvis drove culture, nowadays it's Facebook…and News. The world is having a nervous breakdown and that's what s moving the culture. I doubt if a new Beatles will emerge that make everything right…culture is all about media and information. BUT–The M.O. of Rock n Roll is timeless and we need Rock n Roll THINKING, regardless of format or style. The characteristics of Rock n Roll thinking include:
ECCENTRICITY…ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK
INNOVATION AS A DRIVER IN EVERYTHING YOU DO
ATTITUDE…A SPIRIT
SWAGGER…A SENSE OF CONFIDENCE
NEWNESS…THE STRUGGLE TO BE FIRST
BIG—MASS APPEAL
RE-INVENTION…A DESIRE AND MOTIVATION TO
CREATES FANS NOT "USERS"
POWERFUL…CULTURE MOVING
CHANGING…ALWAYS PUSHING FORWARD
COMPETITIVE…FIGHTING FOR SUCCESS
ARTFUL…CREATING COMMERCE THROUGH ART (ART IS NOT A BAD WORD UNLESS IT'S BAD ART)
INSTINCTIVE…NOT RELYING ON YESTERDAYS INFORMATION
REBELLIOUS…AGAIN, A FIGHTING SPIRIT
INTELLIGENT…IN A MASS APPEAL WAY
NON ELITIST…FOR THE MASSES
SUMMARY:
Get back to the roots. What a listener/viewer hears and sees from the speakers, the screens and on the streets. Stop with the excuses—Everything will be fine when the economy improves…we have a new App…We've been here since 1942….we're local because our tower is here. Radio has one incredible thing going for it—Reach. Everyone has a radio. Radio and TV are in a position of strength. Just imagine if EVERYone had a Mac. Do you think Apple would call it quits? Radio and TV have, as mediums, given up the content fight at a time when THE MAGIC OF WHAT COMES OUT OF THE SCREENS AND SPEAKERS is more powerful than ANY technology. Combined with technology, it's untouchable. Time to get on war footing and start to create the magic on 2020 terms.
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Mailbag
Re: Ken West
Bob,
Just had to tell you about my experience with Big Day Out because it was a game changer when I was invited to do skate demos there in 1996. It was the first time we - as skaters - were actually treated like "talent" and not some circus sideshow to a bigger event. We traveled WITH the bands (RATM, Porno For Pyros, Elastica, Rancid, etc), and given our own hotel rooms instead of sharing rooms like we were forced to do on every other tour. Skating front and center on a huge ramp while Rage chanted "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" with a sea of people between us and the stage is a memory that is seared into me.
In the years after, I tried to convince other festivals that live skating would be a solid addition to their entertainment with little success. It was so frustrating that I created my own tour (Boom Boom Huckjam) to fill the void, my experience Big Day Out being a major factor.
In 2012, I was invited back to BDO and treated even more like a rock star. This time we were ON the bill as a headlining "act" and the crowds were epic; they would come swarm us as Kasabian ended their set, and then we would skate our hardest until Soundgarden started. Ken West, his organizers and the promoters got it, and we are thankful to have been invited to the party alongside such talent.
-Tony Hawk
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Ken West
Bob,
When I read the subject line, I thought the worst. As I continued to read, relieved and happy to see Ken's name in your letter.
Ken is a star. I first met Ken in 1990 when he and Vivian brought Debbie Harry to Australia for her first Australian solo tour. They had yet to start the Big Day Out but were quickly becoming serious "players" in a very competitive touring market. The tour was great fun and Ken and Vivian treated the whole touring party with the utmost respect. Ken is a unique individual and surrounded himself with serious characters. His local crew were some of the more interesting people I came across touring over the years. (RIP Speedy).
The tour, as I remember was a success and there are some stories that will not be soon forgotten. A Rave in Sydney, topless Bungee Jumping in Auckland, Lunch on a dealer's boat in Perth.
Thank you for writing about Ken. He's a great guy, as authentic as they come. I hope he told you the story about the Pouges tour that they promoted.
Ken, if you are reading this, a big hello from NYC.
Phil Schuster
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Bill Curbishley-This Week's Podcast
Dear Bob
Back in the early 90s, Bill was a member of a swanky West London health club. I worked there as a fitness trainer. He and I would talk music while he pretended to work out. One day he told me he'd just signed Robert Plant who was due to go out on tour but wasn't quite at the peak of physical condition. Could I help lick him into shape? Of course I could, especially since our club protocol would involve me and Robert sitting in a small room, alone, for an hour while we went through a lifestyle assessment, some body measurements and a few physical tests. I'd had a poster of 'Percy' in his Led Zeppelin pomp on my bedroom wall when I was 14, and now here I was asking him about his medical history and how much alcohol he consumed and pinching his fatter parts with callipers. As surreal experiences go it's been difficult to beat. I also gave him a pair of my Asics running shoes which I like to think initiated the second coming of a svelte rock god.
All the best,
Stephen Ferns
____________________________________
From: Allen Kovac
Subject: Re: Music Is Like Television
Great analogies. Independent labels have always been the leaders. From Ahmet we had the The Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin. From Blackwell we had Marley and U2.
Today Beggars has given us Adele and Vampire Weekend. Glass Note, Mumford and Phoenix. Yes an indie label will lead the way. They always do. However, today there is no need to sell. If you have artists that are different and against the grain, they will tour. If they tour then DSP's will pay a label per month directly. A multiple is not as big as an iconic indie artists, branded on DSP's. No wonder Universal is for sale.
Generic artists pop and hip hop are transactional. Rock, country, and alt, are the soundtrack to our lives. Personal playlists are the way of the future for the indies. Just like FM and touring for Ahmet, and Blackwell. Personal playlists and artists that tour, are the key to indie labels success. That is the way to be the HBO and Netflix of the music world.
Don't drink the major labels instant gratification Kool Aid. It's not all about charts and playlists.
Allen
____________________________________
From: Gary Helsinger
Subject: Re: Dr. Pimple Popper
Hey Bob
Peter Garrett is a one of kind musician, politician, activist, and all around stellar human. One of my most incredible rock star moments I ever had was when he played a song request for me at Universal Amphitheater on 6/20/1990. I had been a huge fan since their first US release (10, 9, 8…) and promptly bought their previous Australian releases (3 LPs, 2 EPs). I met the band on the Diesel & Dust tour, but since Peter was fighting a cold, it wasn't until they came back for the Blue Sky Mining tour that I got to meet him. Rob Hirst (Oil drummer/vocalist) told me that Peter was trying to get the out of print (at the time) Badfinger catalog on vinyl, so after their first of 2 Uni Amp shows, I went backstage and told him I had some for him. He flipped out and agreed to stop by my job at Tower Records on Sunset Blvd the next day to pick them up. When he came in, he tried to pay me, but I refused. He said "Gary, I make more money than you, how much are these?" I said, "you're my hero, and I don't want your money. But, I'd love to hear the song 'Hercules' at tonight's show". He said they hadn't played it on this tour, but he'll try. It's a fairly deep catalog song, so when they didn't play it during the set, I had written it off by the time they were in their 3rd encore. But then…they returned one more time…and Peter told the audience about meeting me and not taking his money…and they launched into Hercules!! So blown away. If you want to hear that actual moment at Universal Amphitheater….here it is! (ok to post/share). https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhhksg5919f91j3/Midnight%20Oil_Hercules%20%28live%29.mp3?dl=0 After the show they took me back to the Bel Age Hotel, and I hung out with them while they edited their live video album, and then sent me off with an autographed T-shirt. As a fan, it couldn't possibly have been better than that! They're still the best, and their recent reunion shows at the Wiltern and the Greek were incredible. The Power and the Passion! The Oils forever!
Best,
Gary
____________________________________
From: Fred Mollin
Subject: Re: Toto-Africa Live at The Met in Philly (10-20-19)
Fred Mollin here. I'm going to dictate this and try to correct it later.
Matthew McCauley and I arrived in LA in June 1978, and our first LA sessions for the Jimmy Webb album, "Angel Heart", and the Gary Benson singles for Arista were both incredibly breathtaking. We were told to use a young kid, Steve Lukather. He blew us away. Luke is one of the greatest guitarists of all time. I mean one of the GREATEST of all time. David Paich played piano AND Jimmy Webb played second keyboard on the album. That's how good David was! We were all the same age. Kids. And we were all just so fucking passionate. But these motherfuckers were true virtuostic geniuses on their instruments, as well, as it turned out, in their song writing. And their performing.
It breaks my heart, that we lost Jeff and Mike. Beautiful human beings and brilliant beyond brilliant musicians..
I thank fate and science and God and love, that I got to work with these guys, and to this day, I still hold them close to my heart, no matter how far apart we are, as I know how deeply they resonate with the music of the world. I love Luke and Paich and Steve and Lenny and the great drummer (when I can get him for sessions in Nashville), Shannon Forrest, and all the other guys who have been up there, that I don't know. But I love Toto and I am honored to have had anything to do w these geniuses.
I believe they will be back. They are that important.
Love
f
____________________________________
From: Warren Bernard Amster
Subject: Re: Toto-Africa Live at The Met in Philly (10-20-19)
Bob
This was the effect they had our national Falls Festival early this year they were amazing with these kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDOrshBgIhQ
____________________________________
From: Russ Titelman
Subject: Re: More Ed Cherney
Ed was our engineer on the Rush Soundtrack which included the original recording of Tears in Heaven. We spent a couple of months in LA, Eric writing and then recording at The Village. For me it was a fantastic collaboration.. like having a co- producer. Ed's incredibly warm and reassuring presence made going to work every day a real pleasure. Everything just sounded so good and it all seemed so effortless.
I remember he almost lost it the night we did the vocals.
I only got to work with him that one time but I will never forget how incredibly kind and generous he was and how talented.
I loved seeing that big smile every time we'd see each other.
Hard to believe he's gone.
____________________________________
From: Michael Solomon
Subject: Who musings...
Hey, Bob,
I'm lying in a hospital bed in Santa Monica after emergency surgery to remove my appendix. It's 5am, after they had to take my vitals and give me an IV of antibiotics and hydration.
I have nothing but the luxury of time...a rare commodity for me at age 69.
I just finished your writings on The Who. Love or hate your writing, I read you with interest. I'm always interested...
It took me back to 1984. I was doing sound for T Bone Burnett...for free. I had been working for RIchard Perry trying to help him launch Planet Records, his label partnership with Elektra Records. Prior to that, I had been a road manager and sound mixer for The Pointer Sisters. I met Rich when he signed them and we all traveled to Cannes to launch the label at The Cannes Music Festival. When we got back, he asked me if I wanted to be his assistant for $450 a week, more than I had been making for the past 9 years on the road with a number of bands. I was tired of the road and ready to try and move up in "the business." I rented a house in The Hollywood Hills for $500 a month and went to work at the record company offices on Sunset and Doheny, later to be Geffen Records, next door to the management company of Elliott Roberts and Tony Dimitriades.
But the real joy was spending my days and nights at Richard Perry's recording studio, Studio 55, on Melrose, adjacent to Paramount Pictures. So many drug-fueled days and nights watching Richard make records in his room there, alongside all the other great artists, producers, musicians, songwriters and engineers working in Studio B, like Jimmy Iovine, Bob Esty, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Shelly Yakus, Bill Schnee, Stephen Marcussen, Cher, Bob Dylan, Michael McDonald, Billy Steinberg, and so many others.
When RIchard sold the label to RCA, the entire staff was fired. I was tired. I had been busted for selling a gram of coke to an undercover cop and was on probation. I had lost my way and forgot what it was that I loved about music and the music business in the first place.
My friend, Mark Safan, was an artist and songwriter. Mark had been signed to Planet. He had introduced me to his friend Billy Steinberg. Billy was, at that time, an unknown artist/writer, from Thermal, CA, whom we also signed to the label, recording under the name of Billy Thermal.
Mark also introduced me to his friend, T Bone Burnett. T Bone was signed to Takoma Records. I was a big fan of T Bone's music and volunteered to mix sound for him at his local gigs. They were intimate and wonderful shows at small clubs like Madame Wong's, The Troubadour, Hop Singh's, etc. His band was David Minor on bass, David Kemper on drums and David Mansfield on multiple instruments. T Bone always asked me to introduce him as Thank You Bone Burnett. I never understood or asked why.
Out of the blue, there was a gig booked at an event during the 1984 Olympics at the LA Coliseum for T Bone to open for The Clash and The Who. I mixed sound for T Bone in front of 80,000 plus people and watched The Clash and The Who from the stage.
I found my way back to the music that day...
Michael Solomon
____________________________________
From: paul clegg
Subject: PAJAMA TIPS / AUSTRALIAN BUS CRASHES
Bob
Here is a story about me that perfectly combines elements of both of your 'Oz' emails from PJ's on a plane to cultural impropriety of Aussie / US airport experiences!
Hot of the weekend buzz about My Chemical Romance getting back together, it is often forgotten that three years ago on October 13, 2016, Frank Iero from the band, his guitarist Evan Nestor and myself were down under on a solo tour when disaster struck. Whilst doing a Bob Lefsetz style, press junket all over town, we were lifting our guitars out of the back of our transport, when a City bus rammed into us.
The injuries as you can imagine were pretty horrific. The powers that be shut down the entire street. They flew surgeons in via helicopter to start triage prep in ambulances as traffic was gridlocked. It was chaos and in the midst of all this, when I looked at my right leg there was a not insignificant part of it (about the height of the rear bumper of our van and a third of the circumference of the leg) that was just gone, shark bite style……
The way you described Kate - not as an adrenaline junkie, or a wannabe hero or as a dollar highway opportunist is precisely the 'Australian' that I encountered around 4.00pm that fateful day and it resonated hard. A cycle cop in short shorts who was on jaywalking duty (honestly) saw the accident happen and was tending to me on the street, waiting for ambulances to arrive.
My man, made an executive decision on the street and said to me, pretty much verbatim….. 'You are going to be unconscious in a matter of minutes, as the blood is pissing out of you mate. Here is what I am going to do - first I am gonna try and save your life. If I get that far then I am going to try and save your leg'
He said it as casually as my wife asks me if I want cheese on my pasta. He wasn't trying to get a medal or his picture in the paper - he was just doing what was the right thing to do. His running interference saved both my life and my leg. He went back to writing tickets once we were gone, and came to visit me in the hospital on his day off.
(For the record Bob, you are 'Kate' to many of us.)
It seemed that the entire Australian music industry rallied around for us injured folk. Nigel Melder from Live Nation was a rock. Stu Harvey from Cooking Vinyl, Dave Batty - they all rallied to do what they could for us.
I had barely regained consciousness, post surgery when my first visitor arrived. Jeanine, the Sydney office manager for WME (we were on a Paradigm tour) was there bright and early on on a Saturday morning with treats, books and newspapers - but most importantly of all - Pajama's. Guitar techs upon hearing that all our phones and computers were smashed bought us burners, so the wives could call. We were down there for weeks, surrounded by strangers recovering from surgery and wondering if we could ever rebuild our lives but never at one point did I feel alone or isolated. The staff of St Vincents Hospital and the music industry in Australia saw to that.
The injuries and the medical apparatus that we had to wear for the trip home meant there was only one course of action pertaining to costume for the trek back and that was the WME PJ's and oversized crocs due to swollen feet and limbs. As we departed our hospital ward to the waiting white limo that was bumping trance music (at 6am) somewhere around 110db and featured a full on 'green or red' laser show inside (oh this isn't the party ride to the airport? - control must have got it mixed up - never mind - hop in fella's - AGAIN VERY AUSTRALIAN) we were resigned to the fact that whilst we were now the kind of people who showed up at airports and flew in mis-matched flannels and slip on plastic shoes, at least no-one would ever see us or ever know. At precisely that point, our friends in the band The Jezabels arrived looking effortlessly cool to check in for the same flight!
Leaving that hospital after surgery (that no doubt cost way more than my house is worth) I politely enquired to the matron if our insurance had taken care of everything and she replied don't worry sonny, you are Irish, the Australian government has got you covered'
We flew home under medivac accompaniment on Qantas. The staff / cabin crew could not have been nicer - from airport to landing, everyone was like 'these are the boys from the accident - make way for them etc etc' The pursers' daughter had actually had tickets to the show (that we had to cancel) and told us how she was crying with her daughter when they turned on the six o'clock news at dinner that night - she was tearing up as she told us about it. It was so genuine and so nice.
Upon arrival in Los Angeles for the stopover, we had to enter customs. The guy at the stamp desk didn't know how to deal with my work authorization card (I was on a probationary green card parole period) so they sent me to second questioning (at that point I had lived in NY for 12 years) as he had 'reason to believe' I was trying to enter the country illegally. I was in a wheel chair and had a negative pressure vacuum pump encasing my entire leg and a huge battery compressor to power it all, attached to me, so was being pushed by a nurse that was under strict orders by surgeons at both the hospital in Sydney and NYU (where I was going) to monitor me at all times.
They refused to let her accompany me into the interview and I had to wheel myself in, which was very very difficult with all of the apparatus. They also told me that all I could bring in was my card and passport. I asked if they needed the other documents I had and they said no. 30 seconds into the interview, a different guy was literally screaming at me about how 'effing stupid' I was for not having corroborating paper work with me. I then had to go get it and come back again.
After a 60 minute process, of being bullied by jack booted thugs, I reconvened at security with Frank and Evan to be wheeled through the metal detectors. As we were unable to walk they did the pat downs and the swab.
Guess what - the wheelchair tested positive for explosives. IT WAS AN LAX WHEELCHAIR!!!!!! We asked could we just be carried and leave the chair and they said no, we had to wait to be cleared by an explosives expert, who took an hour to show up. That's kinda scary right! A whole hour!
By this point we had delayed the plane.
The icing on the cake came later that night when we finally got to NYU to be told that there were no beds and to come back tomorrow. After weeks of thinking I would never see home again, I found myself back in my own bed (temporarily after a 30 hour ordeal of a journey) for the night and that was of course the night that my vacuum unit decided to malfunction and sound an alarm / stop working.
Anyway, this is all a very roundabout way to tell you that on every Qantas flight I have ever been on, when asked what size of PJ's I wear - I always reply 'would it be possible to get a ladies pair please as I would love to bring them home for my wife' Every single time they have always brought back a pair for Meghan AND a pair for me because they would like both of us to have a pair. It's not a hack or a scam, it's just decent people being decent - it always feels REALLY NICE and it always feels very Australian!
Cheers!
Paul
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Cronulla Beach
Hey Bob,
I'm an American who moved to Sydney just under a year ago - I loved hearing your notes on your experience here and will be on the lookout for your articles.
I moved here from New York where I spent just about as much on concert tickets as I did on my rent. I was used to seeing live performances of all the big guys, as well as all the little guys. I went to gigs any night of the week, checking off the venues I had grown up reading about. It was heaven.
In Sydney, I had to get in to local Australian sounds real quick, not by choice but necessity. None of my up and comers we're doing world tours all the way over here - only the big acts can afford that. We managed to get Maggie Rogers and Kacey Musgraves a few months back, but they were playing at tiny theaters here while at home they were both respectively selling out Radio City.
At home I thought I knew everyone - there wasn't a band or performer you could get past me that I wasn't at least tangentially familiar with. My roommate here in Sydney is a 22 year old Australian - I had heard of maybe one of the performers in her vinyl collection.
Im always surprised by the influences that have made an impact here - my Aussie friend shows me photos of him at a Red Hot Chili Peppers show having the time of his life, but when I ask about The Strokes? Never heard of them.
Bands come up in the pubs here - where your dad could just as likely be there betting on the horse races as your loyal fans are there supporting you. People forget Australia is a similar geographic size to the States - Just because you're selling out pubs in Sydney doesn't mean people in Perth have ever heard of you. Im not going to say it's as cut throat competitive as the American music scene, but it's still tough out there.
And that's not to say that kids here don't love music, because of course they do. If you're good, the scouts will find you and you'll get air time. Sure the streaming world has made the tastes a little more international but I was blown away by how much people here are stake-your-life-on-it loyal to Australian artists. The radio station/festival production company Triple j is a religion and the Friday-released "like a version" performances are church. It's the first thing people check their phones for on Friday morning - local Australian acts performing a cover of any song they can think of. Sometimes they support other Australians, sometimes they choose international acts... but they are always cool. The creativity and genre-bending work that goes in to those performances is powerful. I hope you got to witness some of that while you were here.
My tiny college radio station is the only American channel I could ever find playing live festival sets on air, but triple j has festival performances playing all weekend. If you had asked me, radio was all about dead, but not here. Every Australian under 35 is streaming the station all day long, using it as their one source for new music discovery.
My Australian friends and I have started making shared Spotify playlists that we listen to while killing time at our office jobs. 50% is American music they've never heard of, 50% is Australian music I've never heard of. We like to joke we could probably solve all the world's issues this way.
To answer your question, moving across the world at 23 without a job is what I was willing to risk to be happy. It worked. Now I have double the amount of music to keep up with and it's alright by me.
Cheers,
Victoria
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Dr. Pimple Popper
Ha! I actually had a fatty cyst a couple years ago. Googled what it was and who might be able to deal with it. Found Dr Pimple Popper and realized her practice is/was in Upland CA. Called and then went to a consultation with her. First of all she's an amazing hoot!! Full of authentic character and charm. She LOVES this stuff!! Long story short she told me what it was and IF I'd allow her to film the procedure for her social media it would literally be half price. I said yes and you can actually see my procedure in her archives on both IG and YouTube. "Grammy Award winning lipoma" lol... of course she didn't use my name, but there are/were some people who guessed who it was lying on the table.
I knew she could/would have a TV show and it would be just a matter of time.
I also realized that millions upon millions of people watch these videos!!
Claude McKnight
Bob,
Just had to tell you about my experience with Big Day Out because it was a game changer when I was invited to do skate demos there in 1996. It was the first time we - as skaters - were actually treated like "talent" and not some circus sideshow to a bigger event. We traveled WITH the bands (RATM, Porno For Pyros, Elastica, Rancid, etc), and given our own hotel rooms instead of sharing rooms like we were forced to do on every other tour. Skating front and center on a huge ramp while Rage chanted "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" with a sea of people between us and the stage is a memory that is seared into me.
In the years after, I tried to convince other festivals that live skating would be a solid addition to their entertainment with little success. It was so frustrating that I created my own tour (Boom Boom Huckjam) to fill the void, my experience Big Day Out being a major factor.
In 2012, I was invited back to BDO and treated even more like a rock star. This time we were ON the bill as a headlining "act" and the crowds were epic; they would come swarm us as Kasabian ended their set, and then we would skate our hardest until Soundgarden started. Ken West, his organizers and the promoters got it, and we are thankful to have been invited to the party alongside such talent.
-Tony Hawk
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Ken West
Bob,
When I read the subject line, I thought the worst. As I continued to read, relieved and happy to see Ken's name in your letter.
Ken is a star. I first met Ken in 1990 when he and Vivian brought Debbie Harry to Australia for her first Australian solo tour. They had yet to start the Big Day Out but were quickly becoming serious "players" in a very competitive touring market. The tour was great fun and Ken and Vivian treated the whole touring party with the utmost respect. Ken is a unique individual and surrounded himself with serious characters. His local crew were some of the more interesting people I came across touring over the years. (RIP Speedy).
The tour, as I remember was a success and there are some stories that will not be soon forgotten. A Rave in Sydney, topless Bungee Jumping in Auckland, Lunch on a dealer's boat in Perth.
Thank you for writing about Ken. He's a great guy, as authentic as they come. I hope he told you the story about the Pouges tour that they promoted.
Ken, if you are reading this, a big hello from NYC.
Phil Schuster
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Bill Curbishley-This Week's Podcast
Dear Bob
Back in the early 90s, Bill was a member of a swanky West London health club. I worked there as a fitness trainer. He and I would talk music while he pretended to work out. One day he told me he'd just signed Robert Plant who was due to go out on tour but wasn't quite at the peak of physical condition. Could I help lick him into shape? Of course I could, especially since our club protocol would involve me and Robert sitting in a small room, alone, for an hour while we went through a lifestyle assessment, some body measurements and a few physical tests. I'd had a poster of 'Percy' in his Led Zeppelin pomp on my bedroom wall when I was 14, and now here I was asking him about his medical history and how much alcohol he consumed and pinching his fatter parts with callipers. As surreal experiences go it's been difficult to beat. I also gave him a pair of my Asics running shoes which I like to think initiated the second coming of a svelte rock god.
All the best,
Stephen Ferns
____________________________________
From: Allen Kovac
Subject: Re: Music Is Like Television
Great analogies. Independent labels have always been the leaders. From Ahmet we had the The Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin. From Blackwell we had Marley and U2.
Today Beggars has given us Adele and Vampire Weekend. Glass Note, Mumford and Phoenix. Yes an indie label will lead the way. They always do. However, today there is no need to sell. If you have artists that are different and against the grain, they will tour. If they tour then DSP's will pay a label per month directly. A multiple is not as big as an iconic indie artists, branded on DSP's. No wonder Universal is for sale.
Generic artists pop and hip hop are transactional. Rock, country, and alt, are the soundtrack to our lives. Personal playlists are the way of the future for the indies. Just like FM and touring for Ahmet, and Blackwell. Personal playlists and artists that tour, are the key to indie labels success. That is the way to be the HBO and Netflix of the music world.
Don't drink the major labels instant gratification Kool Aid. It's not all about charts and playlists.
Allen
____________________________________
From: Gary Helsinger
Subject: Re: Dr. Pimple Popper
Hey Bob
Peter Garrett is a one of kind musician, politician, activist, and all around stellar human. One of my most incredible rock star moments I ever had was when he played a song request for me at Universal Amphitheater on 6/20/1990. I had been a huge fan since their first US release (10, 9, 8…) and promptly bought their previous Australian releases (3 LPs, 2 EPs). I met the band on the Diesel & Dust tour, but since Peter was fighting a cold, it wasn't until they came back for the Blue Sky Mining tour that I got to meet him. Rob Hirst (Oil drummer/vocalist) told me that Peter was trying to get the out of print (at the time) Badfinger catalog on vinyl, so after their first of 2 Uni Amp shows, I went backstage and told him I had some for him. He flipped out and agreed to stop by my job at Tower Records on Sunset Blvd the next day to pick them up. When he came in, he tried to pay me, but I refused. He said "Gary, I make more money than you, how much are these?" I said, "you're my hero, and I don't want your money. But, I'd love to hear the song 'Hercules' at tonight's show". He said they hadn't played it on this tour, but he'll try. It's a fairly deep catalog song, so when they didn't play it during the set, I had written it off by the time they were in their 3rd encore. But then…they returned one more time…and Peter told the audience about meeting me and not taking his money…and they launched into Hercules!! So blown away. If you want to hear that actual moment at Universal Amphitheater….here it is! (ok to post/share). https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhhksg5919f91j3/Midnight%20Oil_Hercules%20%28live%29.mp3?dl=0 After the show they took me back to the Bel Age Hotel, and I hung out with them while they edited their live video album, and then sent me off with an autographed T-shirt. As a fan, it couldn't possibly have been better than that! They're still the best, and their recent reunion shows at the Wiltern and the Greek were incredible. The Power and the Passion! The Oils forever!
Best,
Gary
____________________________________
From: Fred Mollin
Subject: Re: Toto-Africa Live at The Met in Philly (10-20-19)
Fred Mollin here. I'm going to dictate this and try to correct it later.
Matthew McCauley and I arrived in LA in June 1978, and our first LA sessions for the Jimmy Webb album, "Angel Heart", and the Gary Benson singles for Arista were both incredibly breathtaking. We were told to use a young kid, Steve Lukather. He blew us away. Luke is one of the greatest guitarists of all time. I mean one of the GREATEST of all time. David Paich played piano AND Jimmy Webb played second keyboard on the album. That's how good David was! We were all the same age. Kids. And we were all just so fucking passionate. But these motherfuckers were true virtuostic geniuses on their instruments, as well, as it turned out, in their song writing. And their performing.
It breaks my heart, that we lost Jeff and Mike. Beautiful human beings and brilliant beyond brilliant musicians..
I thank fate and science and God and love, that I got to work with these guys, and to this day, I still hold them close to my heart, no matter how far apart we are, as I know how deeply they resonate with the music of the world. I love Luke and Paich and Steve and Lenny and the great drummer (when I can get him for sessions in Nashville), Shannon Forrest, and all the other guys who have been up there, that I don't know. But I love Toto and I am honored to have had anything to do w these geniuses.
I believe they will be back. They are that important.
Love
f
____________________________________
From: Warren Bernard Amster
Subject: Re: Toto-Africa Live at The Met in Philly (10-20-19)
Bob
This was the effect they had our national Falls Festival early this year they were amazing with these kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDOrshBgIhQ
____________________________________
From: Russ Titelman
Subject: Re: More Ed Cherney
Ed was our engineer on the Rush Soundtrack which included the original recording of Tears in Heaven. We spent a couple of months in LA, Eric writing and then recording at The Village. For me it was a fantastic collaboration.. like having a co- producer. Ed's incredibly warm and reassuring presence made going to work every day a real pleasure. Everything just sounded so good and it all seemed so effortless.
I remember he almost lost it the night we did the vocals.
I only got to work with him that one time but I will never forget how incredibly kind and generous he was and how talented.
I loved seeing that big smile every time we'd see each other.
Hard to believe he's gone.
____________________________________
From: Michael Solomon
Subject: Who musings...
Hey, Bob,
I'm lying in a hospital bed in Santa Monica after emergency surgery to remove my appendix. It's 5am, after they had to take my vitals and give me an IV of antibiotics and hydration.
I have nothing but the luxury of time...a rare commodity for me at age 69.
I just finished your writings on The Who. Love or hate your writing, I read you with interest. I'm always interested...
It took me back to 1984. I was doing sound for T Bone Burnett...for free. I had been working for RIchard Perry trying to help him launch Planet Records, his label partnership with Elektra Records. Prior to that, I had been a road manager and sound mixer for The Pointer Sisters. I met Rich when he signed them and we all traveled to Cannes to launch the label at The Cannes Music Festival. When we got back, he asked me if I wanted to be his assistant for $450 a week, more than I had been making for the past 9 years on the road with a number of bands. I was tired of the road and ready to try and move up in "the business." I rented a house in The Hollywood Hills for $500 a month and went to work at the record company offices on Sunset and Doheny, later to be Geffen Records, next door to the management company of Elliott Roberts and Tony Dimitriades.
But the real joy was spending my days and nights at Richard Perry's recording studio, Studio 55, on Melrose, adjacent to Paramount Pictures. So many drug-fueled days and nights watching Richard make records in his room there, alongside all the other great artists, producers, musicians, songwriters and engineers working in Studio B, like Jimmy Iovine, Bob Esty, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Shelly Yakus, Bill Schnee, Stephen Marcussen, Cher, Bob Dylan, Michael McDonald, Billy Steinberg, and so many others.
When RIchard sold the label to RCA, the entire staff was fired. I was tired. I had been busted for selling a gram of coke to an undercover cop and was on probation. I had lost my way and forgot what it was that I loved about music and the music business in the first place.
My friend, Mark Safan, was an artist and songwriter. Mark had been signed to Planet. He had introduced me to his friend Billy Steinberg. Billy was, at that time, an unknown artist/writer, from Thermal, CA, whom we also signed to the label, recording under the name of Billy Thermal.
Mark also introduced me to his friend, T Bone Burnett. T Bone was signed to Takoma Records. I was a big fan of T Bone's music and volunteered to mix sound for him at his local gigs. They were intimate and wonderful shows at small clubs like Madame Wong's, The Troubadour, Hop Singh's, etc. His band was David Minor on bass, David Kemper on drums and David Mansfield on multiple instruments. T Bone always asked me to introduce him as Thank You Bone Burnett. I never understood or asked why.
Out of the blue, there was a gig booked at an event during the 1984 Olympics at the LA Coliseum for T Bone to open for The Clash and The Who. I mixed sound for T Bone in front of 80,000 plus people and watched The Clash and The Who from the stage.
I found my way back to the music that day...
Michael Solomon
____________________________________
From: paul clegg
Subject: PAJAMA TIPS / AUSTRALIAN BUS CRASHES
Bob
Here is a story about me that perfectly combines elements of both of your 'Oz' emails from PJ's on a plane to cultural impropriety of Aussie / US airport experiences!
Hot of the weekend buzz about My Chemical Romance getting back together, it is often forgotten that three years ago on October 13, 2016, Frank Iero from the band, his guitarist Evan Nestor and myself were down under on a solo tour when disaster struck. Whilst doing a Bob Lefsetz style, press junket all over town, we were lifting our guitars out of the back of our transport, when a City bus rammed into us.
The injuries as you can imagine were pretty horrific. The powers that be shut down the entire street. They flew surgeons in via helicopter to start triage prep in ambulances as traffic was gridlocked. It was chaos and in the midst of all this, when I looked at my right leg there was a not insignificant part of it (about the height of the rear bumper of our van and a third of the circumference of the leg) that was just gone, shark bite style……
The way you described Kate - not as an adrenaline junkie, or a wannabe hero or as a dollar highway opportunist is precisely the 'Australian' that I encountered around 4.00pm that fateful day and it resonated hard. A cycle cop in short shorts who was on jaywalking duty (honestly) saw the accident happen and was tending to me on the street, waiting for ambulances to arrive.
My man, made an executive decision on the street and said to me, pretty much verbatim….. 'You are going to be unconscious in a matter of minutes, as the blood is pissing out of you mate. Here is what I am going to do - first I am gonna try and save your life. If I get that far then I am going to try and save your leg'
He said it as casually as my wife asks me if I want cheese on my pasta. He wasn't trying to get a medal or his picture in the paper - he was just doing what was the right thing to do. His running interference saved both my life and my leg. He went back to writing tickets once we were gone, and came to visit me in the hospital on his day off.
(For the record Bob, you are 'Kate' to many of us.)
It seemed that the entire Australian music industry rallied around for us injured folk. Nigel Melder from Live Nation was a rock. Stu Harvey from Cooking Vinyl, Dave Batty - they all rallied to do what they could for us.
I had barely regained consciousness, post surgery when my first visitor arrived. Jeanine, the Sydney office manager for WME (we were on a Paradigm tour) was there bright and early on on a Saturday morning with treats, books and newspapers - but most importantly of all - Pajama's. Guitar techs upon hearing that all our phones and computers were smashed bought us burners, so the wives could call. We were down there for weeks, surrounded by strangers recovering from surgery and wondering if we could ever rebuild our lives but never at one point did I feel alone or isolated. The staff of St Vincents Hospital and the music industry in Australia saw to that.
The injuries and the medical apparatus that we had to wear for the trip home meant there was only one course of action pertaining to costume for the trek back and that was the WME PJ's and oversized crocs due to swollen feet and limbs. As we departed our hospital ward to the waiting white limo that was bumping trance music (at 6am) somewhere around 110db and featured a full on 'green or red' laser show inside (oh this isn't the party ride to the airport? - control must have got it mixed up - never mind - hop in fella's - AGAIN VERY AUSTRALIAN) we were resigned to the fact that whilst we were now the kind of people who showed up at airports and flew in mis-matched flannels and slip on plastic shoes, at least no-one would ever see us or ever know. At precisely that point, our friends in the band The Jezabels arrived looking effortlessly cool to check in for the same flight!
Leaving that hospital after surgery (that no doubt cost way more than my house is worth) I politely enquired to the matron if our insurance had taken care of everything and she replied don't worry sonny, you are Irish, the Australian government has got you covered'
We flew home under medivac accompaniment on Qantas. The staff / cabin crew could not have been nicer - from airport to landing, everyone was like 'these are the boys from the accident - make way for them etc etc' The pursers' daughter had actually had tickets to the show (that we had to cancel) and told us how she was crying with her daughter when they turned on the six o'clock news at dinner that night - she was tearing up as she told us about it. It was so genuine and so nice.
Upon arrival in Los Angeles for the stopover, we had to enter customs. The guy at the stamp desk didn't know how to deal with my work authorization card (I was on a probationary green card parole period) so they sent me to second questioning (at that point I had lived in NY for 12 years) as he had 'reason to believe' I was trying to enter the country illegally. I was in a wheel chair and had a negative pressure vacuum pump encasing my entire leg and a huge battery compressor to power it all, attached to me, so was being pushed by a nurse that was under strict orders by surgeons at both the hospital in Sydney and NYU (where I was going) to monitor me at all times.
They refused to let her accompany me into the interview and I had to wheel myself in, which was very very difficult with all of the apparatus. They also told me that all I could bring in was my card and passport. I asked if they needed the other documents I had and they said no. 30 seconds into the interview, a different guy was literally screaming at me about how 'effing stupid' I was for not having corroborating paper work with me. I then had to go get it and come back again.
After a 60 minute process, of being bullied by jack booted thugs, I reconvened at security with Frank and Evan to be wheeled through the metal detectors. As we were unable to walk they did the pat downs and the swab.
Guess what - the wheelchair tested positive for explosives. IT WAS AN LAX WHEELCHAIR!!!!!! We asked could we just be carried and leave the chair and they said no, we had to wait to be cleared by an explosives expert, who took an hour to show up. That's kinda scary right! A whole hour!
By this point we had delayed the plane.
The icing on the cake came later that night when we finally got to NYU to be told that there were no beds and to come back tomorrow. After weeks of thinking I would never see home again, I found myself back in my own bed (temporarily after a 30 hour ordeal of a journey) for the night and that was of course the night that my vacuum unit decided to malfunction and sound an alarm / stop working.
Anyway, this is all a very roundabout way to tell you that on every Qantas flight I have ever been on, when asked what size of PJ's I wear - I always reply 'would it be possible to get a ladies pair please as I would love to bring them home for my wife' Every single time they have always brought back a pair for Meghan AND a pair for me because they would like both of us to have a pair. It's not a hack or a scam, it's just decent people being decent - it always feels REALLY NICE and it always feels very Australian!
Cheers!
Paul
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Cronulla Beach
Hey Bob,
I'm an American who moved to Sydney just under a year ago - I loved hearing your notes on your experience here and will be on the lookout for your articles.
I moved here from New York where I spent just about as much on concert tickets as I did on my rent. I was used to seeing live performances of all the big guys, as well as all the little guys. I went to gigs any night of the week, checking off the venues I had grown up reading about. It was heaven.
In Sydney, I had to get in to local Australian sounds real quick, not by choice but necessity. None of my up and comers we're doing world tours all the way over here - only the big acts can afford that. We managed to get Maggie Rogers and Kacey Musgraves a few months back, but they were playing at tiny theaters here while at home they were both respectively selling out Radio City.
At home I thought I knew everyone - there wasn't a band or performer you could get past me that I wasn't at least tangentially familiar with. My roommate here in Sydney is a 22 year old Australian - I had heard of maybe one of the performers in her vinyl collection.
Im always surprised by the influences that have made an impact here - my Aussie friend shows me photos of him at a Red Hot Chili Peppers show having the time of his life, but when I ask about The Strokes? Never heard of them.
Bands come up in the pubs here - where your dad could just as likely be there betting on the horse races as your loyal fans are there supporting you. People forget Australia is a similar geographic size to the States - Just because you're selling out pubs in Sydney doesn't mean people in Perth have ever heard of you. Im not going to say it's as cut throat competitive as the American music scene, but it's still tough out there.
And that's not to say that kids here don't love music, because of course they do. If you're good, the scouts will find you and you'll get air time. Sure the streaming world has made the tastes a little more international but I was blown away by how much people here are stake-your-life-on-it loyal to Australian artists. The radio station/festival production company Triple j is a religion and the Friday-released "like a version" performances are church. It's the first thing people check their phones for on Friday morning - local Australian acts performing a cover of any song they can think of. Sometimes they support other Australians, sometimes they choose international acts... but they are always cool. The creativity and genre-bending work that goes in to those performances is powerful. I hope you got to witness some of that while you were here.
My tiny college radio station is the only American channel I could ever find playing live festival sets on air, but triple j has festival performances playing all weekend. If you had asked me, radio was all about dead, but not here. Every Australian under 35 is streaming the station all day long, using it as their one source for new music discovery.
My Australian friends and I have started making shared Spotify playlists that we listen to while killing time at our office jobs. 50% is American music they've never heard of, 50% is Australian music I've never heard of. We like to joke we could probably solve all the world's issues this way.
To answer your question, moving across the world at 23 without a job is what I was willing to risk to be happy. It worked. Now I have double the amount of music to keep up with and it's alright by me.
Cheers,
Victoria
____________________________________
Subject: Re: Dr. Pimple Popper
Ha! I actually had a fatty cyst a couple years ago. Googled what it was and who might be able to deal with it. Found Dr Pimple Popper and realized her practice is/was in Upland CA. Called and then went to a consultation with her. First of all she's an amazing hoot!! Full of authentic character and charm. She LOVES this stuff!! Long story short she told me what it was and IF I'd allow her to film the procedure for her social media it would literally be half price. I said yes and you can actually see my procedure in her archives on both IG and YouTube. "Grammy Award winning lipoma" lol... of course she didn't use my name, but there are/were some people who guessed who it was lying on the table.
I knew she could/would have a TV show and it would be just a matter of time.
I also realized that millions upon millions of people watch these videos!!
Claude McKnight
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Tuesday, 5 November 2019
Ken West
He was inspired by Christo.
Like I said, I'm working hard for the money. Which is cool, since Felice is not here, it's good to be occupied, but I'm wondering whether it should have been labeled the "Bob Lefsetz Festival" instead of "Australian Music Week." I quoted them a price, my standard overseas fee, but they kept adding on obligations, like a podcast with Ken West.
I didn't even know who the guy was. They told me he started the Big Day Out. That I was familiar with. I said yes, but I was worried, there was little biographical information online, I like to talk to people whose work I know by heart, having studied it for decades, so I was wary.
I didn't need to be.
That's what the newcomers don't understand, the ethos and viewpoint of the oldsters, who were inspired by the music and built the business, before the corporations, before it was fully-formed.
So Ken West went to art school. Which was kind of funny, because it was a good ten years after everybody in the U.K. did. He testified about the oddballs, those are the ones who used to make music, the fringe, those that couldn't fit in anywhere else, they couldn't be brands because not only did they not know anything about corporations, that's not what they cared about.
Ken didn't care about money, he cared about art. I told him he'd been pushing the envelope...he said he'd thrown it away.
But you need money to live. Ken didn't want to be on the victim end of it, he said he was not a self-promoter, he did not want to be dependent upon other people buying his art, listening to Christo, he saw another way, events, spectaculars based on great art.
Now the Aussies have accents. And my hearing is not great. Was Ken really talking about Christo? The guy who sets up umbrellas and gates and encircles islands? This is the first time I've ever heard anybody in the music business mention him.
But it got even better. Ken started talking about the danger in events as they got bigger. How the tendency is to play it safe, but you shouldn't. Three people lost their lives with Christo's Umbrellas installations. Ken decried the Gates in New York, it was too safe. But Floating Piers, those 24/7 walkways in Italy? Where people in wheelchairs could roll off and die? That rang his bell.
So Ken hired a band because they came with a PA, and he wanted the band he was managing to play, and it was cheaper to hire this band with their equipment than hire a PA by its lonesome.
And then his friend Nick Cave... Whoa, how did Ken get here?
Well, he flew to England and convinced New Order to tour Australia, when they hadn't even performed ten dates. Their soundman was held up at the border, he filled out his visa form wrong, they hired a studio engineer who got it all wrong and the first night sucked. Live is a crapshoot.
And Ken becomes friends with the Violent Femmes, they're big Down Under, they ask him to be their tour manager in the States, which he does, $250 a week and he had to get himself over the ocean. He learned people were the same everywhere, but he'd rather live in Australia.
The Femmes wanted Ken to be their manager, but that's not his interest, but inspired by Lollapalooza, Ken started a festival, to sell more tickets he booked Nirvana to open, just after "Smells Like Teen Spirit" broke. He had them for $5,000, but he gave them $4 per head on the merch, they walked out with 38k. It was the right thing to do, no contract said Ken had to.
And now Big Day Out is rolling, all over Australia, even New Zealand. But when you have a success, money is attracted, but Ken credited his TLC with keeping Big Day Out going. Then again, he was thinking about it 24/7, it took over his life.
Now if you know your history, the Big Day Out ultimately cratered, went kaput, even though C3 got involved. And Ken's been sitting on the sidelines for five years.
Is he coming back?
Probably not. He's following the scene, but he believes science is driving the culture. That you can make mistakes off the radar, make breakthroughs that can change the world.
Ken laments the fact that acts can no longer woodshed in private. He says sampling killed the music, now you can't tell whether a track was cut in the seventies or today.
And I'd like to explain both of these concepts to you, but I'm not sure I fully grasped them. The mics were turned off, but we kept on talking, because it's these personalities who built the business. Not MBAs, not pencil-pushers. Alas, one of Ken's initial tours was funded by a dope dealer, who got his 30k back a year later.
And every Big Day Out was a roll of the dice, where Ken had his entire fortune at risk. Was it worth it?
His partner said no, took money off the table.
But money is not what excites Ken, he wants to wow people, catch them off guard and impress them. He wants to change the culture. He wanted the bands to hang during Big Day Out, get to know each other.
It was a traveling circus.
But they put Ringling Brothers' out of business. They don't do that no more.
And they not only don't make the Big Day Out anymore, they don't make people like Ken West in the music business. Where the money is secondary to the effect, where you want to transport people to somewhere they've never been, where you want them to remember to the point they keep coming back.
You're born with it, I tell you.
And it's these limit-pushers who are changing the world.
Are you one?
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Like I said, I'm working hard for the money. Which is cool, since Felice is not here, it's good to be occupied, but I'm wondering whether it should have been labeled the "Bob Lefsetz Festival" instead of "Australian Music Week." I quoted them a price, my standard overseas fee, but they kept adding on obligations, like a podcast with Ken West.
I didn't even know who the guy was. They told me he started the Big Day Out. That I was familiar with. I said yes, but I was worried, there was little biographical information online, I like to talk to people whose work I know by heart, having studied it for decades, so I was wary.
I didn't need to be.
That's what the newcomers don't understand, the ethos and viewpoint of the oldsters, who were inspired by the music and built the business, before the corporations, before it was fully-formed.
So Ken West went to art school. Which was kind of funny, because it was a good ten years after everybody in the U.K. did. He testified about the oddballs, those are the ones who used to make music, the fringe, those that couldn't fit in anywhere else, they couldn't be brands because not only did they not know anything about corporations, that's not what they cared about.
Ken didn't care about money, he cared about art. I told him he'd been pushing the envelope...he said he'd thrown it away.
But you need money to live. Ken didn't want to be on the victim end of it, he said he was not a self-promoter, he did not want to be dependent upon other people buying his art, listening to Christo, he saw another way, events, spectaculars based on great art.
Now the Aussies have accents. And my hearing is not great. Was Ken really talking about Christo? The guy who sets up umbrellas and gates and encircles islands? This is the first time I've ever heard anybody in the music business mention him.
But it got even better. Ken started talking about the danger in events as they got bigger. How the tendency is to play it safe, but you shouldn't. Three people lost their lives with Christo's Umbrellas installations. Ken decried the Gates in New York, it was too safe. But Floating Piers, those 24/7 walkways in Italy? Where people in wheelchairs could roll off and die? That rang his bell.
So Ken hired a band because they came with a PA, and he wanted the band he was managing to play, and it was cheaper to hire this band with their equipment than hire a PA by its lonesome.
And then his friend Nick Cave... Whoa, how did Ken get here?
Well, he flew to England and convinced New Order to tour Australia, when they hadn't even performed ten dates. Their soundman was held up at the border, he filled out his visa form wrong, they hired a studio engineer who got it all wrong and the first night sucked. Live is a crapshoot.
And Ken becomes friends with the Violent Femmes, they're big Down Under, they ask him to be their tour manager in the States, which he does, $250 a week and he had to get himself over the ocean. He learned people were the same everywhere, but he'd rather live in Australia.
The Femmes wanted Ken to be their manager, but that's not his interest, but inspired by Lollapalooza, Ken started a festival, to sell more tickets he booked Nirvana to open, just after "Smells Like Teen Spirit" broke. He had them for $5,000, but he gave them $4 per head on the merch, they walked out with 38k. It was the right thing to do, no contract said Ken had to.
And now Big Day Out is rolling, all over Australia, even New Zealand. But when you have a success, money is attracted, but Ken credited his TLC with keeping Big Day Out going. Then again, he was thinking about it 24/7, it took over his life.
Now if you know your history, the Big Day Out ultimately cratered, went kaput, even though C3 got involved. And Ken's been sitting on the sidelines for five years.
Is he coming back?
Probably not. He's following the scene, but he believes science is driving the culture. That you can make mistakes off the radar, make breakthroughs that can change the world.
Ken laments the fact that acts can no longer woodshed in private. He says sampling killed the music, now you can't tell whether a track was cut in the seventies or today.
And I'd like to explain both of these concepts to you, but I'm not sure I fully grasped them. The mics were turned off, but we kept on talking, because it's these personalities who built the business. Not MBAs, not pencil-pushers. Alas, one of Ken's initial tours was funded by a dope dealer, who got his 30k back a year later.
And every Big Day Out was a roll of the dice, where Ken had his entire fortune at risk. Was it worth it?
His partner said no, took money off the table.
But money is not what excites Ken, he wants to wow people, catch them off guard and impress them. He wants to change the culture. He wanted the bands to hang during Big Day Out, get to know each other.
It was a traveling circus.
But they put Ringling Brothers' out of business. They don't do that no more.
And they not only don't make the Big Day Out anymore, they don't make people like Ken West in the music business. Where the money is secondary to the effect, where you want to transport people to somewhere they've never been, where you want them to remember to the point they keep coming back.
You're born with it, I tell you.
And it's these limit-pushers who are changing the world.
Are you one?
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Dr. Pimple Popper
"How do we sleep while our beds are burning"
I woke up at 6:30. Maybe reasonable for you, out of the question for me, the last time I saw the sun rise was to catch a flight, I like the darkness, when everybody's sleeping, when the world is mine.
I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I ended up going to breakfast. I've got to ask you, why do they undercook the sausage? And the bacon should be CRISP! I could barely look at the bacon, I took a few bites of the sausage and got grossed out and immediately ate some yogurt to kill the taste. There's protein in yogurt, that was breakfast, at an ungodly hour, would I have enough sustenance to carry me through?
To Studios 301 to do a podcast with Peter Garrett.
This was hard to make happen. It was confirmed, then canceled. I was told that Peter had a hard out at 11:50, he needed to get to the studio to record with his band.
We were there early, so I got to look at the gear. They had every tape recorder, that high end Technics that isolated the tape, two track Mitsubishi digital, I actually saw two of them, a couple of Studers. From a bygone era, before digital. And there were racks and racks of outboard equipment, this is how they used to make records. The studio was a sacred place, not just for anybody, it was expensive, it was the belly of the beast, it was where you made records, my heart still goes pitter-patter when I'm in the inner sanctum.
And then, while I'm checking out the iMac Pro we're going to record on, avoiding the 72 track desk mere feet away, Peter Garrett arrives.
I'm intimidated. I feel like I'm imposing upon him. He's almost 6'5", he's got a bald head, you know the type, irritable, asshole... BUT HE WAS NOTHING LIKE THAT!
Peter was warm and congenial. Like maybe someone I went to high school with, well no, nobody I went to high school became famous, no one took the road less taken.
And most musicians are reticent, their music speaks for them. But Peter... I was thinking of his choices, ones I was too afraid to make. Then again, he's confident, his parents supported him, the opposite of my upbringing.
And Midnight Oil was an indie band before they signed to Columbia and were all over MTV. It was about the message, they refused to be compromised, actually, "Beds Are Burning" was not written to be a hit, but to be part of the soundtrack of a minor movie. Excellence comes when you're not trying to execute it.
And we talked not only about the Oils, but Peter's tenure in the government. As minister of education (should I capitalize that?) He was passionate and nice, I didn't know they made rock stars like this.
But the best part was when we turned the mics off, after ninety minutes of conversation, long after noon, long after Peter was supposed to be gone. Actually, we'd still be there talking if I didn't have a video commitment at 1:30. We were sitting there, analyzing the world, Peter's smiling...do you know how good it feels to feel connected, to be listened to, to wrestle with the issues with someone who wants to? It's what I live for! I always find I resonate most with the artists, even though I'm afraid of them. Joe Walsh reached out and volunteered himself for a podcast...I told him I'd been afraid to ask him, I hate imposing upon people, but it made me look like an amateur, I never believe I'm a member of the club, but it's astounding how few of these people are intimidating, I felt like Peter was a friend for life!
And then we went to Fox Studios, to record this interview. When the lights go on, or down, depending on whether it's a recording or live, I turn it on, this is when I deliver, because you never know what will put you over the top, usually the thing you were reluctant to do. And I'll be honest, I wince when I find myself telling the same stories over again, especially when there are people in attendance who've heard them, but I try to tell myself they're new to the audience.
And then we went to ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Company. The public outlet. I had my picture taken in front of legendary cartoon characters who I had not grown up with, the building was empty, maybe because of the Melbourne Cup, the famous horse race, but...
Then I did a radio interview and by time I got back to Cronulla it was time for my next gig, a dinner. I'm just running on adrenaline, like I said, I'm working hard for the money.
And I ran into this guy who started Australia's third biggest ticketing company, from scratch, sixteen years ago. After listening to him for five minutes, I knew he'd be successful at anything he did, because he was passionate, he believed, he was his product. That's what they don't teach you in music school, not even entrepreneur programs, you're born with it, it can be taught, but only those born with it are great at it. Find what you're great at, you can't compete with the naturals unless you're one too, even if you put in the 10,000 hours, you can learn the notes, but you can't write the song.
And I meet the guy who runs the arenas. And Don stands and thanks all the sponsors, usually sponsors are there to be ripped-off, but Don truly made them feel included.
And then we ate dinner.
Geoff had told me his partner made great Lebanese food. I had no idea. It was phenomenal! I overate, but I can't stop when it's that good, and I hadn't eaten lunch until three p.m., I was running on empty.
And I got into a conversation with Adam Lewis, who lives in L.A. but I only see in foreign countries, he's here to sign up bands, to do their radio promotion, publicity.
And these conversations are free-flowing, like the alcohol, everybody gets loosened up and tells stories and you feel part of a fraternity, of lucky freaks, we couldn't do anything else, but we're privileged to have fun doing our jobs, to never stop talking about them. As I said earlier today, go anywhere and say you're involved in a hit record, a hit band, and all the billionaires will go ignored, that's the power of music, the money is secondary, it's the personal impact. As Peter Garrett said, it energizes people, gets them motivated.
And hours into this dinner conversation, the topic switched to television, it always does, politics and TV, that's what people want to talk about today.
And Adam said he wished he could watch more TV. Huh? Isn't everybody trying to watch less? So I ask him what he watches, and he says reality shows. He starts testifying about "Below Deck," Felice is hooked on that too, it's upstairs/downstairs in the private yacht world. But the show Adam liked best was...
DR. PIMPLE POPPER!
I thought I didn't hear right. Couldn't be. That wasn't the name.
Adam said it was.
Okay, that was the name of the doctor, but not the show, right?
No, it's the name of the show!
So I Googled it and it had its own Wikipedia page, so it was real.
And everybody at the table starts testifying about the show, about the growths these people have, how Dr. Pimple Popper saves their lives, how they've been afraid of leaving the house... HOW DID I MISS THIS?
I like to feel I'm clued in, I'm reading all day every day to take the pulse, but I'd never heard of "Dr. Pimple Popper."
That's the power of people, that's the power of conversation, that's when you feel most alive, talking to others, listening and learning.
"The time has come, a fact's a fact"
Like global warming, like the power of a liberal arts education, like music. It's what you do about it. Peter believes you can't do it alone, it's about getting together with other people, compromising, making the sausage, executing. It's all right to complain, but you've got to do something.
There are people all over the world doing something. Not that the power of the individual should be dismissed, Greta Thunberg single-handedly motivated students to stand up, to protest, to tell the old men in charge that action needs to be taken. And then she declined the Nordic Council's environmental award, and its prize money. It's not about her, it's about the cause. That's rock and roll. An unfiltered opinion rendered by someone who is not sold out and is unwilling to cripple their vision.
These are the people we need more of, these are the people who change the world, people who believe it can be a better place.
Where we can feel free to watch "Dr. Pimple Popper" without worrying about our planet burning up.
Peter Garrett wants you to wake up, Greta Thunberg too, because when the beds are burning you don't want to go up in flames with them.
People are inspiring.
I was inspired today.
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I woke up at 6:30. Maybe reasonable for you, out of the question for me, the last time I saw the sun rise was to catch a flight, I like the darkness, when everybody's sleeping, when the world is mine.
I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I ended up going to breakfast. I've got to ask you, why do they undercook the sausage? And the bacon should be CRISP! I could barely look at the bacon, I took a few bites of the sausage and got grossed out and immediately ate some yogurt to kill the taste. There's protein in yogurt, that was breakfast, at an ungodly hour, would I have enough sustenance to carry me through?
To Studios 301 to do a podcast with Peter Garrett.
This was hard to make happen. It was confirmed, then canceled. I was told that Peter had a hard out at 11:50, he needed to get to the studio to record with his band.
We were there early, so I got to look at the gear. They had every tape recorder, that high end Technics that isolated the tape, two track Mitsubishi digital, I actually saw two of them, a couple of Studers. From a bygone era, before digital. And there were racks and racks of outboard equipment, this is how they used to make records. The studio was a sacred place, not just for anybody, it was expensive, it was the belly of the beast, it was where you made records, my heart still goes pitter-patter when I'm in the inner sanctum.
And then, while I'm checking out the iMac Pro we're going to record on, avoiding the 72 track desk mere feet away, Peter Garrett arrives.
I'm intimidated. I feel like I'm imposing upon him. He's almost 6'5", he's got a bald head, you know the type, irritable, asshole... BUT HE WAS NOTHING LIKE THAT!
Peter was warm and congenial. Like maybe someone I went to high school with, well no, nobody I went to high school became famous, no one took the road less taken.
And most musicians are reticent, their music speaks for them. But Peter... I was thinking of his choices, ones I was too afraid to make. Then again, he's confident, his parents supported him, the opposite of my upbringing.
And Midnight Oil was an indie band before they signed to Columbia and were all over MTV. It was about the message, they refused to be compromised, actually, "Beds Are Burning" was not written to be a hit, but to be part of the soundtrack of a minor movie. Excellence comes when you're not trying to execute it.
And we talked not only about the Oils, but Peter's tenure in the government. As minister of education (should I capitalize that?) He was passionate and nice, I didn't know they made rock stars like this.
But the best part was when we turned the mics off, after ninety minutes of conversation, long after noon, long after Peter was supposed to be gone. Actually, we'd still be there talking if I didn't have a video commitment at 1:30. We were sitting there, analyzing the world, Peter's smiling...do you know how good it feels to feel connected, to be listened to, to wrestle with the issues with someone who wants to? It's what I live for! I always find I resonate most with the artists, even though I'm afraid of them. Joe Walsh reached out and volunteered himself for a podcast...I told him I'd been afraid to ask him, I hate imposing upon people, but it made me look like an amateur, I never believe I'm a member of the club, but it's astounding how few of these people are intimidating, I felt like Peter was a friend for life!
And then we went to Fox Studios, to record this interview. When the lights go on, or down, depending on whether it's a recording or live, I turn it on, this is when I deliver, because you never know what will put you over the top, usually the thing you were reluctant to do. And I'll be honest, I wince when I find myself telling the same stories over again, especially when there are people in attendance who've heard them, but I try to tell myself they're new to the audience.
And then we went to ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Company. The public outlet. I had my picture taken in front of legendary cartoon characters who I had not grown up with, the building was empty, maybe because of the Melbourne Cup, the famous horse race, but...
Then I did a radio interview and by time I got back to Cronulla it was time for my next gig, a dinner. I'm just running on adrenaline, like I said, I'm working hard for the money.
And I ran into this guy who started Australia's third biggest ticketing company, from scratch, sixteen years ago. After listening to him for five minutes, I knew he'd be successful at anything he did, because he was passionate, he believed, he was his product. That's what they don't teach you in music school, not even entrepreneur programs, you're born with it, it can be taught, but only those born with it are great at it. Find what you're great at, you can't compete with the naturals unless you're one too, even if you put in the 10,000 hours, you can learn the notes, but you can't write the song.
And I meet the guy who runs the arenas. And Don stands and thanks all the sponsors, usually sponsors are there to be ripped-off, but Don truly made them feel included.
And then we ate dinner.
Geoff had told me his partner made great Lebanese food. I had no idea. It was phenomenal! I overate, but I can't stop when it's that good, and I hadn't eaten lunch until three p.m., I was running on empty.
And I got into a conversation with Adam Lewis, who lives in L.A. but I only see in foreign countries, he's here to sign up bands, to do their radio promotion, publicity.
And these conversations are free-flowing, like the alcohol, everybody gets loosened up and tells stories and you feel part of a fraternity, of lucky freaks, we couldn't do anything else, but we're privileged to have fun doing our jobs, to never stop talking about them. As I said earlier today, go anywhere and say you're involved in a hit record, a hit band, and all the billionaires will go ignored, that's the power of music, the money is secondary, it's the personal impact. As Peter Garrett said, it energizes people, gets them motivated.
And hours into this dinner conversation, the topic switched to television, it always does, politics and TV, that's what people want to talk about today.
And Adam said he wished he could watch more TV. Huh? Isn't everybody trying to watch less? So I ask him what he watches, and he says reality shows. He starts testifying about "Below Deck," Felice is hooked on that too, it's upstairs/downstairs in the private yacht world. But the show Adam liked best was...
DR. PIMPLE POPPER!
I thought I didn't hear right. Couldn't be. That wasn't the name.
Adam said it was.
Okay, that was the name of the doctor, but not the show, right?
No, it's the name of the show!
So I Googled it and it had its own Wikipedia page, so it was real.
And everybody at the table starts testifying about the show, about the growths these people have, how Dr. Pimple Popper saves their lives, how they've been afraid of leaving the house... HOW DID I MISS THIS?
I like to feel I'm clued in, I'm reading all day every day to take the pulse, but I'd never heard of "Dr. Pimple Popper."
That's the power of people, that's the power of conversation, that's when you feel most alive, talking to others, listening and learning.
"The time has come, a fact's a fact"
Like global warming, like the power of a liberal arts education, like music. It's what you do about it. Peter believes you can't do it alone, it's about getting together with other people, compromising, making the sausage, executing. It's all right to complain, but you've got to do something.
There are people all over the world doing something. Not that the power of the individual should be dismissed, Greta Thunberg single-handedly motivated students to stand up, to protest, to tell the old men in charge that action needs to be taken. And then she declined the Nordic Council's environmental award, and its prize money. It's not about her, it's about the cause. That's rock and roll. An unfiltered opinion rendered by someone who is not sold out and is unwilling to cripple their vision.
These are the people we need more of, these are the people who change the world, people who believe it can be a better place.
Where we can feel free to watch "Dr. Pimple Popper" without worrying about our planet burning up.
Peter Garrett wants you to wake up, Greta Thunberg too, because when the beds are burning you don't want to go up in flames with them.
People are inspiring.
I was inspired today.
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Monday, 4 November 2019
My History Of The Beatles-Part One-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday November 5th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Sunday, 3 November 2019
Cronulla Beach
They're treating me like a rock star. As in shuffling me from place to place for publicity. Tomorrow is radio, today was photography for the newspaper interviews I did last week. You can see how relationships matter, at least in terms of promotion. A team of pros build you.
First we went to Geoff's venue, the Brass Monkey. There were posters all over the door, even one of me, but what struck me most was the tribute bands, the seventies have not died. One was a doubleheader of Eagles and the Doobie Brothers...does the promoter know Irving manages both? And speaking of Irving, there was a Steely Dan tribute, and last Saturday they had Fleetwood Mac. Then again, Amy Winehouse plays too, it's not all oldsters. People are fans of the music.
And then the photographer for the "Australian" showed up.
He came with a suitcase full of gear, even a bag of lights. And he started shooting, all angles, changing lenses, I kinda cracked up that out of all these shots, they'd probably only use one.
But as John was setting up his umbrella, I asked him about his gig. He was the last photographer left, they'd all fallen by the wayside in the great internet crunch. He shot everywhere, like...Iraq.
Yup, during the war, they got ahead of the Americans. It was John, a reporter and an interpreter. They got accosted. Had guns pointed at their heads...talk about feeling alive.
And then we went downstairs into the venue and John shot even more. I was digging it, it's good to be the focus of attention, then again, I'm sure it gets old and overwhelming, assuming you're on the rocket ship to the top.
And when it was all done, we walked down to Geoff's office, killed some time, and then Don and I went down to the beach, for a shoot with the "Sydney Morning Herald."
Now you've got to know how beautiful the beach is. It's green and then blue and the surf today isn't that big, but there were people out there, albeit in wetsuits. I asked what the flags were about, figuring they were warnings not to go in the water, but actually it was just the opposite, you've got to swim between the flags, to avoid the rips, if there are no flags, don't go in.
And Cronulla Beach is...a resort town. Little did I know I was coming to Australia on vacation. Then again, like Donna Summer, I'm working hard for the money. A podcast tomorrow, two radio shows, and then podcasts and panels, sometimes twice a day, until I'm gone.
So we amble down to the beach and there's a blonde woman with one camera. Yup, she's got a Canon similar to John's, but that's all. I figured we got the B-team, after all, I'm B-level talent at best.
And this woman Kate has me walking down on the beach. I'll tell you, I was wondering whether to take my shoes off, there's nothing worse than getting sand in your shoes, then again, that Dido song said just the opposite:
"I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to
I know we said goodbye
Anything else would have been confused
But I wanna see you again"
"Sand In My Shoes" is about a vacation romance, you know, a fling to be forgotten, only the protagonist in this song cannot, forget that is. Isn't it funny how what we think is the sideshow becomes the main show.
And I got into Dido because of hearing "Life For Rent" in my mother's car, with only FM and no satellite. Repetition builds bonds. And when I got home to California I looked through hundreds of CDs until I found that one, and then played it over and over again, discovered "Sand In My Shoes," even went to see Dido at the Wiltern.
She recently put out a new LP and it didn't even make a ripple in the water. The paradigm shifted. Funny how you stay the same and times change and you're done.
So after leaning against rocks and standing by the lifeguard shack, I asked Kate about her gig.
She just came back from Syria. She started telling stories of the Kurds, of going to funerals. How the Kurds hate Trump and no one in the world trusts America anymore. These were not the words of a talking head on MSNBC, Kate had been there, she'd felt it.
Had she been shot at?
"We all have."
And it soon became clear Kate was part of the fraternity, of journalists.
Recently she was in the Congo. She's not an adrenaline junkie, she just needs to tell these stories, people need to know them.
And I'm standing there talking to her knowing she can't get rich, but her life is richer than most of the people who are.
And I asked her what was going on.
Kate said it was about resources, that's what everybody in the world is fighting for. That Trump's troops made sure the oil flowed, he was in the process of making a deal with Chevron for its distribution.
And I can't stop talking to Kate. You see most people are uninformed or unable to tolerate contrary opinions. Then, there are facts. She's talking about Erdogan's movement of Turks into this tiny strip, with little infrastructure. She showed me pictures of the Americans leaving, with their tails between their legs. But somehow, it's all about abortion, identity politics, anything but the real issues.
Now thereafter I went in search of Coke. As in Coca-Cola, caffeine-free, the diet iteration.
I eventually found it in the IGA.
And now I'm back in my hotel room contemplating.
One thing I like about my heavy schedule is the excitement of interaction. As I like to say, walk out the front door and you have no idea what will happen.
And the truth is to a great degree the media is a disinformation society. I'm not talking about Fox and fake, I'm talking about perspective and holes. Unless you have boots on the ground, unless you've been there, oftentimes you don't know. Kinda like the reporters pontificating on what the people want without knowing them.
Everybody's got a story, and I want to know it.
What are you willing to risk?
Kate doesn't want to die on the job, but fear won't keep her from doing her job.
This is who she is.
Who are you?
"Sand In My Shoes"
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2WGaqIf
YouTube: https://bit.ly/327SyHa
P.S. After our first date, I told Felice I was listening to "Sand In My Shoes," I told her "I wanna see you again."
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First we went to Geoff's venue, the Brass Monkey. There were posters all over the door, even one of me, but what struck me most was the tribute bands, the seventies have not died. One was a doubleheader of Eagles and the Doobie Brothers...does the promoter know Irving manages both? And speaking of Irving, there was a Steely Dan tribute, and last Saturday they had Fleetwood Mac. Then again, Amy Winehouse plays too, it's not all oldsters. People are fans of the music.
And then the photographer for the "Australian" showed up.
He came with a suitcase full of gear, even a bag of lights. And he started shooting, all angles, changing lenses, I kinda cracked up that out of all these shots, they'd probably only use one.
But as John was setting up his umbrella, I asked him about his gig. He was the last photographer left, they'd all fallen by the wayside in the great internet crunch. He shot everywhere, like...Iraq.
Yup, during the war, they got ahead of the Americans. It was John, a reporter and an interpreter. They got accosted. Had guns pointed at their heads...talk about feeling alive.
And then we went downstairs into the venue and John shot even more. I was digging it, it's good to be the focus of attention, then again, I'm sure it gets old and overwhelming, assuming you're on the rocket ship to the top.
And when it was all done, we walked down to Geoff's office, killed some time, and then Don and I went down to the beach, for a shoot with the "Sydney Morning Herald."
Now you've got to know how beautiful the beach is. It's green and then blue and the surf today isn't that big, but there were people out there, albeit in wetsuits. I asked what the flags were about, figuring they were warnings not to go in the water, but actually it was just the opposite, you've got to swim between the flags, to avoid the rips, if there are no flags, don't go in.
And Cronulla Beach is...a resort town. Little did I know I was coming to Australia on vacation. Then again, like Donna Summer, I'm working hard for the money. A podcast tomorrow, two radio shows, and then podcasts and panels, sometimes twice a day, until I'm gone.
So we amble down to the beach and there's a blonde woman with one camera. Yup, she's got a Canon similar to John's, but that's all. I figured we got the B-team, after all, I'm B-level talent at best.
And this woman Kate has me walking down on the beach. I'll tell you, I was wondering whether to take my shoes off, there's nothing worse than getting sand in your shoes, then again, that Dido song said just the opposite:
"I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to
I know we said goodbye
Anything else would have been confused
But I wanna see you again"
"Sand In My Shoes" is about a vacation romance, you know, a fling to be forgotten, only the protagonist in this song cannot, forget that is. Isn't it funny how what we think is the sideshow becomes the main show.
And I got into Dido because of hearing "Life For Rent" in my mother's car, with only FM and no satellite. Repetition builds bonds. And when I got home to California I looked through hundreds of CDs until I found that one, and then played it over and over again, discovered "Sand In My Shoes," even went to see Dido at the Wiltern.
She recently put out a new LP and it didn't even make a ripple in the water. The paradigm shifted. Funny how you stay the same and times change and you're done.
So after leaning against rocks and standing by the lifeguard shack, I asked Kate about her gig.
She just came back from Syria. She started telling stories of the Kurds, of going to funerals. How the Kurds hate Trump and no one in the world trusts America anymore. These were not the words of a talking head on MSNBC, Kate had been there, she'd felt it.
Had she been shot at?
"We all have."
And it soon became clear Kate was part of the fraternity, of journalists.
Recently she was in the Congo. She's not an adrenaline junkie, she just needs to tell these stories, people need to know them.
And I'm standing there talking to her knowing she can't get rich, but her life is richer than most of the people who are.
And I asked her what was going on.
Kate said it was about resources, that's what everybody in the world is fighting for. That Trump's troops made sure the oil flowed, he was in the process of making a deal with Chevron for its distribution.
And I can't stop talking to Kate. You see most people are uninformed or unable to tolerate contrary opinions. Then, there are facts. She's talking about Erdogan's movement of Turks into this tiny strip, with little infrastructure. She showed me pictures of the Americans leaving, with their tails between their legs. But somehow, it's all about abortion, identity politics, anything but the real issues.
Now thereafter I went in search of Coke. As in Coca-Cola, caffeine-free, the diet iteration.
I eventually found it in the IGA.
And now I'm back in my hotel room contemplating.
One thing I like about my heavy schedule is the excitement of interaction. As I like to say, walk out the front door and you have no idea what will happen.
And the truth is to a great degree the media is a disinformation society. I'm not talking about Fox and fake, I'm talking about perspective and holes. Unless you have boots on the ground, unless you've been there, oftentimes you don't know. Kinda like the reporters pontificating on what the people want without knowing them.
Everybody's got a story, and I want to know it.
What are you willing to risk?
Kate doesn't want to die on the job, but fear won't keep her from doing her job.
This is who she is.
Who are you?
"Sand In My Shoes"
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2WGaqIf
YouTube: https://bit.ly/327SyHa
P.S. After our first date, I told Felice I was listening to "Sand In My Shoes," I told her "I wanna see you again."
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Sydney
"And Tommy doesn't know what day it is..."
Actually, it's Monday morning, 9:32 AM. Which is pretty strange, since I left L.A. on Saturday.
I flew Qantas. Didn't Rain Man say it never had a crash? Well, I think since then they have, but if you think your aircraft is gonna crash, you probably shouldn't fly to begin with. They say it's the lack of control. I feel that when I'm not behind the wheel. Felice and I were driving, actually she was driving, to Glacier Point in Yosemite, and if you miss a turn, good luck, I was pumping the imaginary brakes, but on an airplane, you've got to have faith, even if George Michael himself is gone.
It was an A380. One of those double-decked thingys. They're not gonna make any more. Turns out the flying paradigm has shifted, now it's about shorter flights with smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft. And now they've got these long-range 787s... As for the 737 Max, it's not the MCAS that concerns me, it's the whole concept. Rather than compete with Airbus's new plane, Boeing gussied up an old one, the 737 launched in the sixties, when there weren't even jetways at most airports. So, the Max had to fit engines on wings with a low height and then came up with software to accommodate the lack of balance...this is kinda like making digital vinyl records. Sometimes you've got to throw out the old to get started with the new. Or, as Dylan put it, "you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone." The times are certainly changing, but what's weird is to a great degree they're changing back, with populism reigning, a return to what once was that can never be regained, but that does not stop people from believing they can return to an era that wasn't that good to begin with.
So they gave you pajamas. I shit you not. Was there going to be a rush on the bathroom, for changing?
At first I finished Elton's biography "Me." Wherein the music is barely mentioned, it's all about interior dialogue and experiences, a revelatory music bio. Should you read it if you don't like, care or know Elton? Probably not. But if you want to know what it's like to be one of the biggest stars in the world... What's amazing is how many people Elton knows and stays in touch with, at least when he wasn't isolated in his bedroom on a coke binge. He talked to Ingrid Sischy every day! But at this point, most people probably have no idea who Ingrid was. But if you lived through the seventies, when Warhol still had impact... Think about that, a visual artist ruling the cultural world. Warhol sold out upfront, which constantly left you guessing, was it art or a joke, was it commerce or conception? That's back when art was all about challenging perceptions, before it became a second-class citizen all about scrapping for cash. Were Brillo boxes art? Are Marvel movies art? One thing's for sure, Marvel movies are all about the money, I mean has there ever been a comic book that has been anointed as great, key to the cultural fabric? Oh, I'm not talking about today's graphic novels...the whole world has gone lowbrow, and the highbrows are so out of touch that they should be ignored. And where does this leave us? With no direction home.
So they had a lot of good movies on the plane. I wanted to watch "Booksmart" and "Yesterday," but I never got to them, I was too busy reading. After I finished "Me," I turned to Gary Shteyngart's 2002 novel, "The Russian Debutante's Handbook," written before social media, when everybody decided they were a winner. Used to be you graduated from college and then...who knows? You tried to find yourself, get loaded, have sex, try to identify yourself before you were tied to kids, a mortgage and car payments. The funny thing about "The Russian Debutante's Handbook," is the interior dialogue is much more intriguing than today's art. You know, doubts, dreams, reflections on one's parents, your upbringing, where you fit in the social structure... All of this has been wiped clean. In music, you have to boast or blast. In movies the characters aren't even real. But there is hope in television, for now anyway.
So I changed into my pajamas and slept quite well. And when I woke up it was only forty five minutes till touchdown. So I went to the bathroom to change and...there was a line. So I ended up changing under the covers. I mean I couldn't wear my PJs into the airport!
But I'd missed the instructions. And when I got to the machines, I didn't know whether to use them or not. And just when I was ready to pull my passport, voila!, I got a ticket, allowing me to avoid the line.
Don met me and we got into his Audi and he told me how he was eager to get a Tesla. He talked about the acceleration. Yup, the upper middle class are the trendsetters in this case, and none of them are going back to gasoline cars. But what's really weird is in Australia they drive on the wrong side of the road. I know, I know, it's the right, but how come we can't all get on the same page here? I guess for the same reason the U.S. never adopted the metric system, even though Canada did. It's easy, like taking candy, from a baby. And we could switch overnight in the States but somehow that would be unpatriotic, we'd be sacrificing our freedom, to be ignorant, left behind. What kind of country do we now live in where up is down and vice versa? One in which the underclass is so far behind it has contempt for the educated and successful. Income inequality has consequences, but the rich don't want to suffer, they believe they've earned their cash, as if they could have made it without customers, i.e. the hoi polloi.
So we're driving away from Sydney, to Cronulla Beach.
You see it's spring here. Which is so weird, having exited L.A. in the fall. You can feel the rebirth, even though there was a Christmas tree in the airport. But I guess they didn't have snow in Jerusalem.
You feel the optimism, even though statistically more people commit suicide in the spring. Then again, what do we have to live for anymore? Art, baby. And sex. And art that explains sex. It's all about the human condition, but we're denying that.
So I'm here for Australian Music Week. Doing interviews, doing press.
Funny how you can go to sleep in one time zone, and then wake up halfway across the world. Where rugby and cricket supersede the NFL and MLB. But where football/soccer is making inroads, just like back home. Yup, just you wait, we're all gonna be kicking the ball soon, it's just a matter of time.
But no one thinks the future will ever come. Even worse, in the States, everyone wants to be inoculated against its consequences...I can't lose my job, my standard of living... But just like yesterday's music does not top the chart today, things change, and you've got to change with them or fall behind to your detriment.
Then again, learning, education, has a stain on it in America. You see it generates elites, who think they know more, who think they are better than the rest.
Only in America can bettering yourself be seen as a detriment.
Now I'm a big supporter of a social safety net, no one should starve, everyone should have a roof over their head. But the truth is while you're busy denigrating the achievers, you're falling farther behind.
How did this turn into a political screed?
I guess in an era of social media backlash, you can cower, protest that you are not worthy and get out of the way or...
There are more ways to get ahead than jumping through hoops. Believe me, I'm not in a hotel room overlooking the beach because I'm a lawyer, my SATs have got nothing to do with it, baby.
The truth is I went down the road less taken. Which most people are unwilling to do. I ain't got no kids, I sacrificed. But that's the only way to get to the unknown, to the pot of gold, which in many cases isn't even cash.
You get there via art, via music.
There's no degree that will get you there, you fly by your wits.
But the payoff... People don't do it for the money, they do it for the experience, the learning. Then again, in a culture where cash is put first, it's all gone to hell.
Keep your eyes open. Figure out how to go your own way, and not the one Lindsey Buckingham was singing about.
As Jim Carroll put it, "I'm just a constant warning to take the other direction."
It's those that do who change this world. Money has no chance against art, it's all about hearts and minds, baby.
And as Bon Scott so famously sang...
"It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock n' roll."
Actually, it's Monday morning, 9:32 AM. Which is pretty strange, since I left L.A. on Saturday.
I flew Qantas. Didn't Rain Man say it never had a crash? Well, I think since then they have, but if you think your aircraft is gonna crash, you probably shouldn't fly to begin with. They say it's the lack of control. I feel that when I'm not behind the wheel. Felice and I were driving, actually she was driving, to Glacier Point in Yosemite, and if you miss a turn, good luck, I was pumping the imaginary brakes, but on an airplane, you've got to have faith, even if George Michael himself is gone.
It was an A380. One of those double-decked thingys. They're not gonna make any more. Turns out the flying paradigm has shifted, now it's about shorter flights with smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft. And now they've got these long-range 787s... As for the 737 Max, it's not the MCAS that concerns me, it's the whole concept. Rather than compete with Airbus's new plane, Boeing gussied up an old one, the 737 launched in the sixties, when there weren't even jetways at most airports. So, the Max had to fit engines on wings with a low height and then came up with software to accommodate the lack of balance...this is kinda like making digital vinyl records. Sometimes you've got to throw out the old to get started with the new. Or, as Dylan put it, "you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone." The times are certainly changing, but what's weird is to a great degree they're changing back, with populism reigning, a return to what once was that can never be regained, but that does not stop people from believing they can return to an era that wasn't that good to begin with.
So they gave you pajamas. I shit you not. Was there going to be a rush on the bathroom, for changing?
At first I finished Elton's biography "Me." Wherein the music is barely mentioned, it's all about interior dialogue and experiences, a revelatory music bio. Should you read it if you don't like, care or know Elton? Probably not. But if you want to know what it's like to be one of the biggest stars in the world... What's amazing is how many people Elton knows and stays in touch with, at least when he wasn't isolated in his bedroom on a coke binge. He talked to Ingrid Sischy every day! But at this point, most people probably have no idea who Ingrid was. But if you lived through the seventies, when Warhol still had impact... Think about that, a visual artist ruling the cultural world. Warhol sold out upfront, which constantly left you guessing, was it art or a joke, was it commerce or conception? That's back when art was all about challenging perceptions, before it became a second-class citizen all about scrapping for cash. Were Brillo boxes art? Are Marvel movies art? One thing's for sure, Marvel movies are all about the money, I mean has there ever been a comic book that has been anointed as great, key to the cultural fabric? Oh, I'm not talking about today's graphic novels...the whole world has gone lowbrow, and the highbrows are so out of touch that they should be ignored. And where does this leave us? With no direction home.
So they had a lot of good movies on the plane. I wanted to watch "Booksmart" and "Yesterday," but I never got to them, I was too busy reading. After I finished "Me," I turned to Gary Shteyngart's 2002 novel, "The Russian Debutante's Handbook," written before social media, when everybody decided they were a winner. Used to be you graduated from college and then...who knows? You tried to find yourself, get loaded, have sex, try to identify yourself before you were tied to kids, a mortgage and car payments. The funny thing about "The Russian Debutante's Handbook," is the interior dialogue is much more intriguing than today's art. You know, doubts, dreams, reflections on one's parents, your upbringing, where you fit in the social structure... All of this has been wiped clean. In music, you have to boast or blast. In movies the characters aren't even real. But there is hope in television, for now anyway.
So I changed into my pajamas and slept quite well. And when I woke up it was only forty five minutes till touchdown. So I went to the bathroom to change and...there was a line. So I ended up changing under the covers. I mean I couldn't wear my PJs into the airport!
But I'd missed the instructions. And when I got to the machines, I didn't know whether to use them or not. And just when I was ready to pull my passport, voila!, I got a ticket, allowing me to avoid the line.
Don met me and we got into his Audi and he told me how he was eager to get a Tesla. He talked about the acceleration. Yup, the upper middle class are the trendsetters in this case, and none of them are going back to gasoline cars. But what's really weird is in Australia they drive on the wrong side of the road. I know, I know, it's the right, but how come we can't all get on the same page here? I guess for the same reason the U.S. never adopted the metric system, even though Canada did. It's easy, like taking candy, from a baby. And we could switch overnight in the States but somehow that would be unpatriotic, we'd be sacrificing our freedom, to be ignorant, left behind. What kind of country do we now live in where up is down and vice versa? One in which the underclass is so far behind it has contempt for the educated and successful. Income inequality has consequences, but the rich don't want to suffer, they believe they've earned their cash, as if they could have made it without customers, i.e. the hoi polloi.
So we're driving away from Sydney, to Cronulla Beach.
You see it's spring here. Which is so weird, having exited L.A. in the fall. You can feel the rebirth, even though there was a Christmas tree in the airport. But I guess they didn't have snow in Jerusalem.
You feel the optimism, even though statistically more people commit suicide in the spring. Then again, what do we have to live for anymore? Art, baby. And sex. And art that explains sex. It's all about the human condition, but we're denying that.
So I'm here for Australian Music Week. Doing interviews, doing press.
Funny how you can go to sleep in one time zone, and then wake up halfway across the world. Where rugby and cricket supersede the NFL and MLB. But where football/soccer is making inroads, just like back home. Yup, just you wait, we're all gonna be kicking the ball soon, it's just a matter of time.
But no one thinks the future will ever come. Even worse, in the States, everyone wants to be inoculated against its consequences...I can't lose my job, my standard of living... But just like yesterday's music does not top the chart today, things change, and you've got to change with them or fall behind to your detriment.
Then again, learning, education, has a stain on it in America. You see it generates elites, who think they know more, who think they are better than the rest.
Only in America can bettering yourself be seen as a detriment.
Now I'm a big supporter of a social safety net, no one should starve, everyone should have a roof over their head. But the truth is while you're busy denigrating the achievers, you're falling farther behind.
How did this turn into a political screed?
I guess in an era of social media backlash, you can cower, protest that you are not worthy and get out of the way or...
There are more ways to get ahead than jumping through hoops. Believe me, I'm not in a hotel room overlooking the beach because I'm a lawyer, my SATs have got nothing to do with it, baby.
The truth is I went down the road less taken. Which most people are unwilling to do. I ain't got no kids, I sacrificed. But that's the only way to get to the unknown, to the pot of gold, which in many cases isn't even cash.
You get there via art, via music.
There's no degree that will get you there, you fly by your wits.
But the payoff... People don't do it for the money, they do it for the experience, the learning. Then again, in a culture where cash is put first, it's all gone to hell.
Keep your eyes open. Figure out how to go your own way, and not the one Lindsey Buckingham was singing about.
As Jim Carroll put it, "I'm just a constant warning to take the other direction."
It's those that do who change this world. Money has no chance against art, it's all about hearts and minds, baby.
And as Bon Scott so famously sang...
"It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock n' roll."
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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