Mailbag

From: Graham Gouldman
Subject: Re: Good Morning Judge

Hi Bob,
Thanks for writing about 10cc and in particular 'Good Morning Judge'.
Here's some info about how that song was born.
The title comes from the punch line of a joke I'd heard, but can't fully remember, something about getting drunk, drunker then it's "Good morning judge".
Also I'd had a conversation with my dad where we were discussing long term prisoners becoming institutionalised. The last verse of the song speaks to this.
Best wishes
Graham Gouldman

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From: Bill Siddons
Subject: Re: Twisted Business

In 1983 I toured all the labels in the Atlantic Euro system with Phil Carson,  doing a label presentation for the new CSN album which was followed by Phil doing his Twisted Sister pitch and he put me to shame.  He put on a performance that showed me what a pitch was, and Twisted Sister became a priority for all those WEA labels  because of it.  I think Phil Carson broke them but perhaps Jay Jay made Phil do it.  In any case I learned how to create excitement and also that Dire Straits outsold all of us in every country 10 to 1. 

Bill Siddons

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From: Jeff Appleton
Subject: Re: Twisted Business

I first met Jay Jay in KC when I was local Atlantic Rep. No matter what anyone says getting radio to play Twisted Sister was not an easy task. Then the videos hit and they exploded. Meeting band first time Dee was what you expected. Flamboyant and knew how to handle an audience and the people who came back stage. He seemed to know exactly how far to go with each show and was the consumate host back stage. But the person I spent more time with was Jay Jay. He wanted to know who was playing the record,who wasn't. What were programmers saying, what was I hearing from record store people. How many tickets sold, what kind of promotions I did. What could he and the band do to help the upcoming shows that were not sold out. Every band says "we will do whatever it takes" until they get on the road and you have to beg them to get up early to do the morning show. That was never a problem with Jay Jay. He said it and he meant it. I lost track after Atlantic and after a few stops ended up at TVT. I get a call from Jay Jay- he was working with and managing Seven Dust and band was just signed to label. Our first meeting was getting caught up and then moved to answering all his questions and listening to his ideas on promoting the band. I just ordered the book. If you spend anytime with Jay Jay it can be motivational. I wish him nothing but much success.

Jeff Appleton

________________________________________

From: Bill Hein
Subject: Re: Donny & Chris

Bob,

Greatly enjoyed your conversation with Donny Osmond, also heard him on the Adam Carolla podcast a few days earlier.

I tried to sign Donny to Enigma Records back when he had "Soldier of Love" out on Virgin UK (recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios as I recall). Enigma was licensed to Virgin for international markets back then and Ken Berry tipped me off that Virgin Records America had passed on releasing Donny in the states. I can remember the WTF expressions of the Enigma rank & file when Donny visited our offices in Culver City. Donny was charming, intelligent, and talented with a huge work ethic. Eventually, Mike Curb got involved and pushed the project to Capitol who got airplay (#2 on Hot 100) for the single but didn't do much to establish Donny as a grown-up album artist. The one that got away...

Bill Hein
Boulder, Colorado

________________________________________

Subject: Re: Donny Osmond-This Week's Podcast

Bob...

Quick story about Donny. I was a freelance concert reviewer for the New York Daily News ('88-'93.) He did a show at the Palladium in NYC back in '89 when "Soldier of Love" was out. I dug him and took that angle for the review. I later heard he called the News and asked for me; he wanted to thank me for the review. In all my time at the newspaper, he was the only performer to do that. I dig Donny.

Matt Auerbach...

________________________________________

From: Steve Waxman
Subject: Dave Schools podcast

Hi Bob

I didn't know who Dave Schools was and I've never listened to Widespread Panic. I almost didn't listen to this episode. Wow! That would have been a mistake. What an incredible conversation. This guy is amazing and incredibly insightful. Every 15 to 20 minutes stood in its own. This is a vital listen for every young musician. 

As an aside, you always talk about the lack of relevance of guitar music these days but doesn't it seem interesting that whenever a hip hop artist does a television appearance they put together a guitar, bass and drums band to play behind them?

Keep up the great guests and more women and hip hop artists please. 

Steve Waxman

________________________________________

From: Craig Anderton
Subject: Re: Get Back-Part Three

"especially in this day of Pro Tools and hard drives and..."

People choose to use Pro Tools the way they do. Before Pro Tools, musicians were synching up multiple tape machines, recording overdub after overdub, comping, shifting pitch...you name it. The only real difference is that now anyone can afford to a) be lazy, and b) think that creating something with "the look and feel" of music is the same as creating music.

But the same technology that allows people to be self-indulgent also makes it easy to capture first takes. With tape, you had to clean and demagnetize the heads, thread the reel, sometimes align the heads, wait for rewind and fast forward, hope the tape didn't stretch, lubricate the pinch roller, set levels with far more care than is needed today, etc.

Since upgrading my setup a year ago, I can start recording in 30 seconds after turning on power. 30 seconds! As a result, these days, most of my parts are just a couple of  takes. I keep the hard disk going. When something good happens, I save it. 

Yes, I do spend a lot of time mixing and mastering. But the music itself had already been captured by then.

The technology is neutral. What people don't question enough is how they use it.

Craig




From: Joseph Taylor
Subject: Re: Those Fender Amps

I had a 68 Fender Twin. Great amp. I sold it, reluctantly, two years ago. It took up a lot of space and no club in a small market will let you play at that volume anymore. You've covered the decline in the record industry very well, but I'm here to tell you that live music on a local level is damn near ready for last rites. A buddy of mine was talking about a friends' kids who have a popular regional band, and there's a country band here in Central PA that's supposed to be very popular. I went to their web-sites, and both bands work maybe 3 to 4 times a month, and that's in a good month. Many months its two to three times. Hell, my wife and I were in a band in the early to mid-90s that did a lot of originals. She and the lead singer, also a woman, wrote a good third to half our songs, and we worked at least 4 times a month, sometimes even 6 times. I've been in bands that did obscure roots rock and worked every weekend, often two nights each weekend. Now, if you get a gig or two a month, you're happy, and you usually work less. Covid didn't help, but live music in bars was already hanging by a thread. Bar owners want the people to be able to talk and don't want music so lively it might distract customers from watching sports on TV. I'm using a solid state, 20 watt amp. A 15 watt tube amp gets complaints from the bar owner and customers--too loud. As I said, I'm in a small market, but if you're a musician who doesn't do a solo act or maybe duo, you're not working. 

Joe T

________________________________________

From: Jason Bernstein
Subject: Re: Newsom's Texas Gun Law

Gun control is an issue our industry should support, but I believe it should be presented as a financial issue, not a legal one.  
?
There are states in which the NRA has helped to pass legislation which makes it illegal to prohibit open carry and/or concealed weapons from entering a stadium or an arena.  That means when a metal detector goes off, you still have to allow the person in with a loaded gun. It's the law in several states. 
?
Often, there are carve outs for sports events, but since our industry isn't part of the conversation, there are no carve outs for music (so you're safe from guns at a football game, but not at a concert). 

Stadium concerts commonly gross $5MM-$12M or more per night.  In a stadium of 60,000+ people for any major act, at least 25% of the audience is traveling. That's a sold out arena's worth of people needing hotels, airfare, taxis/Ubers, bars, restaurants, clothing, etc. Their spending has an impact.
?
If Artists stop performing at venues where guns cannot be prohibited, and municipalities start to realize they are losing shows and revenue because of their state's lax gun control laws, then it becomes a community development/financial impact situation; that provides something the venue operators and local tourism boards can take to the legislature and use to start getting things reversed.
 
The time for thoughts and prayers is over.  We need conversations and actions. 

Jason Bernstein

________________________________________

From: Geronimo Son
Subject: Re: The Beatles: Get Back-This Week On SiriusXM

Thanks for having me on the air today!
I
t may sound incredibly stupid, but I had actually just called in to listen to the show haha.  I had been wanting to speak with someone about Get Back, someone who cares, so I had actually subscribed to Sirius today just to hear your show, just like you with Disney+, but the app wasn't firing up right so I called in, I thought the number was a way to listen haha.

I won't deny that there were times that John Lennon was an asshole, especially some of the mean things he later said in interviews, but he really didn't come across that way to me in Get Back.  

I did complain bitterly, perhaps more so than you have about Get Back, over Peter Jackson's treatment of the Hobbit.  There was no need to water it down that much and make it into two movies  With Get Back, if the whole thing had been riveting from start to finish, I would have assumed that he had left out too much.  At least this way we know he didn't cheat us!

A point you said later in the show worth emphasizing is the fact that John and Paul needed to take George more seriously.  I was amazed to see how they acted after lunch on the day when George had left and John and Paul were jamming and joking around, carrying on as if nothing had happened!

Oh, and I'm happy that more people realize that Yoko isn't the one to blame.  Maybe she added some tension, as any outsider might, but it certainly wasn't her fault. Also, I will always love her because she tipped me a $100 dollar bill once on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, TX.  I was busking, playing saxophone, it was a Sunday morning after SXSW and there was a welcome quiet in the street, just workers tearing scaffolding down, almost no one out and about.  I just went to play downtown for a bit before catching a bus to work.  I had my eyes closed, I was into the music and what I was doing, I think I was riding on a Duke Elllington number  and when I opened my eyes and I saw Yoko Ono bending down to put money into my case!  I kept playing, I think I bowed a bit and felt very honored as she kept walking down the street.  I later looked down and realized she had given me a hundred dollar bill!   I was very broke then and needing money for food and rent so I was incredibly grateful not only that she appreciated the music, but for the generous amount.  I hadn't even known she was in town, I later saw in the Austin Chronicle that she had been a speaker at SXSW.  

Anyway thanks again for having me on your show,
it was nice taking to you!  Your rant about how hard it is to get someone on the phone these days made me laugh, how true!  Except when you're not expecting to get through!  Haha

Geronimo

________________________________________

From: Bettye LaVette
Subject: Re: Ken Kragen-This Week's Podcast

Robert, 
Sometimes you make me so mad,
And then some times it seems you know .EVERYTHING.
I just like being amongst the MANY things you know.
This is one of the times when it's fun being older than almost everyone, of the things you know.
When Kenny and the First Edition came about. 
They came to Detriot, to work in a joint that held all of a hundred people, to promote, "WHAT CONDITION MY CONDITION WAS IN".
I had covered it, and went to see them and brought Kenny a copy of my interpretation of Condition (it was big in Detroit ) he loved it. Took it to his brother who had just started a new label in Nashville with Shelby Singleton , SSS INTERNATIONAL AND SILVER FOX, which was Lelands label.
Turned out his brother,Leland Rogers had been my national promotion man on my recording "LET ME DOWN EASY." A couple of years before, He was thrilled ...as was I. Leland signed me, I may have been the first artist on the label
The side thing is Kenny, was so broke at the time, and his brother never felt he should give Kenny any " finders fee"for bringing me to the label. It was good for me there for a moment, my.....third career I believe,??  but they were on  the outs , until " KNOW HOW TO HOLD EM"at which time he hired his brother, and at least two of Lelands children in the, by then immense  Kenny Rogers " aggregation.
See,now you know something else.
I hope your Holidays are WONDERFUL Baby!
B

________________________________________

Subject: Re: The Springsteen Sale

Even though every situation is different, and every artists catalog has different circumstances . . . . 

It is not just an emotional decision not to sell song publishing rights - it is a smart financial one !!  

It is smart because - in two words Bob - CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Many auteurs and moguls through the twentieth century died middle class [or less fortunate], but Chaplin died a wealthy man because he did not sell and OWNED ALL OF HIS FILMS, the equivalent of either owning one's physical masters or publishing rights or both.

If the given songwriting artist wants extra cash liquidity - sell a smaller 25%, 30%, 40% stake to Sony, Warner, whomever.

Bob, you are right that "now Sony owns the work of Bruce Springsteen, the poet laureate of the streets? That's just sad" - this is certainly true too, but in most cases ownership should not be sacrificed if possible - ask Abkco, ask Experience Hendrix, even ask Calderstone - ownership of artist songwriters with catalogs will offer dividends in the twenty first century in ways that we don't even know yet,

All the best to you Bob, 

Phil Klausner

________________________________________

Subject: Re: The Springsteen Sale

The Springsteen sale.  SONY, definitely not Born on the streets of Philadelphia, let alone in the USA. 

Not intending to be nationalistic in any way or digging at the brilliant Springsteen, just the wry observations of life. In 1969 if one had told a 20 year old Bruce that in his lifetime ALL of his songs would belong to a jointly owned Japanese and German company he would have responded, in a loud New Jersey vernacular, "no fuckin' way man". 

As in historical admiration of art, literature and philosophy from the Renaissance period, we music fans from decades gone by, are now witnessing the true evergreen riches of music from artists that shaped our lives and passions.  

Like the "Get Back" docuseries has opened up a whole new dimension of appreciation for The Beatles recordings.

Stay well Bob. Your musings are thought provoking, as were Bruce's long wordy songs.

Eddie Gordon

________________________________________

Subject: Re: The Springsteen Sale

The sums paid for these legacy catalogs are uneconomical in the normal sense of business transactions.  There's no rational financial analysis that could validate that any decent ROI or IRR could be achieved at these prices.  Remember, too, that these catalogs are depreciating assets -- over the long run the revenue streams will diminish and at some point the term of copyright expires so no fees are collectible.  

Most of the recent catalog deals are driven by the short term need for wealth funds to pay through a 5 - 6% return on capital to their limited partners.  Those VCs don't care that they won't later be able to unload the catalogs for a profit or that their terminal value will be shit compared to the purchase price.  As long as the VCs can meet the return on capital benchmark they promised their limited partners over a predetermined time frame, the price doesn't matter.  This ponzi-like syndrome will continue until they find a better cash-flowing asset class.

The motivation for labels paying uneconomic prices is different.  When they buy the assets of a signed artist, they have unaccounted for royalties -- over many years -- that can be applied internally to reduce the nominal price.  They get the benefit of no longer needing to apply internal human and financial resources toward future accountings.  Universal overpaid for Dylan for the cache (and loss leader to entice other sellers) and to embarrass Sony. Sony responded by overpaying for Paul Simon to avoid further embarrassment and, now again, with Springsteen. 

Jody Dunitz

________________________________________

From: Simon Toulson-Clarke
Subject: Re: The Springsteen Sale

30x is crazy good, mostly I'm hearing between 16 and 22x.

I've been approached about my own catalogue and I've been working out the figures; with a small handful of 80s songs that continue to be played on radio it has value, though of course nothing like the big stars of that classic era such as the Boss and Dylan.

But let's, for sake of argument, say that an artists' performance and mechanical royalties can raise 20x their annual income as a lump sum. 
So £100k pa could raise £2m. Sounds good...it IS good, particularly if the lump sum can transform your life (buy a nice house you can leave to your kids, build a better studio, whatever).

But 2 things about that: I have an 18 year old daughter who would get my royalties for another 70 years after my death. Let's say I live another 25 years, that's 95 years of income sold for 20. Maybe not so good.
Sure, the annual earnings may decline even though they've plateaued for 30 years. But they may also perk up and increase driven by a timely film or advertising sync which earns beaucoup sponduliks. 

It's a gamble either way.

But given that Covid has hit licensing income for writers in the last couple of years and would-be investors use the last 5 years to calculate the capital sum it looks a good deal for them at 5% pa. cos there isn't much other than bricks and mortar consistently doing more, and 5% is about average for UK property's annual value increase. Most other investments, if security is a concern, are struggling to make 2% or less.

Add to this the fact that the writer or rights holders' slice of streaming, if it's gonna go anywhere it's gonna go up in the next few years - we may even inherit our old masters and the rights, then you may be looking at the very best moment for Corps and investment companies who are capital-liquid to invest in older song catalogues.

I'm still scratching my head about it I don't mind telling you...

Very Best Wishes,
Simon TC

________________________________________

From: Olivier Chastain
Subject: Re: The Springsteen Sale

You're sadness about Bruce and Neil selling is misplaced in my opinion. You're forgetting a key aspect which is succession. Not everyone is equipped to manage these legacies. Is Jon Landau going to continue managing it? He is the same age as Bruce and has worked his ass off to get him where he is - he deserves a break ;-) Bruce's kids? My experience is that heirs are rarely interested in managing their parent's legacy and tend to do more harm than good. Of course, the family could just keep doing admin deals for the publishing and licensing/distribution deals for the record side. Not bad solutions but it will not provide the catalog with the focus that a high price buyer will bring (either by choice or necessity).

________________________________________

From: Timothy 'Sully' Sullivan

Hi Bob,

I think Sony wildly overpaid on the Springsteen deal.

My rationale: with The Beatles, Sinatra, Zeppelin, Dylan, the Stones- heck, even ABBA- their music passes along from one generation to the next. There are tons of people of all ages into them. Even very young ones.

I don't personally know one person under 50 who's into Bruce Springsteen.
I'd be willing to wager that for the under 40 demo, he's essentially unknown. With the name recognition of Millard Fillmore, or probably less.

Meaning the future usage values will be lesser each passing year.
When the boomers are essentially gone as a consumer force (less than a decade away...!) the value of the catalog will collapse. It will take Sony decades, if ever to recoup on this one. 

Unless they have some very powerful and currently not visible tricks up their sleeve.... unlikely.
Or if there is some Springsteen youth cult developing in Asia I'm unaware of.

The upside (and downside) of big corporate money: it belongs to someone else. Execs spend it foolishly all the time.
Like this.

All just imho of course,
Sully

________________________________________

Subject: Re: The Springsteen Sale

Bob, Hank Ballard who wrote "The Twist", lived at my house for the last year and a half of his life. I produced his last album. Naturally, i got to know him well and heard all the stories. He sold his publishing rights for " The Twist" for 5 grand in 1969. He kept his writers share but  obviously gave up a lot. 

Peter Miller

________________________________________

From: Timothy Hadley
Subject: Re: The Springsteen Sale

Dear Bob,

Very nicely stated. Here's another wrinkle--Buddy Holly died at 22 b/c someone was stealing from him and despite him selling millions of records, he couldn't make ends meet. So he booked an Upper Midwest tour in the middle of winter, on a bus with a broken heater, and then decided to fly to Fargo instead of ride 366 miles on a freezing bus. He wasn't getting paid properly, but instead of negotiating with his record label, he just went off on his own on a tour that was one bad idea after another--until disaster struck. 

So it's not always just about money. Sometimes it's about people's lives.

TY for an excellent article.

Tim

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The Springsteen Sale

30x?!!!!

It's the twilight of the gods. Pete Townshend said rock and roll would never die, but one thing's for sure, its performers will. No one lives forever, and after the deaths of David Bowie and Glenn Frey, we knew it could come, not from bad behavior, not drugs and alcohol, but the vagaries of life, drawing the wrong genetic number, getting cancer or rheumatoid arthritis.

So what about the music? Even though modern rock is a footnote in the overall sphere of new music, classic rock still lives, everywhere, from radio to jukeboxes to streaming services to commercials to that speaker at the drive-in...will this continue?

What you have to know is the superstars who sold their rights for a lump sum ultimately regretted it. The two biggest examples being Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin. Colonel Parker wanted his cash, and he thought the value of Elvis's catalog had peaked. Peter Grant didn't think Led Zeppelin was for the long term, he sold out the rights, thank god the internet came along and gave the band the opportunity to renegotiate. As for those people who've sold and are happy...scratch the surface, it's more complicated than that. They own it, they can do what they want with it. And on one hand this is good, it might keep the music alive, on the other the use might not align with your identity/personality/career strategy. But if you're dead?

The truth is most acts have not survived. For every Doors, there's a Jefferson Airplane. Not everything from the past is worth a fortune.

As for selling your royalties, Josh Gruss of Round Hill Music told me he expects to make the money back in seven years. Some acts are just that broke, they need the cash, but unless you're 85, why would you do that? Don't forget musicians are historically terrible business people. But you know the maxim, everything is for sale, and if the price is high enough...

So they're saying between $500 and $600 million. That's a lot of cash, but the devil is in the details. Sell, and you pay 20% in taxes, whereas your yearly royalties are taxed at regular rates, as much as 37%. So...

It's a calculation.

Let's do the math. Bruce Springsteen is 72 years old. Is he gonna live another thirty years? Highly doubtful. There are some who live to 102, but very few. So this is the deal of a lifetime, he's got to take the cash. And let's not forget, when he and his wife die his heirs will have to pay significant inheritance tax, meaning if Bruce didn't sell now, his children almost definitely would have to sell upon his death.

So anybody who says Bruce shouldn't have taken this deal runs on emotion, not fact.

However, the big question is...what will Bruce Springsteen's music be worth in the future?

Yes, Bruce's songs are iconic, but you can't cover "Born to Run," or "Born in the U.S.A." Those are records, those are Bruce's. This isn't Bob Dylan, or even Paul Simon, with umpteen covers. However, covers are not the only way you can make money on a legacy catalog. Hell, Cadillac offered the Doors $10 million to use "Break on Through" decades ago, and the band turned it down! The price is only going up. And hedge funds don't invest unless they foresee a HUGE return. They don't want 5-10%, they're looking for a huge multiple, just like Bruce.

Now one thing we know, as long as there's a copyright law, at least in the U.S., you're gonna get paid (Disney keeps lobbying to have nothing expire, most notably Mickey Mouse). This is the silver lining of streaming. And it seems every couple of years there's a new opportunity to monetize. No one foresaw TikTok, and all these social media companies are now licensing music. So there's runway, in the short to medium term, but the long term? Elvis's merch sales are down. His fans are dying. Nobody is forever. Well, maybe Frank Sinatra and the Beatles. And who could have predicted the Doors would hang around this long. But will your band last, will your songs last?

You don't want to sell. These are your creations, these are your babies, you want to manage them, hold them closely. But now you're confronted with death. No one lives forever. Like I said above, emotionally it might not make sense, but intellectually, financially, it certainly does.

Now I bet some of the previous sellers are now kicking themselves, thinking they should have held on. It's always an issue when to sell. We saw this with SFX, what is now Live Nation. At first prices were extremely good, then they were stratospheric, but if you waited too long, the value went down. (And let's not forget Sillerman sold SFX to Clear Channel, he got his money, and the music business has a history of consolidation, who is going to own your rights in the future? Certainly someone you have no relationship with, never mind whether your interests align.) We have no frame of reference, no history, no classic rocker has been dead so long their audience is gone, so we can properly compute the value of their works. Classic rock could be forever, or when Generation X is gone, it could take a swift fall. Then again, classic rock is just not music, it represents an era of experimentation, when the culture went hand in hand with the music, when musicians moved the needle in every day life, when music was everything. That is not today, which is why today's music has a shorter lifespan. Think of the paintings and sculpture of the Renaissance, they're forever! Could that be classic rock? Just may be, especially if there's enough melody

So it's weird. Despite Springsteen's quote today, the label has always been the enemy, it doesn't pay accurate royalties, the faces keep changing, you can never trust your label. So on one hand you get your money up front, on the other you lose control. Wasn't classic rock all about control?

And how much money do you need?

Then again, you don't want to just give it all to the government. The government essentially pays you to invest, to give some away, it's one of the drivers of the economy. Then again, when you get really rich, how much can one person, one family purchase?

So Springsteen's kids will inherit a ton of cash, but they won't own any of the music. And cash? You can spend it all in a day. Music rights have almost a guaranteed return, ergo the 30x above. But stocks, other investments? They can go down as well as up. And never forget, Steve Bing died essentially penniless, with under 100k. And he was not a dumb guy.

So, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. When the prices get insane, it's hard to say no.

But once again, the valuations are by people who specialize in money, not music. It's not feel, it's math. There are a limited number of catalogs available. Is it key to have critical mass, or has Merck Mercuriadis driven the whole rights business right off a cliff? Remember when the internet came along, Napster? The labels had huge deals with legacy acts, they had to pay millions up front for albums that couldn't possibly make a return equal to what was laid out. Stuff happens in the future you can't foresee. Like Black Friday or 2008. You could lose money on all your stock, but if you still had your music assets, royalties would be paid.

On the surface 30x appears out of control. Springsteen just can't say no. On another, it's the death of the dream. The money was always there, but it was never up front. Hell, Bruce wanted to keep ticket prices low. Now the money's right in your face and it affects credibility, it's hard to create art with the dollar signs in sight. That's a business proposition. And music is a business, but it survives on the efforts of artists. And the value of music grew to such heights because of classic rock. That's why it's classic! But when Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young sell out to the man, it breaks your heart. You can understand it, but still... The man was always the enemy. Corporations are the scourge of America. And now Sony owns the work of Bruce Springsteen, the poet laureate of the streets? That's just sad.

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Ken Kragen-This Week's Podcast

Uber-manager Ken Kragen, who steered the careers of Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Trisha Yearwood, Olivia Newton-John, the Bee Gees, the Smothers Brothers, Travis Tritt, Gallagher and more, sadly just passed at 85. After Kenny Rogers died in 2020, Ken did a podcast with me about Kenny that was never aired. In fact, it's more about Ken than Kenny, so in tribute to him I am posting it now. If you're interested in going deeper, you can listen to my podcast with Ken about his life and career posted on September 12, 2019.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ken-kragen/id1316200737?i=1000545158860

https://open.spotify.com/episode/59rDgSa16TKriFecZRiKhx?si=j8Fc38w0Q2WFSyHUexeqlw

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast?

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast


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Twisted Business

"Twisted Business: Lessons from My Life in Rock 'n Roll": https://amzn.to/3yxz8x3

Jay Jay French is a hustler. A New York hustler. The top of the heap. A survivor. A human cockroach who cannot be ignored and cannot be killed. And that's why he made it.

Every band needs a hustler. Sure, some bands become big and can the initial hustling manager for the big, established one, but the established ones started out as hustlers too, that's how you make it in this business.

That's why I'm against music business education. You can't teach someone to hustle, they're born to it, it's the environment, their family, their parentage. They didn't start hustling when they formed a band, they were always hustling, like Mr. French, he started out as a dope dealer. How else could he afford equipment and tickets?

Scratch the back of music industry icons and you'll find a plethora started by dealing drugs. Most notably Doc McGhee, who used the skills he developed to turn Bon Jovi into a monster act. But it's not only McGhee... It's a good background. It's sleazy, it's a cash business, and you never know when you'll be ripped off. Just like rock and roll. And neither side of the trade trusts each other, i.e. the band and the label. The label is not your friend, never ever ever, remember that as they wine and dine you, they end up billing you for the cost anyway.

So Jay Jay dropped out of high school. It was impinging on his lifestyle. This is after getting kicked out a few times for his revolutionary behavior. Yes, this was the sixties. If you're not a limit-tester, if you're not questioning authority, if you're not pushing the envelope, good luck trying to make it.

So Jay Jay joins a band that goes through umpteen formulations before it finally gets a record deal, ten years later, and it's like Spinal Tap, one label folds, an exec dies on a flight back to the U.K... Your one big break is never one, not in the music world. Your failures far outweigh your successes, it's only the superstars who get to say no, and they're always worried they're going to fall out of favor with the fans. Yes, the manager, and hopefully someone in the act, is paying attention to ticket counts, you want to catch the dip in the bud, try to turn it around. As for Twisted Sister... They had mega success and blew up the band.

French blames it on the single, a cover of "Leader of the Pack." But it's more than that, the perception of the band had morphed, from heavy metal to cartoon, and their hard core audience became wary of them, they moved on, leaving Twisted Sister bankrupt, truly.

Also there were personality conflicts. It was an equal partnership but the focus was on Dee Snider, who eventually failed as a solo act anyway. You can count the number of front people who've left their band and gone on to greater success on one hand. Phil Collins is the exception, not the rule, and he continued to keep his day job, in Genesis.

So everybody knows the band, but Jay Jay is broke. He ends up selling stereo equipment while he regroups. He owns the band's name, he shares the revenue with members equally, but he's the one with the head for business, and he cares more than all the outsiders they employed before, Jay Jay also became the manager.

So his love life... God, just surviving that would be tough. The two-timing women. The wife who leaves him when Twisted implodes. You may want to be rich and famous, but significant others may be drawn to you because of those qualities, as opposed to your personality, and if those edifices crumble, they oftentimes leave.

So there you have it, classic music business story.

Well, not completely. TWISTED SISTER WAS COMPLETELY SOBER! Drugs and alcohol may be cool, but they're a huge impediment to success. You want to be clear-headed. Furthermore, everybody lies to look cool. They talk about their hard time in high school, but they graduated, but like I said, Jay Jay truly did not. And then you have the wannabes imitating the legend, the perception, not the reality, and then they exhibit bad behavior and O.D. and... It's called music BUSINESS, focus on BUSINESS, it's about the money, don't ever forget that.

And everybody needs some.

So now Jay Jay has reinvented himself as a motivational speaker. I kid you not. Every convention needs one, even though they make no difference to the assembled multitude, because you're not them. Their rules might have worked for them, but you have to find your own rules. Actually, Jay Jay eventually says this. But towards the end of chapters for every letter of TWISTED.

Are you laughing?

Jay Jay is not. He's serious. This is no laughing matter. This is about survival, this is about money, there is no safety net.

So most of what he says is obvious, except for one chapter, the second "T," trust. Do what you say you're going to. Your credibility is key. Deliver on promises. Contracts are irrelevant, the lighting and sound companies that provided gear for Twisted Sister in the beginning did it on a handshake, they wanted the band to survive, you've got to support the up and comers, just as long as the band came through, paid every week.

You'd be stunned how many people can't do the basics. Show up on time straight and do what they're supposed to do. I know, I know, it sounds basic, but there's a crisis in America, maybe in the rest of the world too, I don't know, but here... Then again, you deliver at your job and don't make more money and don't get promoted and there's no trust between you and your employer anymore. There's a divide in America, and it's not only between Democrats and Republicans, it's also between the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor. The rich repeat the myth that they're geniuses, not lucky (and if they're such geniuses, how come they can't repeat the success, almost none can), and that their wealth will trickle down to the little people. Yeah, right. That's statistically been proven wrong, but few are listening. The dream of striking it rich and paying low taxes is the only one the hoi polloi have got.

So, used to be being a rock star meant you were rich and famous. Well, Twisted Sister never got rich, but they were certainly famous. But today there are easier ways to be rich and famous than becoming a musician. But a musician, or people who call themselves that, need no training, no education, there is no barrier to entry, now, more than ever, whereas most professions have high hurdles.

But a guy like Jay Jay will always find his way.

Will you?

Probably not. Because you don't need it that bad, you didn't grow up in poverty. Those with the least have the biggest desire. And desire is just as important as talent. You've got to keep on chooglin', and most people give up. Although Jay Jay says when your dreams far outstrip your pocketbook, when you can't make ends meet, change your dream. Which is good advice. I hear from too many starving musicians who tell me they've put in their 10,000 hours, the system is against them, they're gonna make it. Hmm...no. The world has spoken, it doesn't need you. Maybe if you had a hustling manager, a better agent...but it's incumbent on you to build the relationships, being able to play is just one element. And players are a dime a dozen, what makes you special? Twisted Sister was special.

So really, this book needed to come out in the eighties. Back then Twisted Sister was still in the public consciousness, buyers would have been plentiful, books by working musicians were relatively rare. But now? Every person who had success once has or is writing a book. But the public cannot digest all of them, almost all of them fail.

And almost all of them are done the same way. The act dictates and then a third party transcribes and oftentimes the end result is barely readable. The Frampton autobiography? Worst written major book I've ever read, it's atrocious. Books have to flow. And readers know when you repeat yourself... I mean does anybody proofread these tomes? Jay Jay's is better than most, but there are times he repeats what he already said, like telling the story of his brother being a teacher. There's so little money involved that the worker bees do a shoddy job of cutting and pasting and...if you really care, you could do a better job, right?

But Jay Jay's is better than most. It's highly readable. You'll get hooked. It does bog down a bit somewhere in the middle, where it's business sans anecdote, but the story and anecdotes are great. Yes, Jay Jay is busy taking credit, for things like the first heavy metal Christmas album, and licensing heavy metal songs, but really, who cares? This is just stuff you say to make yourself feel good. Jay Jay does it less than most, but it's still in there.

But Jay Jay is not warm and fuzzy. He's not laid back. His book is unlike those of the classic rockers. It's not a tale, it's in-your-face. Hard core. No B.S.

Does Jay Jay really do two motivational speeches a month?

Who knows? That's the main purpose of this book, to get more speaking gigs. And it's probably serves that purpose pretty well.

But for me... It was that indelible track "I Wanna Rock." Sure, "We're Not Gonna Take It" is more famous, but "I Wanna Rock" is an anthem. Pure. Gut-busting. That's rock and roll. That's what drove the business. That's what had us buying the records and the tickets. Jay Jay was there, on both sides of the equation, as a fan and a performer.

And if you were there too, you'll identify.

But those times are dead and gone. Spending 300k on your new video? No way. Then again, rock is now a fringe genre. At this point the players in that world have lowered expectations. But for a while there, you could play any kind of music and make it to the top, be world famous. And that's what Twisted Sister was, world famous, you cannot take it away from them, and achieving that? Nearly impossible!


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The Failure Of West Side Story

Blame the movie industry. If you stop making adult films adults fall out of the habit of attending them.

Yes, Hollywood is now for cartoon superheroes. Comedies are too risky, these conglomerates want a guaranteed return. They're risk averse. Never in the history of the film business has it been less about art.

As for risk-taking, that's all on the flat screen. Which has increased in quality to the point where it's a better experience for most people. You're alone, without the riff-raff talking on their phones, there is no garbage at your feet, the image is pristine on the screen AND THE MOVIE STARTS WHEN YOU WANT IT TO! Never mind being able to pause at will.

We live in an on demand economy. Everything is delivered when you want it. People are acquiring fewer possessions. Kids don't have driver's licenses and their parents are happy that their immature bodies are being ferried by Uber. The world changes, Hollywood has not.

Yes, in hindsight those studios that delivered their pix to streaming services day and date are the futurists here, the winners. Forget all the bitching from agencies and talent. First and foremost, scripted entertainment is an ever-decreasing percentage of major talent agencies' revenue and profitability. They saw the handwriting on the wall, they diversified, but when it comes to movie distribution everything remains the same? Meanwhile, Netflix lays beaucoup bucks at the feet of talent, with little interference, that's the future, and if you want an ongoing percentage negotiate with them, not the moribund movie studios. It'd be like the music business insisting everybody go back to CDs. The economics changed, because of technology and the public's desires. The way out was to embrace the future, i.e. Spotify, with its ultimate benefit of endless payment for streamed tracks, the catalog is more valuable than ever before!

So Spielberg is an unknown quantity amongst Generation Z, and amongst a lot of Millennials too. "Jaws" was 46 years ago. "E.T." 39. And "Jurassic Park" is now a franchise that is not associated with him. Those are Spielberg's greatest hits, and they're in the past, but to the aged titans in the film industry he's a god. That'd be like saying young people love Bad Company and Boston. Sure, there's an audience, OF AGED PEOPLE!

But Bad Company and Boston weren't remakes. Imagine a cover album of their tunes today, dead in the water. We see this with tribute albums, they almost universally fail. Doesn't matter how good they are, people want the original.

So... If you want to promote a film today you don't do it via reviews. The positive reviews for "West Side Story" were an insider circle jerk. An hermetically sealed system that didn't reach anybody under the age of forty, and didn't reach many above that age either.

The promotion should have started on TikTok, forget the critics. The active audience is on TikTok, and TikTok is about dancing, just like "West Side Story"! Youngsters are active, oldsters are passive. To get an oldster off the couch is nearly impossible. An oldster will question the ticket price when a youngster doesn't think twice, if they want it they do it. So to succeed, "West Side Story" needed to appeal to the younger generation, and on its surface it did not.

All we saw were stories about Rita Moreno. But the last time she's been in the public eye was "Oz," about twenty years ago. However talented she might be, kids don't know her and don't care. But they could have been sold.

And don't tell me there's no market for movie musicals. What about "High School Musical"? If you build it they probably won't come, if you market it to them there's a good chance they will.

If you're marketing to adults you've got to make it easy. You've got to make it a value proposition. They move slowly and wait for word of mouth. And by time word of mouth gains traction for a movie, the film has left the theatre. The movie business no longer moves at the speed of adults, it's much faster. Boomers remember when films played for six months. Started in theatres in New York and L.A. and then platformed out across the country over weeks. Today they open in thousands of theatres, make most of their money up front and then disappear, to the flat screen. And that's so fast that unless you're truly passionate, you can wait for the appearance on the flat screen. And you don't want to pay an on demand fee, it must be baked into a service you're already paying for.

You can rail against the rules, the law, the future, but no one has ever won proceeding on that basis. You can only win by embracing not only the present, but getting ahead of the public. Putting features on streaming services got people in the habit of seeing their films there. To build the service you needed more films. I signed up to see "Hamilton," with my free account from Verizon for Disney+, but when that was over I was done, there was no further product appealing to me. Disney is a youth company. The era when Michael Eisner took over and they created Touchstone and made "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" is long gone.

Steven Spielberg doing an updated, improved version of "West Side Story"... I ask you, WHO IS WAITING FOR THAT? Spielberg is about action, not gravitas. He's got no history with music, he's not Bob Fosse. And despite "Schindler's List" he's got little reputation for highbrow. He's not in the wheelhouse of the aged cognoscenti who go to foreign films in theatres to feel better about themselves, to brag, wearing their attendance as a badge of honor. As a matter of fact, the revered makers of adult films are almost all gone. The hero directors of today...Michael Bay? Christopher Nolan?

"Licorice Pizza" would be culture shifting if it were on HBO, with its imprimatur and hype. Opening in a couple of theatres over the holiday, it's a minor experience, only elite insiders care. Hell, Netflix did a much better job of hyping "Power of the Dog," a much more difficult viewing experience, and more people will end up watching it than would have ever seen it on the big screen, and when awards season hits, and it starts just about now, "Power of the Dog" is just a click away, you can make an instant decision, get instant satisfaction, and if you don't like it, you can immediately turn it off and not feel ripped off.

It's not like boomers are not invested in higher brow, non-superhero entertainment. Look at "Succession"! This stuff used to be films. Albeit much shorter. "Succession" is better at an extended length.

As for all this hogwash about the theatre experience... It sucks. As for the big screen, it's like the recording industry talking about the quality of CDs. And now you can stream at CD quality, EVEN BETTER! But people chose convenience over quality. Isn't this Clayton Christensen 101? The newbie starts cheap and inferior but good enough, gains traction, gets better and kills the old institution.

As for budgets... Talk to record labels about recording budgets. They're a fraction of what they what once were. Sure, it's great to be able to spend half a million dollars in an A-level studio creating your opus, but the economics changed and that paradigm has evaporated. As for the youngsters dominating the charts, they have no experience with that era, AND THEY DON'T CARE! They make records in their bedrooms and they top the charts. Everybody's happy except those who can't get over the fact their cheese has been moved.

The failure of "West Side Story" should not come as a surprise to the film world. They created the atmosphere where it was doomed. You stop servicing an audience and you expect them to show up on demand, based on brand name? Brand name actors mean less at the box office than ever before. And when it comes to directors, the only one who gains adult notice is Quentin Tarantino, because he always twists the format, delivers something different, unique. As for Scorsese, another insider lauded by the oldsters, he's a TV director now. And he'd better make better films if he wants youngsters to pay attention, "The Irishman" was a slog, assuming you could get through it.

Yes, today it's less about image than story, which is what the flat screen has delivered. And isn't the essence story? Story has taken a back seat too long in Hollywood, but on TV it's up front and center, where it always must be to ensure a warm reception by the public.

Things changed. It was happening before the pandemic, Covid just accelerated it, put a stake in the heart of the old game. Accept it.


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Bookends

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3GHVIGi

"Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you

"Bookends Theme"

We all live in the past.

The past few days I've been reading this book "Powder Days," by Heather Hansman. After graduating from Colby College she went west to Colorado and became a ski bum. But after a few years she let go, now, years later, she's revisiting all her old haunts and old people, trying to find out if the ski bum life still exists, and how those who were caught up in it have survived.

It was different decades ago. You could make it on minimum wage. And almost nobody was going anywhere fast. You were trying to find yourself, do what felt right. It was hard for our parents to understand, having grown up in an age where you did what you had to, what you were told, to get ahead in the world. But the boomers were the first generation raised in the era of leisure time, when you could think about what you wanted to and do it, when who you were was more important than how much money you had.

It's not that different in the music business. Sure, as the sixties closed it was obvious money was being made in the music business, ergo the consolidation of Warner, Elektra and Atlantic into the Warner Music Group. As a matter of fact, Ahmet Ertegun could never get over the sale, Atlantic was first, he wanted the financial security, but those who sold thereafter got a much better multiple, he believed he'd been ripped off. So when you told your parents you wanted to work in the music business, they were not encouraging. Furthermore, you couldn't start at the top, you couldn't even start in the middle. Your college degree meant nothing. And there was no financial security, no obvious career. To this day it's hard to stay in the music business, then again a whole generation is not eager to get involved. Used to be if you worked at a record label you were a god, inside the machine, privy to Oz. Now, it's just a job.

And it was all because of the music. There's music today, but it doesn't infect people the same way. It doesn't mean the same thing. Back then it was everything, and we counted on our artists to push the envelope each and every time, and they tried to. And we basked in the results.

So on these cold winter nights, well, as cold as it gets in Southern California, it's the quieter music that resonates, that keeps me warm. Not the bombastic in your face productions, but the ones that touch my soul, like Simon & Garfunkel's "Bookends."

Am I the only person who just doesn't love "Bridge Over Troubled Water"? I mean it's okay, but it's just another ballad featuring Art Garfunkel's high voice. Oh, it's more than that, but I'd much rather listen to "The Boxer," on the flip side of that album, which is held up as the duo's paragon of excellence when the truth is that's "Bookends," which came before.

"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" was the one that showed us these two were different. That they weren't just recording ditties, but reaching for something more. "Scarborough Fair" is far superior to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" in my book. There's the upbeat "Cloudy" and the reflective "Homeward Bound," but the best track on the album is "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her," the most beautiful song I know. Go deep beneath the surface and this is every man's dream. The track hovers above the earth, it is not of this world, it's free of the bringdowns, it's life.

And of course there was "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night," which captures the zeitgeist better than any of today's bombastic tracks. Today you can do or say anything, but the end result is usually nothing is said. Whereas "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" cut right to the heart of society, and everybody was aware of it, even though it was not a hit single and didn't get radio play, this is what happens when you tell your truth holding no punches. Then again, there were many fewer records then.

And then came "Bookends." It's the album with "Mrs. Robinson," but at this point that was seen as a movie song, for "The Graduate," which had come out the year before. And both the song and film are great, but "Bookends" as a whole is even better.

At the time, it was the second side I cottoned to, that i played most. I loved the opening track, "Fakin' It." "Punky's Dilemma"...I could never forget the reference to the Kellogg corn flake but the truth is I didn't love it back in '68, although it grew on me. And then there was the concluding trifecta, "Mrs. Robinson," "A Hazy Shade of Winter" and "At the Zoo"...WHEW!

As for the first side, at first I only cherry-picked "America," which is the best track on the album, which encapsulates a spirit and experience that no longer exists. The dream is no longer to go cross-country, to see America, and now you're never disconnected, you can reach out and touch Mommy & Daddy with your cell phone. Back then once you walked out the front door you were in the ether, disconnected, alone, long distance phone calls were expensive, and you made them once a week, if that.

But I came to love "Save the Life of My Child," with its aside "He's all right," the chaos and changes, you felt you were on the street before "America" took you on a journey.

But then... "Overs" was a downer after "America."

But after that, you had "Voices of Old People," which you only needed to hear a few times and then couldn't tolerate. This was back in the experimental music era, John Cage and so much more. "Revolution 9." That's how the track was viewed.

And the album closed with "Old Friends" and a reprise of the theme song, albeit with lyrics this time.

"Old Friends"... It was slow, sandwiched between that which didn't need to be heard. But there's that one line that every boomer knows, which I've been saying a lot to friends recently, as that dreaded birthday arrives for them, "How terribly strange to be 70."

64 is younger. And the Beatles song was a lark, from the perspective of youth. You really didn't feel the advanced age. But in "Old Friends"...

These were the forgotten people, on park benches, we thought we'd never get there, but we are there now.

When you get to around 70, it's about lifestyle. Good times. Friends. Possessions mean less, as does the culture. You pay attention to the movies, watch TV, but there's nothing you really need to hear or see, and you can always fall back on the classics. And the shenanigans... You realize nothing ever changes, it seems people can't get along, and there are always a few money and power hungry people who cock it all up for everybody else. But at least you'll be gone soon. You think about the long term future, but when there's gridlock you disconnect, I mean you're literally not going to be here.

So now "Old Friends" resonates completely. How prescient Paul Simon was. But what resonates with me most is the "Bookends Theme," which closes out the side.

"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences"

It most certainly was, and we didn't realize how good we had it, that these were our formative years. I'm not talking about high school, but college and your twenties. You questioned, you bonded, you weighed the options, experimented and found your path, whether by choice or default. In your thirties you get serious, before that you still believe everything is up for grabs.

Of course it's different now. People in their twenties have careers, own houses, are saving for retirement. We thought we'd die before we retired, we could not see that far out, absolutely not. But now we're looking back.

I got out. The second year in Utah I realized if I didn't leave then, I never would. And it was hard, but I escaped. You say you can ski on the weekends, take vacations, but that's not the same thing. You've got to hit the hill every day, like a job, the experience counts, you fine tune your skills, after a month you're at the top of your game, having peak experiences, which trump everything else in your life, but is it a life?

Most of the people still doing this in "Powder Days" have sacrificed everything to ski, relationships, children, ownership of houses... They're all in, and it's too late to turn around. But they continued to reach for the stars in this one vertical, whereas most people end up compromising, endlessly.

So what we end up with is our memories. It's personal. We share a bunch with friends, others with family, it's amazing you spent all those years growing up in that house with your siblings, it was so long ago.

And we forget the bad experiences. And believe me, there were plenty. You don't truly become comfortable in your skin until your fifties or sixties. And it's amazing you made it through, especially if you did it your way, so many of those ski bums end up committing suicide, to this day, happened when I was there.

But on one level I'm still there. In the mountains. With room to move. Alone with nature. Hitting peaks you can't reach any other way. Feeling alive.

And you start to realize it could end in a minute. So many are dying, but you become old and frail, and even if you're not cautious there are certain things you can no longer do, or not as well, and you eventually accept this, but not easily.

And throughout it all is these songs. Like I said, it's different for baby boomers. We bought guitars, we sang in a circle. If you weren't there you cannot understand how much the music meant. It was an exciting, transitional period. Kinda like the advent of the internet, but it was based on the arts, music. What you said was more important than what you did. And then you reach a point where no one is interested in what you have to say, you end up not even speaking, it's not worth it, you just keep it all in your head.

And you wake up and you realize you're approaching the bookend. You had birth, you had twenty years of growing up. Now it's twenty years of slowing down. But instead of making friends, they fade away. Instead of your world getting bigger, it gets smaller. And no matter what you do, you cannot stem the tide, it's inevitable.

So to a great degree we live in the past. There's so much of it. Memories are triggered randomly, you could be taking a shower, reading a book or driving your car, a synapse fires and there you are, in that old situation, with those old people, who you never even talk to or see anymore, but once upon a time they were friends.

It's a secret, we all know it but no one talks about it, for fear of being labeled over the hill, discarded, ignored. But the truth is we're all in it together. It's a dilemma. Maybe not Punky's, and society may resemble a zoo more than ever, but Joe DiMaggio sold Mr. Coffee. And Paul Simon wore a turkey suit on Saturday late night TV. And Chevy Chase was once the biggest name in comedy, the irreverent voice of a generation.

On one hand it's hazy, on the other it's perfectly clear. Doesn't matter if we faked it or not, now it's completely real, this is us, we have to accept it, whether we like it or not. But thank god we've got the music to carry us through, it's our theme.


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The Katie Couric Book

"Going There": https://amzn.to/3ysEppZ

I only read it because I want to get her on the podcast. She too is an iHeart podcaster and I figured that'd give me an in.

Not that I ever watched the "Today Show." I'm almost never up at that hour and if I want news, I'll go online, or read the newspaper. I don't need the hokey-jokey banter, I know I'm not friends with these people no matter what they project, then again, too many people are home alone and feel the connection when they watch not only the "Today Show," but QVC, it's a sad commentary on the state of society, too many people are lonely. And yes, I know some watch the show while they get dressed, but I grew up in a home where turning on the television before six P.M. was a no-no, and I went to college where there was no television and lived in Los Angeles for years without one, which is all to say if you added up the entire time I've spent watching the "Today Show" it wouldn't even be fifteen minutes, really.

But I know who Katie Couric is. Actually, I know a lot about the "Today Show," because of the talent shenanigans, they were news...Jane Pauley, Deborah Norville, Willard Scott, Bryant Gumbel, Matt Lauer...but the only person who seemed to fly above it all, who lasted, who left on her own terms, was Katie Couric.

She's cute. Let's not talk about the "P-word," i.e. perkiness. It's not only looks, but personality. You see Katie is game. For all those men, usually misogynists or rich or both, who believe a woman should be arm candy, there to be seen but not heard, there are many who are looking for an activity partner, someone who will both lead and follow, who will push and pull, who will give back, who will laugh, who is adventurous.

That's Katie Couric.

I didn't even know she had big boobs until I read the book. At one of her first jobs a male colleague mentions them. And Katie ultimately talks about her reduction. Which speaks to the honesty of this book. However there is myopia. Everyone is a victim of their own experience, as much as you see you don't see everything, not even close.

So Katie grows up in a middle class family, she doesn't have the grades to go to Smith like her older sisters, so she goes to UVA. In other words, academics were not her priority. She was not staying at home studying, she was a cheerleader, she partied, she was well-rounded, which is why so many of the grinds at elite colleges don't end up being world-beaters. You can plug them into an existing system, but they're not about pushing the envelope, breaking the rules, unlike Katie Couric.

She's aggressive. It's just that simple. She knows what she wants and she goes after it. She's not a force of nature, she's not Padma Lakshmi, with a bad reputation for needing the spotlight, needing attention, but when she's desirous, Katie goes for the target. Like her very first job at a TV station in Washington, D.C.

She didn't have the best resumé. Sure, she did some internships in the communications field in college, but she was not a star there and she was not on the fast track, as a matter of fact she took the summer off after graduation, to live the beach life. But then...

She lied to get a job. Not majorly, but...

She sent her resumé and heard nothing. So she went to the station unannounced and asked to see an executive who had two kids who went to high school with her older siblings. The guard wouldn't let her through, but he let her use the phone and she talked her way in to see this man who had no idea who she was, and ultimately a job.

Not that she was on the fast track, but... She became the darling of the horny men. Yes, if you're a cute girl with spunk, men notice and they give you opportunities, which Katie took advantage of. She didn't sleep with these dirty old men, but she climbed the ladder, went to CNN and Florida and ultimately ended up back in D.C. at the Pentagon, courtesy of Tim Russert. Like that old Buzzy Linhart song that Bette Midler made famous on her first album, you've got to have friends. Mentors are important, as long as you're not an artist. Great artists have no mentors, people can tell you where they've gone, but not where you should be going.

So it appears that Katie got the gig at the "Today Show" just like that. There's luck involved, but also that indefinable extra, and TV skews young, you reach a certain age and they're not interested, so if you want to be in front of the camera don't plan a long term attack, but a short one.

So Katie goes to NBC and she lobbies for her rights, as a woman. She wants to be an equal, and essentially is one, not that she does not encounter static in the process. But the bottom line is Katie Couric is a star, and everybody realizes it. And it's not mannered, she's just being herself. Although she is a people-pleaser, she does want everybody to like her, and is stunned when she finds out this can't happen.

And then Katie jumps to CBS as their evening anchor and it's downhill from there. But she has a very long ride.

The one with insight here is Warren Beatty, who tells her not to take the gig, because no one watches TV news at night, they all watch in the morning, and he was right but Katie thought she was making history as a woman in the evening role, she just didn't realize that no one other than the detached Les Moonves wanted her to succeed. They felt she was a lightweight who hadn't paid her dues. Never underestimate entrenched prejudice.

So, the spin on this book is its honesty, that the aforementioned Moonves is a close talker with bad breath. But "Going There" does not read as an exposé, rather it's just Katie telling her story, which is what makes it such a good read even if you're detached from her career, like me, because underneath she is just a person, like you or me. And unlike Ray Dalio and the rest of the rich male blowhards, she doesn't lord her success over you. She knows she's good, but she's not telling you she has all the answers.

Her first husband dies of cancer because he never went to the doctor. That's the number one lesson here, have a doctor and go for a checkup each and every year! If he had, he'd probably still be here. But he also was a Civil War reenactor. Katie revisits this decades later, but even at the time...what were you thinking? You wanted to be involved with a guy like this? She was ready to get married, she said how great the guy was, but that Civil War reenactment is a giant flashing red light, that her younger daughter ultimately can't understand.

She's got to manage her gig and her kids and she's not perfect at it. While her husband is still alive she hires a nearly criminal nanny who believes she's a member of the family, with equal power to the parents. And then she's a single parent. And unsupervised the older kid starts testing the limits. Meanwhile, Katie's dating.

Now there's a ton of coverage of the gossip rags, most notably "Page Six," but it's amazing how much never got out, that Katie talks about here. Going to a club to dance and drinking so much she's falling down drunk and has to go to the hospital.

And she dates Tom Werner. Who ends up being a rich Ivy Leaguer with commitment phobia. The richer they are, the more they don't want to sacrifice, the more wary they are of encumbrances.

And then she dates a boy toy, much younger than she is, even moves him into her house. Everybody else pooh-poohs the relationship, but she wants the companionship and the sex.

Yes, Katie is a regular person, with troubles just like you, albeit with a lot more dough and much richer and connected friends.

Yes, you're reading the book and you can relate, but then when she talks about dinners in the Hamptons you realize she's playing in a completely different league. She's famous, with the perks, and she takes advantage of it. Then again, when Katie sees an opportunity... She hit on both of her husbands. She's not worried about how things look, but whether she gets what she wants.

So she's hosts a failed daytime talk show after CBS, with Jeff Zucker, who says he's committed but really isn't. And it's a bad fit, anybody could see that, they don't want news in the afternoon, they want scandal, celebrity, a clubhouse before or during your first drink, hard news is taboo.

And then she goes to work for Yahoo, which is actually a brilliant move, but Marissa Mayer can't return a phone call and is more interested in clothing than business. Katie makes a serious connection for Marissa and Marissa just never calls back, forget being late. Mayer has a reputation for all of the foregoing, so we're just getting confirmation here. But it is Katie's career.

So her daughters go to Spence, where students' parents have weekend homes in Gstaad... This is the life of the rich and not famous that the hoi polloi are unaware of. There's a track, and you're not on it. It starts with nursery school and ends up in this case at Yale and Stanford. You need the money and the fame and...there's no way those august institutions are turning down Katie Couric's kids, because it will burnish their image and will get them MONEY! It's a game. If you're rich and/or went to an elite college, you know this, but most people don't. And bottom line...there's always somebody richer than you. Katie is talking about money when she's making eight figures a year, but she's playing in a league most of America isn't even aware of.

And then... She goes to a restaurant and the hostess has no idea who she is, asks her her name and Katie has to spell it. Couric has a sense of humor about this, but this is life, this is America. You peak and then it's downhill, it's nearly impossible to be king or queen forever, not that people don't try, if for no other reason than time keeps passing, they're making new people and your triumphs are in the past. Gen-Z thinks it rules the world. The best thing I heard all weekend was a TikTok star who said they didn't even have a Facebook account. Ask boomers and Facebook rules, asks youngsters and it's a graveyard they've never visited, it's creepy.

So one day before Covid, when we were all still going to the office, I opened the studio door and right on the other side were Katie and a guest. You know the situation, where you're nearly right on top of each other. And while I was still adjusting for the closeness, and realizing it was Katie Couric, she looked me directly in the eye, said hi and smiled. She was wearing jeans. She was not made up. She was just like you or me, but different. She's a winner, and she can never give up the game, it's in her blood. Read for the dates with Neil Simon and Larry King, for truths heretofore unspoken, but what ultimately makes "Going There" a good read is it's the adventure, the journey of an individual who succeeded as a woman in a man's world and not only lived to tell the tale, but is telling it. It's a good read.


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Legacy-This Week On SiriusXM

Who will be remembered fifty years from now?

Tune in tomorrow, December 14th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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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Re-Hamilton/Verstappen

About an hour ago I tried searching for your original emails about Drive To Survive so I could reply and say "Thank you!". I've been on your mailing list for maybe 10, 12 years? And during that time learned that we have similar tastes in certain areas. When you recommended DTS, I went "Hmm." Next thing you know I've binged it in record time and start watching YouTubes to learn all I can. 

I'm an older woman who generally likes sports but has never watched a car race; men driving around in circles in fast cars? Yuck. Then, DTS got me hooked. Telemetry, g-forces, the Halo, overtakes, understeer...all part of my regular vocabulary now. I set the alarm to wake up at 6:30am on both Saturday and Sunday to watch not only the race but qualifying too (depending on the location of course). 

So thank you for the DTS recommendation months and months ago. Formula 1 is thrilling and fascinating. And I completely agree, Lewis got robbed today (though I'm a Carlos Sainz fan and am super excited for him doing so well in his first year at Ferrari.)

Nikki Vinci

____________________________________

Amen to all that.

Richard Griffiths

____________________________________

If an asterisk should ever be applied to a victory, this was it.

Jason Whittington

____________________________________

As a long time F1 follower, it felt like a return to the bad old days - but as I said to my son, it's good for F1 to have the controversy and attention. 

zaphodd

____________________________________

One of the very best things you've ever written.
You absolutely nailed it about Christian Horner, Max and Lewis.
I will begrudgingly accept Max won the title but his claim to fame will only be as a driver who is better than average. Lewis has done more for this planet this season alone than Max will ever do, nothing to do with Max' age, everything to do with his personality. 
The wrong man was given the title and that's too bad. 
But I expect Lewis will be back better and stronger and still as humble next season. I still believe the good win out in the end. 
Thanks for turning more people on to this amazing sport of F1. 

Sandee  Bathgate

____________________________________

With a bit of time for reflection on the F1, it does kinda feel like you're fourteen points up in a pub quiz, then the quizmaster suddenly announces that to keep it fun the last question is worth fifteen points.

Andy Hollis

____________________________________

Gutted.

The sport lost (arrogance of the comment "it is called racing Toto") and won (the sheer interest level), as is life.

Alan Cassidy

____________________________________

Totally agree.

That was some fucking bullshit today I was incandescent afterwards 

Lewis has had to drive calmly whilst that petulant lunatic has driven like a dangerous prick all season putting others lives in danger.

I really wanted Lewis to win today so he'd have the 8 titles and overtake Schumachers record and retire. 

I guess now hopefully he'll be fired up to come back next season and right today's wrong.
NICK HANSON

____________________________________

Set my alarm for 7:30 am today to watch pre-race show and the race itself.  Lewis was going for his 8th straight championship, 1 more than Michael Schumacher.  Oddly, his son, Mick hit Latifi, which sent Latifi into a wall and final laps into caution.  And then the 'can't pass' to Max getting new tires and the lapping 'incident' gave Max the win. Shameful for F1, not to follow their own rules.  Mercedes has filed 2 protests, both denied.  Lewis Hamilton is a role model for the sport, hopefully next year he and his team get another shot at the championship.
Thanks for writing about it.  

Sari Leon

____________________________________

Agree with you completely!
Max is a great driver but an awful competitor.

You mention the rules working out for Max but even those were not properly applied!! and Merc have lodged their complaints about that though I'm sure the FIA will find a way to explain away the Race Director inventing his own rules for the restart.
The end was a joke.
I'm sad for Lewis and the sport.

Matt Gorny

____________________________________

Today killed F1 for me.  How in the world can something happen (negate Lewis' 10 second lead because there is a crash) and no one I know can explain how it became a one lap race, basically a match race between Max and Lewis.  The announcers just carry and go along with it and act like it all made sense...or not.

What a jerk off.  The F1 governing body make the IOC look like geniuses.  What are the goddamn rules.  It's like screwing up the Super Bowl by having the referees say that there isn't five minutes left on the clock, only :30 sec.

The sport finally blew up in the US because of the Netflix series and then at the critical moment, the one we've all been waiting for, they blew it.  The series was great and that is enough for me.

John Brodey

____________________________________

As w/ all of them, I did watch it.
Lewis Hamilton is a brilliant driver in the best engineered car on the planet , supported by the best crew in the world.
Max Verstappen is another superb , aggressive driver who is managed by  an amazing and motivating manager.   Is with whom he's married actually a factor ?!? 
Christian Horner of Red Bull followed the rules at a critical moment, changed tires and won the race for his driver.
As a former Ferrari owner and fan---I'm depressed but accept reality.

Kind regards
Bob Sherwood 

____________________________________

You are not alone in your dislike of Chritian Horner. I'll admit, at the start of the season, I was pulling for Max to win the championship. But as the season progressed, I grew more and more turned off by Horner, and began to pull for Lewis and Toto. Lewis is an elegant champion, and I do appreciate the things he stands for and the commitments he's made to change things. A fascinating season nonetheless, and now looking forward to where the soap opera goes from here...

Todd Schnick

____________________________________

So, so well said. I concur!

It's going to fuel the goat and next season, watch out. But with new cars, it's anyone's guess. 

Edwin Rojas

____________________________________

Bob, just like you, Netflix got me hooked on F1. The way the race was handled today was disgraceful and I seriously hope Mercedes challenges the outcome of this race to the very end. Everyone with a working set of eyes could see the Hamilton had this race won and then to change the rules on the last lap is a joke.  Formula 1 should look up the definition of credibility.

Jay Headrick

____________________________________

Totally agree. I've been following F1 for decades - been to a handful of races - and have seen a lot of crazy drama. This year and this race may be at the top. Mercedes totally got screwed in the mistaken fear of the race director of ending the race under a yellow flag. And exacerbating that mistake by clearing the back markers, something that would not have been done if the flag was earlier in the race.

The only solace, I suppose, is that Mercedes won the team crown - and that's where the money is.

Tom Wszalek 

____________________________________

I've been watching F1 for decades. I was Ferrari, always Tifosi,
started pulling for Red Bull 3 years ago because Mercedes/ Hamilton
was too efficient, no contest, no sport.

Today was the strangest F1, Max had pole but Lewis was faster in a longer run.

Max was going to lose to Lewis ... but .. in last week's race, and in
today's first lap, every official  judgement went Hamilton's way, the
last call gave Max a chance, he won the last lap!

The sport's next season will be more anticipated because the greatest
driver in its history finally lost.

Paul Zullo

____________________________________

The FIA is in a spot of bother here.  Michael Masi, the race director did not apply the safety car rules correctly.  Under the safety car rules (Article 48.12) he should have let ALL the lapped cars unlap themselves and the safety car should then have stayed out for one more lap after the last lapped car had unlapped itself.  Instead he let selected lapped cars unlap themselves and then sent the safety car in straight away.  That gave Christian Horner the "one more [racing] lap" he demanded of Michael Masi and enabled Max's win.  So Mercedes should and will appeal to the International Court of Arbitration.  The decision on local appeal in Abu Dhabi was that the race director has an overriding discretion under another rule (Article 48.13) to call the safety car in at any time but Article 48.13 contains none of the legal language (e.g. "provided always") that suggests it is an overriding discretion. 

So Mercedes will win the appeal, Masi will be fired as a sop to Mercedes to keep them in the sport but the race result will stand.  As such Max's championship will forever be tainted and the sport will have lost all credibility.  Honestly, why have pages of rules that dictate how flexible a wing can be when the race result can be manipulated a spineless race director with a moaner like Horner chewing at his ear?  The only bright spot of today is that Lewis Hamilton remains his usual classy and gracious self in the face of sporting immortality being stolen from his grasp.  I'm prouder than ever of Britain's greatest ever sporting son. 

Andrew Harting

____________________________________

I have been an F! fan since the 1950's when Juan Fangio and Sterling Moss were driving.  I have seen F1 races live since the 1960's and watched a lot on TV.

This race was the "NASCARization" of F1.  NASCAR always found a way to bring out the yellow flag close to the end of the race to group the field so as to have a close finish...have a big show.  The Latifi crash five laps from the end was a promoter's dream, a way to bunch the field to allow a dramatic ending. The stewards decided to "let them race."  Lewis didn't get penalized for his "shortcut" on the first lap in today's race after Max aggressively forced him off the track...;"let them race."  In the latter stages of the race, Mercedes decided to let Lewis finish on hard tires while Max was brought in for a switch to soft tires.  All were strategy risks that might not play out.  Then the freak Latifi crash. The stewards did everything they could to get the track cleared so they could..."let them race."  One lap left they..."let them race."  On the last lap, Max exhibited his youth and daring and made a clean pass on Lewis after driving his heart out all day with a lesser car.  We got to see some great driving. Great finish. Glad I got up early to watch the race at 5am Los Angeles time.

John Anderson
Torrance

____________________________________

Fucking brilliant, and extremely accurate. No one could have written that ending to that race and been believed. We all watched it live, and knew that Hamilton had been robbed by the rules. A very calm and quiet former world champion GP 500 motorcycle racer named Eddie Lawson once got pissed off, and devastated the field. Mercedes will be very pissed off right now. Watch the result. This is going to be fun.

Stewart Bailey

____________________________________

I was pissed!
Lewis was robbed!

Louis Joachim

____________________________________

Thanks for this insight. I used to be a lifelong F1 fan until more or less 10 years ago… I even went to Indianapolis in 2003 when they built a circuit inside the oval. Then it fade away until a couple of months ago, I was browsing Netflix and discovered the F1 show. All of the sudden I remembered what brought me to the sport in the first place! Now I am eager to find out in real time what happened, but more importantly I am waiting for next season to learn the inside dealings. 

Thanks for this article, I enjoyed it very much. 

Best

Daniel Castano

____________________________________

Thanks for you extensive in depth depuzzelization(new one) of
what went on today. Lewis is the best but Max and his team were
smarter as they found chance in tactics and a little luck on the side.

That is the essence of Formula 1 these days. It's not the faster car that prevails.
That would be Formula Bore 1. Red Bull was  looking for a bunny in a top hat.

And they found one.

These are are cunning and interesting times.

Cheers from Holland

Hein Fokker

____________________________________

Sour grapes, old man.

Rick Jonews

____________________________________

Couldn't agree more.  We wus robbed!!

The ending was unbeleivable... to reverse the decision regarding the lapped cars in the middle of the lap was nothing less than highway robbery.  You can't help but feel that the fix was in!

Lewis is everything that Max isn't,  and the world is a better place because of that.

Joe Wallace

____________________________________

I think that you are exaggerating the Netflix effect on Formula 1 when you refer to global viewership.  Netflix obviously boosted viewership in the English-speaking world but there has always been a huge contingent of TV viewers pre-Netflix in all countries except perhaps in North America.  

In 2020 the TV and Digital average audience per Grand Prix in 2020 was 87.4 million (source https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula-1-announces-tv-and-digital-audience-figures-for-2020.3sbRmZm4u5Jf8pagvPoPUQ.html).   

The 2021 Formula 1 season has been averaging 947,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, an increase of 56 percent over the shifted 2020 season (608,000 viewers) and up 41 percent over the 2019 season average (672,000 viewers). (Source https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2021/11/formula-1-has-triumphant-return-to-north-america-viewers-respond-to-u-s-mexican-grand-prix-telecasts/#:~:text=The%202021%20Formula%201%20season,season%20average%20(672%2C000%20viewers).)

So the U.S. TV and Digital market for F1 is tiny compared with the rest of the world.

Mark Jackson

____________________________________

The rules did not fall Max's way in the least. They were cravenly, and falsely, manipulated by the race control director, Michael Masi, to produce just this result. And people are right to see the corruptive handprints of Netflix and Liberty all over it.

bmaz

____________________________________

Your read on it is interesting in that I feel differently while watching the same race.

I like both drivers but was pulling for Max because I tend to love underdogs and wanted him to have his first championship.

Mercedes are a bit whiny too — they also protested that Max's nose went ahead of Lewis' briefly during the safety car. 

I liked the ruling because it allowed them to race the final race of a deciding championship without lapped cars in the way. 

Anyway, yes thank you Netflix!

Aaron Lloyd Barr

____________________________________

You're right. WTF is with that Race Director Masi? A race is 2 hrs long. There's strategy, driver's skill and discipline, pit stops, mechanical breakdowns, all kinds of things that determine who wins. And Masi turns this race into a one lap sprint after Mercedes and Hamilton drove 56 laps to build up a lead. He turned it into a crapshoot.

If they don't get rid of Masi, F1 isn't legitimate anymore.

Besides, Verstappen got away with numerous violations throughout the season. Team Head Horner and Team Owner Marko are sore losers and enablers.

Cyrus Won

____________________________________

Well, there was that incident on the first lap where Verstappen was passing Hamilton and Lewis cut the track to retain the lead.   Did Verstappen force him out?   Whose corner was it?

The thing that did Lewis in was his team not pitting during the previous yellow when he already had 23 laps on his tires with 20 laps still remaining.   That was ridiculous strategy.   

Jordan Berliant

____________________________________

My husband made a comment when the crash happened, "Red Bull just called Williams and told them they would pay them 2 million to crash their car." And after that, the craziness happened. What an ending. We are still baffled. 

Heidi Jones
New York

____________________________________

Fantastic race. F1 hasn't been this compelling since Ayrton Senna died.

As far as IndyCar racing in circles, they are down to 6 ovals out of 19 meets. The preponderance of races is on road and street courses.

IndyCar is no longer a joke --  in fact, while NASCAR and professional drag racing are heading in the wrong direction, IndyCar is trending upwards both in attendance and eyeballs. Its storylines are as good as F1's -- the series just lacks the unlimited marketing horsepower Liberty Media brings to its F1 property.

All motorsport disciplines have their challenges, but IndyCar is more physically demanding to drive than F1 -- the lack of power steering requires the IndyCar drivers to muscle these mean machines in pretty brutal conditions. Ask Romain Grosjean, who has driven both.

Cole Coonce

____________________________________

MARTIN SAMUEL: Verstappen's triumph in Abu Dhabi was a STOLEN title

https://mol.im/a/10302393

NICK HANSON

____________________________________

I'm a huge f1 fan so not a typical American. We do not need more whiny fucking entitled hammy's. We need more parity in this sport and I'm glad the self appointed king is dead. I can't stand max but I'll take him over a whiny self entitled shit like hammy.
Ding dong the hammy reign is thankfully over,
Phil Bergman

____________________________________

I watched the race and was on pins and needles the entire time, and then the shit hit the fan. Unbelievable, but not surprising. I don't like Christian's antics, but I think his constant bitching about how unfairly Red Bull has treated all year finally got in Mike Massey's head. Christian as much said it with ten laps left when he said they're going to need a miracle from the racing gods to win that race. I'm not a conspiracy nut, but that was a cowardly call from Massey. Sure let them race, but don't allow Max to essentially line up right next to Lewis with one lap left in the last race of the year that decides the Championship when Lewis was ahead of him the entire race and was over 11 seconds ahead until that call was made. History may show Max won that race on paper, but Lewis is the real Champion. 

Tom Rein

____________________________________

Sir Frank Williams, the founder of the Williams Formula One, who just
passed away last month, said:

Victory is 1/4 the tires, 1/4 the driver, 1/4 the engineering, and
1/4 the strategy.

Today, Lewis Hamilton lost because Mercedes strategy was flawed. Max
Verstappen won because Red Bull's strategy was much better.

As for the yellow flags, the slow downs and not passing. This rule
was introduced by Formula One in the 1980s at the request and the
lobbying of Nikki Lauda (3 times world champion). Until then, every
year, a couple of F1 drivers would die in the racing season! 

Once introduced, with some safer circuit design changes, it took 10
years until the next F1 driver (Roland Ratzenberger) died while
racing.

syv

____________________________________

As someone who has been watching motorsports for 35 years, allow me to give a perspective on the 2021 World Drivers' Championship:
 
Among race fans, it's accepted that the driver in the best car doesn't always win.  It's just part of the sport.  In the case of today's Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton had to make a strategy call - switch to newer tires, but lose his track position?  Or maintain his lead on older tires and hope that the yellow flag doesn't come out?  There's really no right or wrong answer; sometimes the strategy plays out and sometimes it doesn't.  In this case, Max Verstappen's strategy was the right one.  Every great driver from Mario Andretti to Jeff Gordon and Lewis Hamilton has won and lost races this way, and that's just racing.  Which is why, as someone who likes Hamilton very much as a driver, I just can't get too mad about this.
 
So I tip my hat to both Lewis and Max for such a great season.
 
Wes R. Benash

____________________________________

MASI IN THE MIDDLE OF MAYHEM

Of course I am shattered. I too wanted Lewis to win. But that's okay, a few days later and I will be over it. Let's face it, there was always a 50% chance you were going to celebrate or commiserate the race result. Hamilton will go on to win other championships. Probably. Maybe.

What is not okay is how Masi made a royal mess of it. That highly dubious decision with the safety car, let the guy on fresh tyres make a dash for it against the guy who had been leading for 57 laps with worn-out tyres. Is that fair? Of course not. The rules don't even support it. Masi (another Aussie* like me) will be remembered for a long time for his mismanagement of the race. An unmitigated disaster. Mercedes has the option to take it to the appeals court. Maybe they should. Otherwise what are the rules for?

Apart from Masi's orchestrations to give it a 'Netflix like finish' (a director in the making?). 2021 was an incredible year. Just a pity about the terrible finish.

A great summary, Bob, by the way.

*Feel good we are not bashing an American in the hot seat this time ;)

Pete Meehan

____________________________________

That is a perfect encapsulation of F1 and the crapshow at the end of today's race. 

Mike masi, the race director could have/should have 'red flagged' the race with the 5 laps to go. 

Under the rules, Hamilton could have put on a fresh set and we would have been treated to two of best drivers to ever turn a wheel going at it hammer and tongs for five laps. 

Oh well...

Jeff Davies

____________________________________

I'm heartbroken, shattered and not a happy camper.  Very upset!

Iona S. Elliott

P..S. Lewis Hamilton, is in a class by himself. Always the gentlemen and sportsman, He's too good for this sport. End of story.

____________________________________

I share your disappointment in the way today's race was decided. However, based on my viewing of this season and the prior three via Drive to Survive, I disagree with your characterization of Christian Horner as a whiner and a prick, and Toto as the "good guy."

I, for one, appreciate Christian talking to the broadcast team during the race. And while I have no problem with Toto, he rarely, if ever does. And when you saw Riccardo in Season One of DTS, he was a Red Bull driver. Mercedes came late to that game.

And I'm not holding his Spice Girl against Horner.  Maybe I've missed some of what you may be picking up somewhere, but I have not seen his interactions with race officials on behalf of his drivers and team as being  qualitatively different than Wolff's.

And even having seen most of this season's races, I am very much looking forward to DTS Season 4.

David Ortez

____________________________________

Thank you so much for this piece! 

Not only is it breath-taking to follow your description of the race but also you deliver all the spice, the background, and the analysis of a season - and even the whole story. Very time-efficient for someone who was once hooked but decided to take this type of educated entertainment off his schedule.

You brought all the magic back and addressed all the questions.

Kudos! 

Yours in music,
Tom Bush

____________________________________

YES!!!!
and thanks for turning me onto the Netflix show.  I've been officially addicted and watch the races in real time. And yes we wuz robbed!!!
Peter Roaman

____________________________________

Your dead on. I hate Mercedes Benz and all that their cars stand for on the road and track, however I love Lewis. He is everything you want in a driver and human being polite, kind, righteous and an absolute killer.  Today's race was the grossest display of blatant racism and nonsense I have ever seen in professional sports in my lifetime.  It's wasn't a race till the Stewards had a chance to ruin the season. 

The only thing that could have made me happy today is if Lewis was making a move to Ferrari next season and kissed Benz goodbye. A man of his stature deserves to drive a red car, but then again don't we all want to ultimately want to drive a Ferrari? I know I do. 

Team LH for now and forever! 

Best, 

Jason Weinstock

____________________________________

100% agree. Heartbroken for Lewis and everything he represents in the plight of good and just— in addition to wholeheartedly deserving it because of his enormous skill.

My wife and I refer to Christian as "Naked Christian". Have you seen the picture? Yuck. Talk about arrogance and self-absorbed. Disgusting.  To us the picture represents the sleazy unsportsmanlike conduct and rhetoric coming from him and Max.  Got the picture off of twitter from one of the lively community members which was using the image several weeks back to illustrate the same point (sleazy).

Did you notice Max didn't smile after winning (except the private moment caught on camera in the garage with his daddy). GRRRR…. This one has frosted our ass something bad.

Chris Clapp 

P.S. Oh…. And forgot to mention Mr 2021 world champion stormed off the podium stage last week during the course of the ceremony. Loser.

____________________________________

Max is 24.

Lewis is 36.

I don't know about you, but I gained a lot of maturity in those 12 years.

Lewis has had a team of 20 publicists and strategists carefully scripting his brand to perfection for years now. Max is just a young cowboy trying to get taken seriously in a world that's only talked about one guy for 7 years now. He's the indie artist, Lewis is the major label with all the corporate backing. Surprised you don't salute his rebel spirit a bit more, ha ha. But give him a little time, and let's see what Max can do with his legacy over the next 12 years. 

- Mark Radcliffe

____________________________________

Bob, you're right Christian Horner is a 100% classless reprobate and Toto DOSES Rule. Hamilton's the best by miles and the Dutchman (I refuse to utter his name), drives like a bull in a China shop and winning the final race and Championship was an unsettling crime orchestrated by F1's steward Masi they should fire his ass BIGTIME and he should be banned.

Best,
Olie

btw: It was one of OUR fellow Canadian F1 drivers who hit the wall and started this mess…Blame our embarrassing Prime Minister…. Justine Trudeau…he's responsible for all of Canada's FuckUps…

The BBC app is an great source for F1 check out the link below and you'll find other goodies there as well.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/59631665

Olie Kornelsen

____________________________________

Love your stories about music & entertainment but this piece is BS.
 
Max is not a world champion because "rules fell his way". A F1 world championship is based on all races combined as you might have understood so if you want to start to talk "robbing"… Take in account Silverstone (with the "murder" attack of Lulu on Max in the fastest corner of the season), and Hungary (with Lewis's team mate Bottas kicked several drivers off). Max also lost a sure win in Hungary due to a bad tire exploding.  
 
Stay in for a few more years and maybe you understand. Mercedes simply had the best car for many (8) years and now lost it, to the better driver. Shit happens. Toto is a sore loser and I will bet you Mercedes dealers around the globe don't like how he "represented" the brand yesterday and many teams during the season. Talking about whining…
 
I hope you stick with you great stories about music.
 
Best regards,
 
Wim Reijnen

____________________________________

Oh boy, if the dutch found out about this article, I bet you will a flood of mails over you. 
All the newspapers has Max on the cover, the morning shows are all about Max. All the commercials are focus on Max. 

But I think you are right. Except one thing: Max really made a great move on the last round 

- Kris Keijser

____________________________________

Pfff It's a race!! Mercedes should have let him swap tires multiple times, that's on them. Also, why does the color of his skin have anything to do with it? So ridiculous Bob.

Denny White

____________________________________

Now you write about car racing? You think you are an authority on everything? How arrogant.

Lou Judson 

____________________________________

Look at the year statistics Bob 
It shows that Max had a better season overall

And Yes, Lewis had a much faster car
But Max is a better driver.

I agree that Lewis is a great sportsman and personality. Max is still very young, but a fighter.

Maybe you can live with this.
If not, you're just a bad loser just as Toto Wolff.

Best,
Rogier J. van Twuijver

____________________________________

Millions gave up on nascar

We remembered the racing of the 60's into 70's where there were understandable differences between Ford, GM and Chrysler 
Differences in motor, power, gearing shapes- winners may be laps ahead


Then it all became about the same, nobody can tell the diff between cars

and nascar started to shape the race

400 laps don't really matter, it was a given that the race would be slowed or stopped and bunched up for a few lap race to the end 

officials and nascar shaped who was competitive

nascar has other problems now

F1 follows a similar script and shape the races

What happens on the track matters less to the race than decisions from officials, decisions made in the suites

Is it now like wrestling ?

Mk Bitterman

____________________________________

What a one-sided Horner and Verstappen bashing Bob…

Horner knew and admitted they needed a miracle to have a chance of victory in this last race.

But let's get the facts straight as far as better driver over the whole 2021 season goes:

Verstappen ended the season with 10 wins to Hamilton's 8, having also led more laps and taken more pole positions and podiums.

Mark Unterberger
(Austria)

____________________________________

great you like the sport and Lewis Hamilton, as do I. He is a great sportsman and a true role model - we need more of them.

However I would not be so biased towards Christian Horner, Red Bull and Max. You are getting the information via Netflix, the WaPo or other media, you never experienced them first hand. Maybe there are things about Toto Wolf you do not know and would dislike…?  I've worked with Jos Verstappen and Red Bull in the past and they are true professionals, also looking for the truth and holding fairness high.

In F1 everyone strives for the title and tries to interpret the rules for his own benefit but that's why they have them and a system of regulations you can use in case you disagree. All team principals are protecting and supporting their drivers, so don't blame Christian Horner for it and praise Toto Wolf for doing just the same.

Despite my great respect for Lewis Hamilton I was happy for Max and his team to win. In the end it was Mercedes' decision not to change tires as they assumed the safety car period would last until the end of the race - and Red Bull took all eventualities into account to have a slight chance.

Never mind, keep up the good word Bob
Thanks, Christoph  

____________________________________

Biggest difference in the kind of COMPETITION involved in sports and music is that in sports wins aren't orchestrated in the boardroom.  And that is a fantastic thing as no one I know who has ever competed in any athletic endeavor at any level would want to see a race end under a penalty car- or caution flag for NASCAR fans.

That the race manager did not follow the letter of the law and used his own sense of Fair Play - something he did had the authority to do- prevented one of the single most disappointing outcomes in the history of modern sport of ANY kind-bad news for the brand big time. The championship was decided by the competitors- on the field of play-not the suits in the suites- or paddocs. And that is absolutely the way it should be. 

The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame has elected bands  less deserving than others because "The Hall" can sell them more $10,000 per ticket seats for the ceremony.  The Grammy's decided to award Jethro Tull best Metal Album over Metallica to make up for past oversights in ignoring the bands deserving work . And this year they expanded the categories  to a mind boggling 10 nominees each to " be more inclusive" when the entire purpose of competitions is to exclude not include. Thank God- and the racing Gods- that F1 doesn't work that way

For real fans of the sport this was the most exciting way to finish any season.... mano y mano with one lap to go.  Your guy started that lap with the lead and ended up losing. Why? Toto Wolff screwed up and did not have him pit to get new tires when Vestappen did.  Racing is as much about strategy as speed and your team choked. So now you kinda sound like one of those vapid Lakers fans who always scream conspiracy when the team loses. WHAAAAAA- the refs cheated!!!!! 

For the race to have ended any other way would have been cheating the sports BILLION PLUS fans- not to mention the spirit of fairplay- and that Hamilton did not win the title is a bigger story and better for the sport than if he had won his 8th in the last 9 years. 

Enjoy the drama behind the scenes in the Netflix series but please don't get all dramatic after having watched- as Christian Hoerner put it- " the racing Gods getting involved" in the most exciting finish of any sport season in recent memory. 

Also- F1 racing is the third biggest sport in the world. You forgot about Cricket. 

Chris Long
Los Angeles

____________________________________

I admire your enthusiasm, and your emotion for the sport now….i've been obsessed since the mid 90's, and was aware before then because Gilles Villeneuve is from my home province.

What makes Max's victory amazing, is precisely because Lewis and Mercedes are so formidable. Last time Lewis lost the championship, it was against his teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016. Look it up and Hamilton's behaviour in the last race. When his own team told him to let Nico go by because he was faster, Lewis told them to let them race.

On the whole of the season, Max deserved this championship, and luck happened to chose him today with the late accident and safety car. Mercedes played not to lose, and Red Bull played to win….cause they had nothing to lose. So Red Bull have the driver's championship and Mercedes has the constructors. You'd think if Hamilton was so much about others, he would have acknowledged this victory. Instead, he didn't even show at the after race press conference. 

Look at Max's story, and his dad's tenure in F1 (never won anything and a spectacular fire ball incident when they were still refueling cars during pit stops - look it up)…. So Jos Verstapen took his kid all over the place karting and fixing up his car….they paid their dues.  So did Lewis of course, but we know that, he has 7 world championships. Today would have been 8, and the absolute record over Michael Schumacher. He may have even retired afterwards who knows! Instead….he felt the same heartbreak he imposed upon Felipe Massa in Brazil years ago (look that one up too!).

I admire and respect Lewis, he is a legend and a great champion. But today, he appears to be a sore looser.

I'm happy for Max……and I love F1….

Glenn Moran

____________________________________

1
You are correct, Lewis is the better driver and he was robbed. Max is like a republican, in that he bullies his way around the track and acts like the rules don't apply to him.

2 
You are not correct about Liberty. F1 has been the #2 most popular sport (Behind football/soccer) for decades. Whether you like Bernie or not, he was a ruthless dictator and is largely responsible for bringing F1 into the modern era, and passing along an already very successful product to Liberty.
 
3
I've been racing motorcycles for more than 40 years, (I'm racing in the 60+ class these days) and so have been following most all forms of motorsport since i was a kid. Again you are right about Indycar, and also Nascar, who are like the Democrats, trying their best to fuck up a perfectly good product. 
Anyway, check out MotoGP, the motorcycle version of F1. They've tweaked the rules so the racing is much closer and of course it's full of interesting personalities. and coming soon:
: https://www.superbikeplanet.com/new-amazon-motogp-series-will-bring-motogp-drama-racing-to-the-masses/

It's great how quickly your writing on F1 has gotten so good (like much of the rest of your writing). You're one of us now!
Welcome, welcome, welcome!

All the best,

jay maher

____________________________________

I find myself rooting for any driver but Lewis.  I would have been just as rabid about this past season if it had been Ricciardo or Charles Leclerc chasing the championship against Lewis.  Don't get me wrong, I like Max.  And I do recognize that Lewis is great.  But, Formula 1 needed this.

I'm the e-commerce director for a company that has the exclusive wholesale/distribution/retail rights for F1 apparel and accessories in North America and most of South America.  We've been in business since 2016…about 2-3 years before Drive to Survive.  And, let me tell you….we thought our business had been taken to another level last year after Drive to Survive really took hold during the pandemic lockdowns.  But after this historic Formula 1 season?!  The only way I can describe our growth is: "Holy Shit!"  Formula 1 has exploded in the US in a BIG way.  The drivers felt it in Austin this year.  Their days of anonymity are over.   And we have the upcoming Drive to Survive season in a couple months!  Can you imagine what has been going on behind the scenes these past weeks in the Red Bull and Mercedes pits?

Anyway, Max winning is good for the sport.  I do wish Max had…won better….but I'm happy nevertheless. It's also good for business.  Red Bull Racing merchandise has been outselling Mercedes-AMG Petronas 3 to 1.   And, it's not just Max merchandise selling.  Sergio Perez is a rock star to the Mexican fans.  At times, his merchandise has outsold Max merch, especially in the weeks leading up to Austin and Mexico City.

Formula 1 needed a change.  Lewis needed a challenge.  He will fight harder next year.  And Max will be out to prove he's not a one hit wonder.  I hope the FIA lets them race it out.

Rudy Falco
Asbury Park, NJ

____________________________________

I've been an F1 fan since the late 80's. 
Been going to Montreal since 95 (and the epic 1st win by Jean Alesi)
My son was born the afternoon Lewis won his first ever Grand Prix (Canadian GP no less).

But I have no idea how I feel about this season.
At least not at this moment. 
Sure it has been an epic battle with some fantastic moments, but the appearance of inconsistency from the FIA and race stewards has really made it a hard season to square.

What a lot of people who are new to the sport don't know...and inexplicably Netflix did not cover it...is that the long time FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting passed away on the eve of the 2019 season opening Australian Grand Prix.
He was extremely well respected by all teams and drivers, and had been part of the F1 community for decades. 

This left a massive void as to how in-race incidents are handled. His understudy, and replacement, Michael Masi is taking a lot of stick from the decisions made this year.
Belgium was a disaster, and today was just bewildering. 
And those are just two examples...there are more from this season.

Formula 1 needs a very consistent hand at the wheel during the race. 
The teams are constantly letting their views known to the Race Director, and I don't think Charlie would be having the issues that exist today. 
I'm not sure Masi has the same respect from the teams...but this is armchair quarterbacking from my side. 

I want to continue being a fan of the sport....but this season has really been trying my patience.
2022 needs clarity.

Rob Johnston

____________________________________

Bob: The F-cking Magic hand of the FIA came down from the sky and waved over this final race to ordain the win and championship to Max and Red Bull.

It was Deus/FIA ex machina -- god out of the machine -- a plot device to solve the unsolvable with an implausible action or event. We got a Grade A example of it 
today.

To recount, the Williams car crashes at lap 53 and out comes the safety car with five laps to go. Max immediately pits for fresh tires. Hamilton stays out to keep the lead, but on worn tires. 

Lapped cars are then ordered to maintain their track position places by the FIA after the Williams crash, and that freezes the field. Five cars are now between Lewis and Max due to this directive.

Lewis is a master on worn tires, and has five lapped cars between him and Max on the coming restart. Eight record-setting F1 championship here I come. What could go wrong?

Plenty. Crybaby Horner contacts FIA Race Director Michael Masi and whines why are those five lapped cars still between race leader Lewis and Max in second? What?! Because of the FIA's directive you meddler.

Lewis's racecraft managing worn tires, and Mercedes strategy managing their stops, have put them in a lock for the win -- one would think.

You thunk wrong. The FIA, with a brutally cloddish decision, reverses itself and now allows the five cars to unlap themselves, but no other cars in the field are allowed to do so. This race is getting curiouser and curiouser -- with apologies to Lewis Carroll.

Of course this allows Max to drive up to an unearned second position for the restart, with his fresh tires right behind Lewis on worn ones. I nearly pulled an Elvis and shot out the TV!

Now, all this intervention will make for great TV. A wet dream battle between the top two racers and teams of the season will rivet eyeballs to the screen. 

The FIA knows Lewis almost cruising to his 8th championship, with five cars between him and Max, makes for lousy TV.

Evaporates: Tension! Conflict! Anticipation for next season! Allows time enough for all those eyeballs to go take a piss -- they know the ending. It's the worst case scenario for ending the season for the FIA. With one lap to go Lewis now has no fair chance to hold off Max for the win. Mission accomplished. Great TV. 

Bob, ever hear the phrase "designated spinner" for the driver who crashes or spins to hit the wall near the race end? To cause a yellow flag and bunch up the field.

How about "Jacque Debris," racist pejorative lingo to identify debris on track invisible to the naked eye. Except by the race control or stewards -- which throw a yellow and bunch up the field?

There is a reason racers in various series call qualifying for a race "making the show." Because when massive TV money is so crucial the guiding principle is: entertainment first, racing second. Mercedes and Hamilton would be the F1 champions if that order were reversed. But it won't be. Too much TV money at stake.

Be safe and healthy,
Glen Grissom

____________________________________

Lewis Hamilton is my champion!

Merck Mercuriadis

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