https://amzn.to/3H8fEW8
1
I read John Irving's "The Last Chairlift." Reviews were not kind, the main focus was on the extreme length, nearly a thousand pages, but I read everything Irving writes, "Garp" resonated just that much. And the last one, "Avenue of Mysteries," billed as "magical realism," which I have no fondness for, was truly disappointing, the reviews were right. So I was trepidatious re "The Last Chairlift," but how could a skier like me not check out a novel with this title?
It gets better. There was a ton of focus on ski areas. On Bromley, where I cut my teeth, made my bones. Even more shocking was the inclusion of the Loges Peak lift at Aspen Highlands, before it was replaced by a high speed quad, with a safety bar. Yes, there was no safety bar on the original chairlift, and there was a sign at the bottom saying if you were scared of heights not to ride it, and it didn't make sense until... There was a cluster of towers at the top of a ridge and then...the world dropped out from underneath you. It felt like a thousand feet. Could have been a few hundred, but one thing is for sure, if you rode it you never forget it, and I haven't, and that was over fifty years ago.
And "The Last Chairlift" cut like butter. It was easy to read, I wanted to read it, even though it took me nearly two weeks to get through. It's testimony to how great a writer Irving is. The first half is superlative, however the second half is not as good. And the bit with the ghosts felt subtractive as opposed to additive.
And I'd tell you you're on your own, but I don't think anybody will read "The Last Chairlift." Let me correct myself, there are people who will, but I'd like to know how many actually make it to the end, that's what I was wondering while I was reading it, just after release, was anybody else plowing through to the conclusion? Not that it was work, it's just that the only thousand page book I can truly recommend is "Anna Karenina."
And then I started Celeste Ng's "Our Missing Hearts," which was a number one best seller. And it was much more difficult to read. It never called out to me. Although half way through the focus switched, the location switched, and you realized exactly what was going on and the theme was interesting, but it made me wonder, this is what people want to read? You've got to be wary of the wisdom of the crowd. Take it with a grain of salt. The books people love are oftentimes the ones I don't. They're rewritten so many times as to be dense, as if they're trying to impress a teacher as opposed to delivering a good reading experience.
And then I read "A Very Nice Girl."
2
I'd never heard of it. But I got on a jog of reading best lists, you know, it's an end of the year feature, everybody lays out their favorites.
And now a sidebar, you must read the best records list from today's "New York Times," YOU MUST!
"Best Albums of 2022": https://nyti.ms/3Fo5uzu
At first you'll feel inadequate, not knowing the titles, never mind the acts, and then you'll continue and your emotion will change, you'll start to laugh, this is how far we've come, that the best albums of the year are ones almost nobody has listened to?
Not completely, but this is hilarious. This is a snapshot of today's music world. Everybody's listening to different stuff and the critics are meaningless. Sure, many people have lauded the new Rosalia album, not that many Anglos have heard it, but so many of the rest of these albums... Even better, try listening to them! I'm a big Beth Orton fan, but if you think her new album is one of the best of the year, you must not have heard much, or your taste is off, or you're just listing her name because what came before is superior.
And believe me, in book lists you see the same thing. Readability is secondary to the writer trying to impress other writers, the cognoscenti. And oftentimes the list is dominated by minorities talking about foreign experiences. (Am I gonna get canceled for that?) And I must say, some of these books are excellent, but most of them the average reader cannot relate to, if for no other reason than they're work. Forget the content, first and foremost a book must be readable, that's why John Irving shines.
So I was in the Apple News and I found the "Esquire" best list: https://bit.ly/3OZXtUv And this is the U.K. "Esquire," a whole different animal from the U.S. version.
And number one was "To Paradise," by Hanya Yanagihara. I read it, and enjoyed parts of it. But I'd never recommend it. If it weren't for Yanagihara's previous work, "A Little Life," almost no one would have read "To Paradise," and I'd tell Hanya to keep her day job, which she has, as Editor in Chief of "T Magazine" at the "New York Times."
And I avoid nonfiction, there's just not enough truth in it.
And I'm going down the "Esquire" list and I find "A Very Nice Girl" by Imogen Crimp. The blurb intrigued me, and I reserved it at the library, along with another book on the list.
And long after midnight, in truth after 1 a.m. Monday night, I finished Ng's book, disappointed once again, and although I thought I'd go on TikTok to relax myself, before I did that I decided to check out the two books I'd recently downloaded via Libby.
The first was "A Very Nice Girl."
I started reading and I couldn't stop. Was it the late night mood? Was this book truly resonating this much? I had to put it down to go to bed, but I couldn't wait to get back to it.
3
"because if you sing for your audience—look out at them, try to reach them, to touch them with your song— you'll never make something real—you must go inside instead, and bring them to you"
It's a conundrum to be an artist today. Because the commercial pyramid has been destroyed, there are no obvious steps. I hope those unknown acts feel good about being in the "Times," because it's not going to engender a lot of listens, people are just too busy, and they only trust a few sources, and when it comes to music it's not the "New York Times," more often some unknown person you found online.
So what do you do? You can try to game the system. Work in an anointed genre. Work with proven hitmakers. Promote the hell out of yourself, both in traditional media and online, and try to gain a toehold in the firmament. And if you do, you can do brand extensions, you can make some money, even though most people will never hear your music, but even those who do, WILL THEY CARE?
Most of today's new music rolls right off you. It takes balls to walk into the wilderness, forge your own path. But these are the people whose works we cotton to. Even though most of them fail. But this is what touches our hearts.
So "A Very Nice Girl" is about an opera singer. I went to the opera numerous times as a kid, but not since it became a thing. And the funny thing is there's a character who fits the description of the modern operagoer in this book. Who's got all the money, sponsors singers, goes, but knows nothing about the operas themselves. He wears his involvement, his attendance, as a badge of honor.
And then there's the guy the opera singer gets involved with.
"Generically clever with no plan, so I did what all generically clever people with no plan do, and I went into finance."
That's Max, educated at Oxford, making a boatload of money, but troubled by his empty life.
And then there's the practical element. Do you want to have a family, do you like nice things, are you really going to make a living as an opera singer?
So I'm going to quote more wisdom below, but that's not why I'm writing about the book, the wisdom is secondary to the plot, I always read for plot first. Readability and plot, those are the building blocks.
And what you've got here is an outsider, Anna, the opera singer, vacillating from feeling in the groove to like she doesn't fit in and should give up. As for others being able to truly understand and support her... That's rare. And many who have this support are mediocre, they're good, but just not good enough.
4
"We can't sing without life experience—she said.—It's our bread and butter. It would be like trying to paint without a brush."
Yes, you can get a prepubescent kid to sing, maybe even have a hit, but there's no truth there. Even if they write their own material, they just haven't lived enough. You write from experience, and if you've got none, the odds of writing something that connects with other people is de minimis.
"They're not interested in perfection, these people, although you intend to be perfect. What they want is for you to say something real. Something with meaning. Something that changes how they see and think and feel, even just for a bit."
This is what most creators don't know. They tell us they're working so hard, but they've got no idea what art is. The more you go inside, the more you show your warts without trying to impress others, just in your own head, the more people can resonate. This is exactly what we're looking for. Gimme some truth.
But that's art. And that's in the book, but really "A Very Nice Girl" is about relationships.
"He doesn't come near my inner life."
That's what we're looking for, to be known. This is the bedrock of relationships. When you feel like the other person gets you. Your relationship can look beautiful from the outside, but inside it can be hollow.
So Anna, the destitute opera singer, is involved with Max, the banker, who keeps her at a distance, even though sometimes he wants to be so close.
And Anna desires the connection, the closeness, the feeling you can only get from love. And in trying to get that, is she losing herself?
"He'd never stopped me from doing anything. He didn't even ask me not to. It was just this feeling I had sometimes. Something in the way he looked at me. This feeling that I wasn't quite right."
Self-censorship. You want to fit in, you want them to love you, you're wary of doing anything that will push them away, so you stop doing and saying so much. You're torturing yourself, even if the other person is giving no specific instructions.
"I'd forgotten his stillness. How he makes me aware of every unnecessary movement I make."
Anna tries to fill the holes, but then she gives up.
"I started telling him about the audition, but it sounded trivial, and I didn't know how to tell it, how to get his sympathy and still sound good."
This happens to me all the time, I listen to someone's long, oftentimes boring, usually about nothing significant story, and when it comes to me, assuming they even give me room, even ask, what I have to say seems unimportant, I rush through it if I tell it at all. I'm looking to be known, and if not I usually don't want to risk, it's too depressing, laying out your identity, your heart, and them checking their phone, getting fidgety, getting up...I just stop.
And there's not only truth about relationships, there are observations of the outside world. One that stuck out was the description of what Tom Wolfe called a "social x-ray."
"One of those women wealth would always preserve, like a lemon pickled in a jar. Her aging was shameful and secret, something that happened underneath her clothes, behind her skin."
Not only is it a crime to get old, it's a crime to reveal weakness or faults. The older they get the skinnier these women become, trying to achieve an ideal that only impresses their brethren, those who feel the same and the men who employ them as arm candy.
And there's even commentary about modern life, social media hate, even though social media is not the context.
"We remember everything other people say about us, I think. Wear a skin made of all those words, so that when we look at ourselves in the mirror, that's what we see."
It's hard to hold it together. Even worse, the success comes from not conforming, from reaching for the brass ring, and if you do succeed.
"Is this it?—I'd think.—Is this what it takes? Success. To be completely alone. No one's voice in my head but my own."
5
So there's a transition in this book. You get inklings, but you're not sure it's coming and then you know it is and you wonder what the consequences will be. Because you know, the focus groups insist you have a happy ending, to make people feel good.
But not everybody triumphs. It doesn't work out for everybody. But we rarely hear about them, only the winners.
So what is important in life? Relationships or careers?
And trying to achieve greatness comes at a cost.
"The weeks at home, I'd experienced none of the excitement, the joy that came with singing, but none of the lows either. Maybe it would be better to live a life that was muted, where experience operated within more limited parameters."
Woulda coulda shoulda, it's the human mantra. Oh, I could have been a rock star, but I chose not to. I could have been a doctor, but my father needed help in his business. They've all got excuses for why they never achieved their dreams. The essence is left out, that it requires a ton of work and sacrifice and there is no safety net, you still might not make it.
6
So here's where I delineate the caveats.
Most guys like nonfiction, they don't want to reveal their feelings, a book like this is too much for them, they want something that will help them in business. Ironically, "A Very Nice Girl" will give them more help than the business tomes, because it contains universal truth, whereas those business books show how someone completely unlike you triumphed, you've got to find your own way.
But there are guys who like to read about feelings, just like there are guys who like to listen to Joni Mitchell.
And, there's a middle section, well the second quarter, that is just not riveting, when Anna goes back home.
But then, when she comes back to London...
Last night I couldn't put the book down. I stayed up until 2:30 finishing it.
And it was weirding me out, I was enveloped in its world. I tried to play mind games, removing myself, saying it was just a book, but there was too much truth involved, I was worried about the characters, their choices. Real choices, that we all have to make.
So what I'm saying here is you're on your own. "A Very Nice Girl" does not read as easily as "The Last Chairlift," but it's much easier and more rewarding than "Our Missing Hearts."
7
So I could criticize "A Very Nice Girl." The parents were two-dimensional. I throw that in because nothing is perfect, to criticize is oftentimes to avoid the essence. You overlook imperfection. We want someone who tries, who lays down their unique truth. History is riddled with women who got plastic surgery to look just like everybody else, eliminating their supposed flaws, and then their careers are negatively impacted, good examples being Jennifer Grey and Leeza Gibbons. You've got to own yourself, but it's so hard to do.
8
It just felt so real. I wouldn't make the same decisions, but I also wouldn't take the same risks, and has this risk aversion hurt me in my journey?
God, I hate that word "journey." All that pop/psych speak uttered by those who get their wisdom from social media and self-help books. And justify their lives by saying they're on a journey.
That's not the journey I'm talking about. To go on a journey means to leave home, to encounter new situations, be uncomfortable, take risk in achieving your goals. Most people don't go on that journey.
But Anna does. Because she wants the Holy Grail. Sure, money is important, but is it important to YOU? Do you want to live a safe life doing a boring job, sacrificing your dreams?
And speaking of safe, the director in the book spontaneously utters some wisdom, and says his students can use it.
I'm gonna use it here, because it delivers the truth too often missing from today's creative works, which are usually more business than art.
"Anyway, any art that feels safe isn't worth creating."
That's true. That's a lesson you'll learn in "A Very Nice Girl."
9
"A Very Nice Girl" was the book I've been searching for. After wading through the mediocre. The mediocre does not deserve amplification, there's no reason to inform you of it.
But I must tell you about "A Very Nice Girl," because I just can't get it out of my mind, it affected me just that much, I've got mood hangover from last night. I'm pissed it's over. Finding something this good in the future will be difficult.
But that's what I depend on you for. To either be the artist or to recommend artists.
And there are very few out there. Very few.
But they are what make the world go 'round.
Because without art, life just isn't worth living. We want to see ourselves reflected back to us, we want to learn about the human condition, we want to feel like we're not alone.
I did not feel alone reading "A Very Nice Girl." I felt seen, I was no longer a party of one, there were other people on my wavelength. And without connection...
You've got nothing.
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Saturday, 3 December 2022
Friday, 2 December 2022
Your Most Played Songs-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in tomorrow, Saturday December 3rd, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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Thursday, 1 December 2022
John Waite-This Week's Podcast
There's a new documentary about John Waite, "The Hard Way." We discuss the film as well as John's career. John is an artist who never stops creating, he's a true believer, you will find him intriguing.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/john-waite-105365362/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-waite/id1316200737?i=1000588311661
https://open.spotify.com/episode/24Jm27IUU32Qo4Fw43lQW8?si=Soxvi7QdRySC8oAAY4NaXg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/883ea655-1762-4600-b3d9-9bbcb10b6890/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-john-waite
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/john-waite-209347122
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/john-waite-105365362/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-waite/id1316200737?i=1000588311661
https://open.spotify.com/episode/24Jm27IUU32Qo4Fw43lQW8?si=Soxvi7QdRySC8oAAY4NaXg
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/883ea655-1762-4600-b3d9-9bbcb10b6890/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-john-waite
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/john-waite-209347122
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Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Christine McVie
Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3UmWK0V
1
At least today, in their grief, everybody can listen to Christine McVie's music.
It didn't used to be this way. First and foremost because the record stores immediately ran out of inventory, and it would take weeks for new records to be pressed and shipped.
But that makes the point that we owned a limited number of records in the pre-internet, pre-Spotify era. Which is all to say there were groups we were aware of that we owned no albums of, like Fleetwood Mac.
Of course I knew "Oh Well," it was an FM staple when most people were still listening to AM. FM addicts were hipper, clued-in on certain tracks and bands that were unknown to the hoi polloi.
And ultimately "Oh Well" was stripped into the band's 1969 album "Then Play On," which I saw all the time in the bins, it had that unique cover.
And then Santana had a huge hit with "Black Magic Woman," which the same FM acolytes knew was written by Peter Green and done by Fleetwood Mac, even though in many cases we'd never heard the original, which we eventually did, you'd think it would have gained contemporaneous airplay on these same FM stations, but it did not. But eventually we were at somebody's house who had "Then Play On." That was a feature of going to a friend's domicile, to not only comb through their albums, but to play certain tracks you loved that you didn't own and probably never would.
And then Peter Green left the band and not only was there an endless succession of guitarists, one left the group to join the Children of God, and then there was that fake band put out by the manager and...
This was all news, I knew all this, but most of the music meant nothing to me, I'd never even heard it.
And then came "Station Man." Christine McVie neither wrote it nor sang the lead vocal, after all she wasn't even a band member, but she was unmistakable in the background vocals, it was the first Fleetwood Mac track I cottoned to, that I wanted to hear again, that I turned up every time I heard it on the radio.
And then Christine joined the band. I read that she'd been in Chicken Shack, but that band meant absolutely nothing in the U.S. Cool that she was married to the group's bass player, John McVie, but...
It was the early seventies. You could make a number of albums for a major label and never have a hit. Which was the case with Fleetwood Mac. They'd promote the records, you'd see them in ads, in the store, but chances are you never bought them. I certainly did not.
And then, five albums after "Kiln House," which contained the aforementioned "Station Man," came "Heroes Are Hard to Find."
I'm talking the single, the opening cut, not the entire album. Like "Station Man," you heard "Heroes Are Hard to Find" on the radio and continued to hear it. There was that groove, but even more there was that recitation of the title in the chorus that was so magical, actually the same magic Christine brought to subsequent Fleetwood Mac albums, but this was the first time I remembered it shining, hearing it shine on the radio.
And then came "Over My Head."
2
"You can take me to the paradise
And then again you can be cold as ice"
Let's see, it was my second year in Utah. At the end of which I realized I had to leave or else I'd be there forever.
You see I'd made friends with the freestylers the previous May in Mammoth, we were all gonna compete on the tour the following year. Jimmy Kay had competed the year before.
But Jimmy got aced out the following December, I choked and Jimmy went back to New Jersey to lick his wounds with his family, Al went back to L.A. and I stayed in the apartment with "Chang," a Vietnamese student who hadn't heard from his family in years.
This is when it hit me, what was I doing here? I didn't even want to ski. It made no sense. When I was in college skiing was part of my overall life, now it was everything and I needed more.
Jimmy said I could sleep in his bed while he was gone (I'd been sleeping on the couch before this). And therefore I could play his 8-tracks, he had two brand new ones, that he'd recorded from albums he bought, "Fleetwood Mac" and "A Night at the Opera." This is when I fell in love with "I'm in Love With My Car." And "39." My favorite song on the album was and probably still is "Your My Best Friend," but when listening to the album these two tracks surfaced. As for "Bohemian Rhapsody," it was just a cool novelty song, a track dedicated radio listeners knew, not a classic on the level of "Stairway to Heaven," that would take years, really it was the "Wayne's World" movie that made it iconic, the same way "Don't Stop Believin'" was made iconic by its inclusion in the finale of "The Sopranos."
Now I first heard "Over My Head" on the radio, I found it infectious, because contrary to seemingly everything else, it was understated, a track that set your mind free. You know, the kind that made you think you too could be in love, maybe even with Christine McVie.
Yes, I knew who she was. Stevie Nicks was just another woman in the band, one who did not play an instrument, Christine's single came out first. And I'd say Christine was the star, but that's just the point, she was an anti-star, she wasn't dolled up to look like a model, she wasn't asked twenty questions in a dumb magazine article, she was one of the guys, a boys' girl, and there were very few of those in rock and roll. Bonnie Raitt is the only other one that comes to mind. You felt like you could hang with both of them, that there was something below the surface, that they spoke your language, that they weren't prissy, you didn't have to be on guard the entire time, you could just be yourself. and isn't that what we're all looking for?
And on Christmas Day, my parents called. Jews do this, even though the holiday does not apply. Usually we eat Chinese food and go to the movies, maybe two, at least that's what we used to do, well, when I moved to L.A. But before that, every Christmas Day I went skiing, and my parents were in Vermont doing same and I told my mother I was at loose ends and she castigated me and told me to get a job. My father said he didn't know what was going on, but he was gonna send me twenty bucks and I should go for a good meal, that I'd figure it out.
And then I got back into Jimmy's bed and fired up "Over My Head," listened to it over and over again, which ain't that easy to do on an 8-track.
3
Now you've got to know, the build of this latest iteration of Fleetwood Mac was very slow. "Over My Head" stayed on the radio and the band stayed on the road, I saw them at Anaheim Stadium opening up for Rod Stewart and the Faces and Loggins and Messina and the audience barely paid attention. And then came "Rhiannon."
That's right, it took more than a year for "Fleetwood Mac" to become dominant, to be everywhere, to whet the audience's appetite for a follow-up, ultimately released in March of '77. "Rumours."
Of course I owned "Fleetwood Mac," everybody did. But for me "Rhiannon" was just another cut, "Over My Head" was and remained my favorite, to this day. But the other tracks...
I loved "Crystal" and "Landslide," but this was back before Stevie Nicks became the famous twirling witch.
And then there was "Say You Love Me," which was just as big a hit as "Rhiannon." This was the second hit single written and sung by Christine McVie, why was Stevie always being singled out?
And "World Turning"...
"World Turning" was not a radio track, you heard it at home, and in concert, but it is these unheralded sleepers that hold albums together, that reach you in a way the singles often do not.
"I need somebody to help me through the night"
Yes, "World Turning" was a combo between Christine and Lindsey. But at this point Lindsey was still seen as an interloper, another replacement guitarist, most people didn't realize how talented he was until they saw him play "Oh Well" in concert, when he soloed at the show and blew people's minds. But at this point, most people had not seen the band, they were just another act with a number of hits, and then came "Rumours."
4
"Go Your Own Way" was the initial single, perfect intellectually if not music business-wise.
You see we expected one of the two girls' songs first. (Can we say "girls"? The guys in the band are always referred to as "the boys.")
But unlike with the previous LP, the first with Stevie and Lindsey, people bought "Rumours" when it came out and dove deep. It was different, albums were shorter, "Rumours" just under forty minutes, and they were more digestible, two sides, with an opening and closing cut on each. Albums, when done well, made sense.
And my favorite track on "Rumours" was and always will be "Gold Dust Woman," which no one ever even talked about until Courtney Love sang it for a movie years later.
But one thing you've got to know about "Rumours" is the sound is pristine. And I had a brand new studio that could reproduce all of it, especially Mick Fleetwood's kick drum in the break.
"Well did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And is it over now, do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home"
And I was in a rocky relationship, we were on a down, these words resonated for me but then she came over one night and we embraced as we listened to this song, I can still taste her lipstick, we were back together, all was good.
The song I play second most on "Rumours" is "The Chain," which is funny, because it took me years and years to get it. It's a band song, and you can hear the three singing band members.
And the second single was "Dreams," which was not quite as magical as "Rhiannon," but what could be?
But just as big as Stevie's song was the Christine song that followed, "Don't Stop."
This was fifteen years before Bill Clinton adopted the song, had the band play it at his inauguration, "Don't Stop" was just an infectious number that made us feel good, something Christine seemed to be able to do at will.
But Christine could do slow and meaningful too. Ergo the first side's closer "Songbird" and "Oh Daddy" on the second side. Actually, other than their contributions on "The Chain," Christine McVie had four songs on "Rumours" and Stevie Nicks three. But somehow, Nicks ended up with most of the attention. But Christine didn't seem to care.
5
It was a different era. Fleetwood Mac were bigger than any act plying the boards today, any of them, including the Weeknd and Taylor Swift. Not only did everybody know the band's name, they knew the music too. It was ubiquitous, the soundtrack of life, when music still drove the culture.
And the band members got a lot of attention and lived the decadent life rock stars were entitled to.
You know, sex, drugs, planes... The highest goal was to be a rock star. There were no billionaires, techies were nerds, it wasn't about ones and zeros, but your emotions. The bands expressed them for you. You might be too uptight to vocalize them, but with the band and its music you felt understood, their music got you through, their lyrics got you through.
Mania. Not like the Beatles the decade before, it was more intellectual. And everybody in Fleetwood Mac was an adult.
And the band couldn't follow up the magic of "Rumours" with "Tusk" and then every once in a while the band would drop an LP and it was Christine who delivered the hit singles, she was the glue that kept the band together. "Gypsy" might have been an iconic hit, satiating the public's desire for more Stevie, but my favorite song on "Mirage" has always been the opener, Christine's "Love in Store," but let's be clear, Stevie Nicks' background vocals are an indelible element of that track.
And Christine's "Hold Me" was actually a bigger hit single than "Gypsy."
And on 1987's "Tango in the Night," once again it was Christine who had the big hit single, with "Little Lies."
But Fleetwood Mac had morphed from Mick and John's band to Stevie's. They were subject to the whims of Stevie, whether she wanted to work with the group or not, you see she was a gigantic solo star.
6
"Just like the white winged dove"
The public could not get enough of Stevie Nicks, and with "Bella Donna," she delivered. "Edge of Seventeen" burst out of the speaker in the dashboard and the duets "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and "Leather and Lace" were even better. People bought "Tusk," and were not as disappointed as they were with Peter Frampton's "I'm in You," but one wondered whether the band had lost the formula and then Stevie evidenced that she still possessed it, in spades.
And I bought "Bella Donna," but Christine McVie didn't release her solo LP until almost three years later, after the Mac had reformed and had hits with "Mirage," but I bought "Christine McVie" immediately too.
Actually, there was a hit on the album, "Got a Hold On Me," but in truth "Christine McVie" was seen as a disappointment. You see Christine did not trade on charisma, as a matter of fact, we weren't sure who she really was. Stevie Nicks was interviewed all the time, but Christine's words were sparse. Her music spoke for her, in reality she was an enigma, to this day. It seemed she was happy for Stevie to get the attention, to handle the press, Christine seemed to be more interested in being a musician than a star.
But some of Christine's lifestyle, or love style... She was involved with Dennis Wilson? Not only the coolest Beach Boy, but one of the coolest guys in Los Angeles, a renegade who'd stunned everybody with his chops on his solo album "Pacific Ocean Blue," and then on "L.A. (Light Album)" too. I mean who exactly was this chick?
Oh, I mean "bird."
Yes, that's what they call chicks in England. And of course I know you can't use the word "chick" these days, but you've got to know the code of the road, it's a boys world, and it was clear Christine could hold her own with them. And her look... Not classically beautiful, but that made her even more attractive, she was the one you wanted.
7
And then we have the messiness of the band going through multiple incarnations, and then Christine retiring while the rest soldiered on without her and then her ultimate return.
Yes, Fleetwood Mac could sell out arenas with Stevie fronting the act, but it wasn't the same band without Christine. And when she came back balance was returned, it all made sense once again.
Until...
The war between Stevie and Lindsey bubbled over and he was exiled from the band, which wanted to work when he didn't. And we always wondered whether they'd reunite, but now we know that will never happen. Stevie has no desire to work with Lindsey, the enmity remains, and it makes no sense for her to work with Mick and John, share the dough, when in truth she can sell just as many tickets all by her lonesome.
It's truly the end of an era, a finality we did not foresee. But now it's over, creepy.
8
Actually, there are two killers on "Christine McVie," and "One in a Million" is pretty damn good too.
Let's start with "Ask Anybody."
"He's a devil and an angel
Ooh, the combination's driving me wild
Drives me wild"
He's out of control. She's the one trying to grab hold of the reins and make it right.
"He's a saint and a sinner
Ooh, somehow he acts just like a beginner
I guess he's still a child"
This is what the guys sing, not the girls. I mean she's got all her wits, but she just can't control this guy, and all her friends say to break up, but she can't let go.
"Ask anybody
They'll say I'm going wrong
They say I should walk out
But that's not what I want
Ask anybody and they'll all say the same"
It takes two people to break up. The leaver and the left. And no matter what anybody tells you, a breakup is never mutual. It takes a lot of effort to hang in there, to try and make it work, but it also takes a lot of effort to break up, to let go of someone you know so well and start over.
Actually, "So Excited" comes before "Ask Anybody" on the album, it's optimistic as opposed to negative/in denial. And if I really thought about it, "Ask Anybody" is a better cut, but there's magic in "So Excited" I return to all the time, that goes through my head, you see Christine nails the excitement of making a connection, waiting to see them again, the anticipation.
"Well I'm so excited
My baby is on his way
I just can't wait
I can't wait another day"
The track starts off on a tear. There's a strummed acoustic, and Christine evidences that elation where nothing else can enter your brain, except them.
"Since the first time I saw you
Somebody tell me
What's a poor girl supposed to do"
This is what we live for, all human beings. And this feeling cannot be captured in a movie, no for this you need a song, Christine is channeling raw human emotion and it floors me.
9
Boxed sets used to be a thing, when CDs killed vinyl and you wanted all the songs in one place and a few rarities.
Actually, Fleetwood Mac was late to this paradigm, "25 Years - The Chain" was released in 1992. And their box...literally came in a box, the size of a CD, albeit with four discs.
And all the hype was about the release of Stevie Nicks' "Silver Springs" on an LP, previously having been released only as the b-side of "Go Your Own Way." But "Silver Springs" was not rare, you'd heard it, at least if you were a hard core fan, but not "Love Shines."
You know these retrospective packages, they find some unreleased product to stick on and promote and it always leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth, but not "Love Shines."
"You've got a sweet heart
Never will you be replaced"
This is a slightly mellower "So Excited." They're in a relationship, the newness has evaporated, but the magic is still there.
"Love shines when I think of you
You make it happen
You make it true
Love shines there can be no doubt
What this feeling is all about"
I was positively stunned. Here was this smash single that nobody had never heard, it deserved to be on the hit parade, Fleetwood Mac fans would eat it up. But by 1992 radio was completely different from the seventies, a land of independent promotion, priorities, and "Love Shines" went unheard. Truly.
I'd tell people about it, but they couldn't hear it. I got the boxed set for free, were people really going to lay out all that bread just to hear one track?
They didn't.
But now through the magic of streaming, "Love Shines" is readily available.
"After all the reckoning
After all the promises
All the darkness in my heart
Has gone away
Has gone away"
Come on, you've been there. Unless you're the type who just can't handle being alone and jumps from relationship to relationship, and then you've got your own problems. The truth is, especially as we've gotten older, we know what love is, we want it, but we just can't find it, and then when love shines...
Christine McVie triumphs again.
10
It was a surprise. Often they're on life support, they're on the way out, they're sick and we know about it.
But not Christine McVie.
But it's different than it used to be, it's not quite the same tragedy as those in the 27 Club. I mean Christine McVie lived to 79, pretty good, but these days everybody expects to live into their nineties. Hate to disillusion you, but odds are you won't. You may even be living healthily, but the Big C can sneak up on you and cut short your life, make you dead.
And dead is dead. As in over. No more. Even if you believe in the afterlife, there aren't going to be anymore Christine McVie records, the book has been written.
But what is that book?
Well, the music was primary in her life. She didn't have any kids. She gave it all for rock and roll. And I don't know, maybe she wanted children and tried or had regrets but...
Rock is a hard life. It looks glamorous, but it's not. Not only the road work, but coming up with the tunes that fuel the whole enterprise. That's what the average person can't do, that's what makes the stars special. And not only do they do this, how can they do this?
And we live in an era of self-promotion. Even people with no talent, no CV, hype themselves on social media. Word is the work is not enough. You have to give it a push.
And to a degree that's true, but most of what's produced is not worthy of consumption.
But it used to be different.
Christine did not cut records when she was prepubescent, she wasn't busy becoming a brand, she didn't even join Fleetwood Mac until she was almost thirty. And if not for the pictures, we'd say she was faceless. She was the opposite of those self-revealing, slum in the gutter whores who try and gain fame and fortune...
But unlike those of today's era she wasn't gone while she was still alive, on the scrapheap with miles to go, famous but working at McDonald's or making porn.
The music was enough. No perfume was necessary.
You see the songs were Christine McVie.
And they're still here.
No disrespect to Stevie Nicks, she's very talented and deserves her success, but Christine McVie was every bit her equal, and those who bought all the albums and went to the shows know.
And that's all that's truly important. Not the starmaking machinery, but what you feel inside. And what made Christine McVie's music so powerful, so meaningful, is it touched our insides, in a way we couldn't even articulate. All these years later I'm still over my head when I think of her and her music.
She was a giant.
And still is!
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1
At least today, in their grief, everybody can listen to Christine McVie's music.
It didn't used to be this way. First and foremost because the record stores immediately ran out of inventory, and it would take weeks for new records to be pressed and shipped.
But that makes the point that we owned a limited number of records in the pre-internet, pre-Spotify era. Which is all to say there were groups we were aware of that we owned no albums of, like Fleetwood Mac.
Of course I knew "Oh Well," it was an FM staple when most people were still listening to AM. FM addicts were hipper, clued-in on certain tracks and bands that were unknown to the hoi polloi.
And ultimately "Oh Well" was stripped into the band's 1969 album "Then Play On," which I saw all the time in the bins, it had that unique cover.
And then Santana had a huge hit with "Black Magic Woman," which the same FM acolytes knew was written by Peter Green and done by Fleetwood Mac, even though in many cases we'd never heard the original, which we eventually did, you'd think it would have gained contemporaneous airplay on these same FM stations, but it did not. But eventually we were at somebody's house who had "Then Play On." That was a feature of going to a friend's domicile, to not only comb through their albums, but to play certain tracks you loved that you didn't own and probably never would.
And then Peter Green left the band and not only was there an endless succession of guitarists, one left the group to join the Children of God, and then there was that fake band put out by the manager and...
This was all news, I knew all this, but most of the music meant nothing to me, I'd never even heard it.
And then came "Station Man." Christine McVie neither wrote it nor sang the lead vocal, after all she wasn't even a band member, but she was unmistakable in the background vocals, it was the first Fleetwood Mac track I cottoned to, that I wanted to hear again, that I turned up every time I heard it on the radio.
And then Christine joined the band. I read that she'd been in Chicken Shack, but that band meant absolutely nothing in the U.S. Cool that she was married to the group's bass player, John McVie, but...
It was the early seventies. You could make a number of albums for a major label and never have a hit. Which was the case with Fleetwood Mac. They'd promote the records, you'd see them in ads, in the store, but chances are you never bought them. I certainly did not.
And then, five albums after "Kiln House," which contained the aforementioned "Station Man," came "Heroes Are Hard to Find."
I'm talking the single, the opening cut, not the entire album. Like "Station Man," you heard "Heroes Are Hard to Find" on the radio and continued to hear it. There was that groove, but even more there was that recitation of the title in the chorus that was so magical, actually the same magic Christine brought to subsequent Fleetwood Mac albums, but this was the first time I remembered it shining, hearing it shine on the radio.
And then came "Over My Head."
2
"You can take me to the paradise
And then again you can be cold as ice"
Let's see, it was my second year in Utah. At the end of which I realized I had to leave or else I'd be there forever.
You see I'd made friends with the freestylers the previous May in Mammoth, we were all gonna compete on the tour the following year. Jimmy Kay had competed the year before.
But Jimmy got aced out the following December, I choked and Jimmy went back to New Jersey to lick his wounds with his family, Al went back to L.A. and I stayed in the apartment with "Chang," a Vietnamese student who hadn't heard from his family in years.
This is when it hit me, what was I doing here? I didn't even want to ski. It made no sense. When I was in college skiing was part of my overall life, now it was everything and I needed more.
Jimmy said I could sleep in his bed while he was gone (I'd been sleeping on the couch before this). And therefore I could play his 8-tracks, he had two brand new ones, that he'd recorded from albums he bought, "Fleetwood Mac" and "A Night at the Opera." This is when I fell in love with "I'm in Love With My Car." And "39." My favorite song on the album was and probably still is "Your My Best Friend," but when listening to the album these two tracks surfaced. As for "Bohemian Rhapsody," it was just a cool novelty song, a track dedicated radio listeners knew, not a classic on the level of "Stairway to Heaven," that would take years, really it was the "Wayne's World" movie that made it iconic, the same way "Don't Stop Believin'" was made iconic by its inclusion in the finale of "The Sopranos."
Now I first heard "Over My Head" on the radio, I found it infectious, because contrary to seemingly everything else, it was understated, a track that set your mind free. You know, the kind that made you think you too could be in love, maybe even with Christine McVie.
Yes, I knew who she was. Stevie Nicks was just another woman in the band, one who did not play an instrument, Christine's single came out first. And I'd say Christine was the star, but that's just the point, she was an anti-star, she wasn't dolled up to look like a model, she wasn't asked twenty questions in a dumb magazine article, she was one of the guys, a boys' girl, and there were very few of those in rock and roll. Bonnie Raitt is the only other one that comes to mind. You felt like you could hang with both of them, that there was something below the surface, that they spoke your language, that they weren't prissy, you didn't have to be on guard the entire time, you could just be yourself. and isn't that what we're all looking for?
And on Christmas Day, my parents called. Jews do this, even though the holiday does not apply. Usually we eat Chinese food and go to the movies, maybe two, at least that's what we used to do, well, when I moved to L.A. But before that, every Christmas Day I went skiing, and my parents were in Vermont doing same and I told my mother I was at loose ends and she castigated me and told me to get a job. My father said he didn't know what was going on, but he was gonna send me twenty bucks and I should go for a good meal, that I'd figure it out.
And then I got back into Jimmy's bed and fired up "Over My Head," listened to it over and over again, which ain't that easy to do on an 8-track.
3
Now you've got to know, the build of this latest iteration of Fleetwood Mac was very slow. "Over My Head" stayed on the radio and the band stayed on the road, I saw them at Anaheim Stadium opening up for Rod Stewart and the Faces and Loggins and Messina and the audience barely paid attention. And then came "Rhiannon."
That's right, it took more than a year for "Fleetwood Mac" to become dominant, to be everywhere, to whet the audience's appetite for a follow-up, ultimately released in March of '77. "Rumours."
Of course I owned "Fleetwood Mac," everybody did. But for me "Rhiannon" was just another cut, "Over My Head" was and remained my favorite, to this day. But the other tracks...
I loved "Crystal" and "Landslide," but this was back before Stevie Nicks became the famous twirling witch.
And then there was "Say You Love Me," which was just as big a hit as "Rhiannon." This was the second hit single written and sung by Christine McVie, why was Stevie always being singled out?
And "World Turning"...
"World Turning" was not a radio track, you heard it at home, and in concert, but it is these unheralded sleepers that hold albums together, that reach you in a way the singles often do not.
"I need somebody to help me through the night"
Yes, "World Turning" was a combo between Christine and Lindsey. But at this point Lindsey was still seen as an interloper, another replacement guitarist, most people didn't realize how talented he was until they saw him play "Oh Well" in concert, when he soloed at the show and blew people's minds. But at this point, most people had not seen the band, they were just another act with a number of hits, and then came "Rumours."
4
"Go Your Own Way" was the initial single, perfect intellectually if not music business-wise.
You see we expected one of the two girls' songs first. (Can we say "girls"? The guys in the band are always referred to as "the boys.")
But unlike with the previous LP, the first with Stevie and Lindsey, people bought "Rumours" when it came out and dove deep. It was different, albums were shorter, "Rumours" just under forty minutes, and they were more digestible, two sides, with an opening and closing cut on each. Albums, when done well, made sense.
And my favorite track on "Rumours" was and always will be "Gold Dust Woman," which no one ever even talked about until Courtney Love sang it for a movie years later.
But one thing you've got to know about "Rumours" is the sound is pristine. And I had a brand new studio that could reproduce all of it, especially Mick Fleetwood's kick drum in the break.
"Well did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And is it over now, do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home"
And I was in a rocky relationship, we were on a down, these words resonated for me but then she came over one night and we embraced as we listened to this song, I can still taste her lipstick, we were back together, all was good.
The song I play second most on "Rumours" is "The Chain," which is funny, because it took me years and years to get it. It's a band song, and you can hear the three singing band members.
And the second single was "Dreams," which was not quite as magical as "Rhiannon," but what could be?
But just as big as Stevie's song was the Christine song that followed, "Don't Stop."
This was fifteen years before Bill Clinton adopted the song, had the band play it at his inauguration, "Don't Stop" was just an infectious number that made us feel good, something Christine seemed to be able to do at will.
But Christine could do slow and meaningful too. Ergo the first side's closer "Songbird" and "Oh Daddy" on the second side. Actually, other than their contributions on "The Chain," Christine McVie had four songs on "Rumours" and Stevie Nicks three. But somehow, Nicks ended up with most of the attention. But Christine didn't seem to care.
5
It was a different era. Fleetwood Mac were bigger than any act plying the boards today, any of them, including the Weeknd and Taylor Swift. Not only did everybody know the band's name, they knew the music too. It was ubiquitous, the soundtrack of life, when music still drove the culture.
And the band members got a lot of attention and lived the decadent life rock stars were entitled to.
You know, sex, drugs, planes... The highest goal was to be a rock star. There were no billionaires, techies were nerds, it wasn't about ones and zeros, but your emotions. The bands expressed them for you. You might be too uptight to vocalize them, but with the band and its music you felt understood, their music got you through, their lyrics got you through.
Mania. Not like the Beatles the decade before, it was more intellectual. And everybody in Fleetwood Mac was an adult.
And the band couldn't follow up the magic of "Rumours" with "Tusk" and then every once in a while the band would drop an LP and it was Christine who delivered the hit singles, she was the glue that kept the band together. "Gypsy" might have been an iconic hit, satiating the public's desire for more Stevie, but my favorite song on "Mirage" has always been the opener, Christine's "Love in Store," but let's be clear, Stevie Nicks' background vocals are an indelible element of that track.
And Christine's "Hold Me" was actually a bigger hit single than "Gypsy."
And on 1987's "Tango in the Night," once again it was Christine who had the big hit single, with "Little Lies."
But Fleetwood Mac had morphed from Mick and John's band to Stevie's. They were subject to the whims of Stevie, whether she wanted to work with the group or not, you see she was a gigantic solo star.
6
"Just like the white winged dove"
The public could not get enough of Stevie Nicks, and with "Bella Donna," she delivered. "Edge of Seventeen" burst out of the speaker in the dashboard and the duets "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and "Leather and Lace" were even better. People bought "Tusk," and were not as disappointed as they were with Peter Frampton's "I'm in You," but one wondered whether the band had lost the formula and then Stevie evidenced that she still possessed it, in spades.
And I bought "Bella Donna," but Christine McVie didn't release her solo LP until almost three years later, after the Mac had reformed and had hits with "Mirage," but I bought "Christine McVie" immediately too.
Actually, there was a hit on the album, "Got a Hold On Me," but in truth "Christine McVie" was seen as a disappointment. You see Christine did not trade on charisma, as a matter of fact, we weren't sure who she really was. Stevie Nicks was interviewed all the time, but Christine's words were sparse. Her music spoke for her, in reality she was an enigma, to this day. It seemed she was happy for Stevie to get the attention, to handle the press, Christine seemed to be more interested in being a musician than a star.
But some of Christine's lifestyle, or love style... She was involved with Dennis Wilson? Not only the coolest Beach Boy, but one of the coolest guys in Los Angeles, a renegade who'd stunned everybody with his chops on his solo album "Pacific Ocean Blue," and then on "L.A. (Light Album)" too. I mean who exactly was this chick?
Oh, I mean "bird."
Yes, that's what they call chicks in England. And of course I know you can't use the word "chick" these days, but you've got to know the code of the road, it's a boys world, and it was clear Christine could hold her own with them. And her look... Not classically beautiful, but that made her even more attractive, she was the one you wanted.
7
And then we have the messiness of the band going through multiple incarnations, and then Christine retiring while the rest soldiered on without her and then her ultimate return.
Yes, Fleetwood Mac could sell out arenas with Stevie fronting the act, but it wasn't the same band without Christine. And when she came back balance was returned, it all made sense once again.
Until...
The war between Stevie and Lindsey bubbled over and he was exiled from the band, which wanted to work when he didn't. And we always wondered whether they'd reunite, but now we know that will never happen. Stevie has no desire to work with Lindsey, the enmity remains, and it makes no sense for her to work with Mick and John, share the dough, when in truth she can sell just as many tickets all by her lonesome.
It's truly the end of an era, a finality we did not foresee. But now it's over, creepy.
8
Actually, there are two killers on "Christine McVie," and "One in a Million" is pretty damn good too.
Let's start with "Ask Anybody."
"He's a devil and an angel
Ooh, the combination's driving me wild
Drives me wild"
He's out of control. She's the one trying to grab hold of the reins and make it right.
"He's a saint and a sinner
Ooh, somehow he acts just like a beginner
I guess he's still a child"
This is what the guys sing, not the girls. I mean she's got all her wits, but she just can't control this guy, and all her friends say to break up, but she can't let go.
"Ask anybody
They'll say I'm going wrong
They say I should walk out
But that's not what I want
Ask anybody and they'll all say the same"
It takes two people to break up. The leaver and the left. And no matter what anybody tells you, a breakup is never mutual. It takes a lot of effort to hang in there, to try and make it work, but it also takes a lot of effort to break up, to let go of someone you know so well and start over.
Actually, "So Excited" comes before "Ask Anybody" on the album, it's optimistic as opposed to negative/in denial. And if I really thought about it, "Ask Anybody" is a better cut, but there's magic in "So Excited" I return to all the time, that goes through my head, you see Christine nails the excitement of making a connection, waiting to see them again, the anticipation.
"Well I'm so excited
My baby is on his way
I just can't wait
I can't wait another day"
The track starts off on a tear. There's a strummed acoustic, and Christine evidences that elation where nothing else can enter your brain, except them.
"Since the first time I saw you
Somebody tell me
What's a poor girl supposed to do"
This is what we live for, all human beings. And this feeling cannot be captured in a movie, no for this you need a song, Christine is channeling raw human emotion and it floors me.
9
Boxed sets used to be a thing, when CDs killed vinyl and you wanted all the songs in one place and a few rarities.
Actually, Fleetwood Mac was late to this paradigm, "25 Years - The Chain" was released in 1992. And their box...literally came in a box, the size of a CD, albeit with four discs.
And all the hype was about the release of Stevie Nicks' "Silver Springs" on an LP, previously having been released only as the b-side of "Go Your Own Way." But "Silver Springs" was not rare, you'd heard it, at least if you were a hard core fan, but not "Love Shines."
You know these retrospective packages, they find some unreleased product to stick on and promote and it always leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth, but not "Love Shines."
"You've got a sweet heart
Never will you be replaced"
This is a slightly mellower "So Excited." They're in a relationship, the newness has evaporated, but the magic is still there.
"Love shines when I think of you
You make it happen
You make it true
Love shines there can be no doubt
What this feeling is all about"
I was positively stunned. Here was this smash single that nobody had never heard, it deserved to be on the hit parade, Fleetwood Mac fans would eat it up. But by 1992 radio was completely different from the seventies, a land of independent promotion, priorities, and "Love Shines" went unheard. Truly.
I'd tell people about it, but they couldn't hear it. I got the boxed set for free, were people really going to lay out all that bread just to hear one track?
They didn't.
But now through the magic of streaming, "Love Shines" is readily available.
"After all the reckoning
After all the promises
All the darkness in my heart
Has gone away
Has gone away"
Come on, you've been there. Unless you're the type who just can't handle being alone and jumps from relationship to relationship, and then you've got your own problems. The truth is, especially as we've gotten older, we know what love is, we want it, but we just can't find it, and then when love shines...
Christine McVie triumphs again.
10
It was a surprise. Often they're on life support, they're on the way out, they're sick and we know about it.
But not Christine McVie.
But it's different than it used to be, it's not quite the same tragedy as those in the 27 Club. I mean Christine McVie lived to 79, pretty good, but these days everybody expects to live into their nineties. Hate to disillusion you, but odds are you won't. You may even be living healthily, but the Big C can sneak up on you and cut short your life, make you dead.
And dead is dead. As in over. No more. Even if you believe in the afterlife, there aren't going to be anymore Christine McVie records, the book has been written.
But what is that book?
Well, the music was primary in her life. She didn't have any kids. She gave it all for rock and roll. And I don't know, maybe she wanted children and tried or had regrets but...
Rock is a hard life. It looks glamorous, but it's not. Not only the road work, but coming up with the tunes that fuel the whole enterprise. That's what the average person can't do, that's what makes the stars special. And not only do they do this, how can they do this?
And we live in an era of self-promotion. Even people with no talent, no CV, hype themselves on social media. Word is the work is not enough. You have to give it a push.
And to a degree that's true, but most of what's produced is not worthy of consumption.
But it used to be different.
Christine did not cut records when she was prepubescent, she wasn't busy becoming a brand, she didn't even join Fleetwood Mac until she was almost thirty. And if not for the pictures, we'd say she was faceless. She was the opposite of those self-revealing, slum in the gutter whores who try and gain fame and fortune...
But unlike those of today's era she wasn't gone while she was still alive, on the scrapheap with miles to go, famous but working at McDonald's or making porn.
The music was enough. No perfume was necessary.
You see the songs were Christine McVie.
And they're still here.
No disrespect to Stevie Nicks, she's very talented and deserves her success, but Christine McVie was every bit her equal, and those who bought all the albums and went to the shows know.
And that's all that's truly important. Not the starmaking machinery, but what you feel inside. And what made Christine McVie's music so powerful, so meaningful, is it touched our insides, in a way we couldn't even articulate. All these years later I'm still over my head when I think of her and her music.
She was a giant.
And still is!
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Monday, 28 November 2022
The Unrest In China
The people don't like totalitarianism.
That's why the sanctity of elections is so important.
I don't know if this is news on the east coast. Maybe you went to bed before this story broke. But they're revolting in China, over the zero-Covid policy, as a result of the ten people who died in a fire as a consequence thereof and...
You don't protest in a totalitarian state anymore, BECAUSE THERE ARE CAMERAS EVERYWHERE!
Donald Trump may have skated, at least so far, but all those people who participated in 1/6? They've gone up the river, and they certainly don't have a paddle. There's endless footage, people have been identified, they've been brought to trial. And if they believe elected officials have their backs, the same ones pledging fealty to Trump, who only cares about himself, who will sacrifice anybody to maintain power, they've got another think coming.
I mean how bad must it be for you to put yourself at risk this way?
Or how much must you resent the regime in order to take action.
Example #1 here is Navalny. Poisoned, flown to Germany for treatment, he returns to Russia to go to prison! We don't have these people in America, the people prosecuted for 1/6 aren't standing on their beliefs, they're trying to weasel their way out, say they were misinformed, tricked, they'll say anything to avoid jail time.
But these people in China?
In Iran?
In Hungary?
For years we've been told about creeping authoritarianism, as if it was inevitable. About the anger of white nationalists. If you've lived long enough, it appears to be a horror show, as if the earth spun off its access and everything you counted on, believed in, has disappeared. Where is that kid in the Netherlands with his finger in the dike when you need him?
Now thirty plus years ago, there was a phenomenal track by Jesus Jones entitled "Right Here, Right Now." It was promoted by Charles Koppelman's team. And if you're scoring at home, you know that Charles just passed. Truly the end of an era. Of braggadocio, of believing self-confidence will take you anywhere you want to go.
And if you lived through that era, you can't believe it's over. If Charles can die, did die, that means...YOU'RE NEXT!
Not that anybody under thirty cares.
That old turn of the century saw about protecting the record industry... That record industry has disappeared. Along with the moguls. Along with their ability to steer culture. Charles' second breakthrough at SBK, after Technotronic, i.e. Vanilla Ice, has more impact, more staying power, more of a footprint than anybody on the hit parade today. Think about that. That's the world we live in.
One in which the prognosticators are aged and clueless.
"Right here, right now
There is no other place I'd rather be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
That was about the fall of the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago. Who knew Putin was in the wings.
And boomers are on the downhill slide, believing they've seen everything. And now they're revolting in China?
China is the bogeyman. Hell, there's a best seller about it, Celeste Ng's "Our Missing Hearts," I'm reading it right now.
China is the enemy. Even Apple is starting to move production, not only to India, but back here in the States. Everybody's freaked out.
It started with Jack Ma. Yes, you see Alibaba was just too big and powerful, never mind Mr. Ma himself. So what did Xi do? He crippled him, crippled all the techies, broke up the companies, brought them in-house. The screw was tightening. Everybody was supposed to be afraid, very afraid. And then the rank and file revolt?
Or as Bob Dylan sang, "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose."
Then again, Dylan's tarnished his rep by the weasel move of having an autopen sign his new book. Forget his excuses, at first the publisher stonewalled. You're supposed to have respect for your fans, not rip them off. (Can you hear me Taylor Swift?)
But everything is grist for the mill these days. Nothing sticks, nothing lasts, you feel powerless.
But the power of one single person to change the world...
Like the overeducated fruit vendor who started the Arab Spring.
Ultimately that didn't work out so well, but that does not mean the sentiment went away.
So you watch video of these Chinese people protesting and the first thing that crosses your mind is...they're anything but backward. Yes, we've been told China is no match for America, how different it is. But the video tells us otherwise.
And they're not drones.
This is more exciting than any record, than any movie, even any streaming TV show. You see the creators are afraid, of pissing someone off, of leaving some money on the table, so they've sacrificed their backbones. Keep your political opinions to yourself. But the reason music was so powerful back in the sixties was because the artists were just the opposite, they wanted to make a statement, which they owned, and if it pissed people off, that was just fine.
In the endless hype for his new album, and it's starting to bother me, he's everywhere, Neil Young has been going on about climate change. Saying to tune out the gotcha for profit news the outlets are feeding you. To come together and address the problem. As for those who aren't with you, forget it. This is the sixties spirit. Although Young is depicting a dire situation, his ultimate message is one of optimism.
And Neil reached me, he got me to think. Which is the opposite of today's wanker musicians who just want to get you to buy.
And then there's the Twitter story... Having fired so many people, Elon Musk doesn't have enough staff to counter the spam from China, trying to take the focus off and hold back the news of the protests.
"Twitter grapples with Chinese spam obscuring news of protests - For hours, links to adult content overwhelmed other posts from cities where dramatic rallies escalated": https://wapo.st/3U7nwdD
Isn't this what the naysayers have been saying for weeks?
Everything's groovy until there's a crisis. Detroit and its just-in-time manufacturing blueprint...didn't work during Covid, i.e the supply chain crisis. Yes, we can't have excess inventory, it'll affect our numbers, the Street won't like it. Well, the Street REALLY doesn't like it when you can't make cars!
Nobody thinks there's a tomorrow anymore. This is what drives everybody wild about the government, it doesn't DO ANYTHING! Yes, I'm looking at you, Republicans. If you think this is satiating the public, you're completely wrong. If you go to work and do nothing...YOU LOSE YOUR JOB! (Well, maybe, it's really hard to fire people these days.)
It turns out you can only push people so far. Isn't this the point re Trump and the last election? The people without megaphones didn't like 1/6, didn't like authoritarianism, thought Biden was elected fair and square, and they voted and ergo the result. As for you fans of Trump... I'm doing you a favor, the sooner you get off the Trump train the sooner you can get back to victory. I'm not saying DeSantis can win, I'm just saying Trump cannot.
You see the people had too much.
The people can surprise you.
Like all the people not going to the movie theatre anymore. Why? It's a bad proposition economically and time-wise. Do movie theatres really have to exist?
But that's anathema in Hollywood. David Zaslav is so retro he's destroying the enterprise. If you make the trains run on time... You end up with a railroad. Great, but what about airplanes, automobiles? To quote the bard with clay feet once again, "He not busy being born is busy dying." All that crap about returning to the past... I want you to tell me when it's succeeded?
I rest my case.
But that's not my point. My point is we're at an inflection point in society. That is seemingly incomprehensible. There's a war in Ukraine and we might read about it, but we can't feel it. People are dying, there's no electricity, and we'd be shocked if the internet went down here, which it never does anymore. However, your power may go out if it gets hot or cold enough. Didn't that used to be a given, that the power stayed on?
Nobody in the media predicted these protests in China. They all talked about the power of Xi, his total control. But ultimately you can't control the people, there are just too many of them. And when you push them to the wall... Let's be clear, it's after the zero-Covid policy went on for years that people ultimately revolted, but they're not revolting only against that, but everything else that has them under Xi's thumb.
They're asking for him to go. They say they want democracy.
Really, just watch this, it will blow your mind:
"Footage Shows Protests Across China Over Covid Restrictions": https://nyti.ms/3Vbwkk3
Don't think this doesn't affect you. Rust never sleeps. Anger doesn't dissipate. And it can't only happen in China.
Wow.
"I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3gMDJHj
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2A3cK24
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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--
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That's why the sanctity of elections is so important.
I don't know if this is news on the east coast. Maybe you went to bed before this story broke. But they're revolting in China, over the zero-Covid policy, as a result of the ten people who died in a fire as a consequence thereof and...
You don't protest in a totalitarian state anymore, BECAUSE THERE ARE CAMERAS EVERYWHERE!
Donald Trump may have skated, at least so far, but all those people who participated in 1/6? They've gone up the river, and they certainly don't have a paddle. There's endless footage, people have been identified, they've been brought to trial. And if they believe elected officials have their backs, the same ones pledging fealty to Trump, who only cares about himself, who will sacrifice anybody to maintain power, they've got another think coming.
I mean how bad must it be for you to put yourself at risk this way?
Or how much must you resent the regime in order to take action.
Example #1 here is Navalny. Poisoned, flown to Germany for treatment, he returns to Russia to go to prison! We don't have these people in America, the people prosecuted for 1/6 aren't standing on their beliefs, they're trying to weasel their way out, say they were misinformed, tricked, they'll say anything to avoid jail time.
But these people in China?
In Iran?
In Hungary?
For years we've been told about creeping authoritarianism, as if it was inevitable. About the anger of white nationalists. If you've lived long enough, it appears to be a horror show, as if the earth spun off its access and everything you counted on, believed in, has disappeared. Where is that kid in the Netherlands with his finger in the dike when you need him?
Now thirty plus years ago, there was a phenomenal track by Jesus Jones entitled "Right Here, Right Now." It was promoted by Charles Koppelman's team. And if you're scoring at home, you know that Charles just passed. Truly the end of an era. Of braggadocio, of believing self-confidence will take you anywhere you want to go.
And if you lived through that era, you can't believe it's over. If Charles can die, did die, that means...YOU'RE NEXT!
Not that anybody under thirty cares.
That old turn of the century saw about protecting the record industry... That record industry has disappeared. Along with the moguls. Along with their ability to steer culture. Charles' second breakthrough at SBK, after Technotronic, i.e. Vanilla Ice, has more impact, more staying power, more of a footprint than anybody on the hit parade today. Think about that. That's the world we live in.
One in which the prognosticators are aged and clueless.
"Right here, right now
There is no other place I'd rather be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
That was about the fall of the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago. Who knew Putin was in the wings.
And boomers are on the downhill slide, believing they've seen everything. And now they're revolting in China?
China is the bogeyman. Hell, there's a best seller about it, Celeste Ng's "Our Missing Hearts," I'm reading it right now.
China is the enemy. Even Apple is starting to move production, not only to India, but back here in the States. Everybody's freaked out.
It started with Jack Ma. Yes, you see Alibaba was just too big and powerful, never mind Mr. Ma himself. So what did Xi do? He crippled him, crippled all the techies, broke up the companies, brought them in-house. The screw was tightening. Everybody was supposed to be afraid, very afraid. And then the rank and file revolt?
Or as Bob Dylan sang, "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose."
Then again, Dylan's tarnished his rep by the weasel move of having an autopen sign his new book. Forget his excuses, at first the publisher stonewalled. You're supposed to have respect for your fans, not rip them off. (Can you hear me Taylor Swift?)
But everything is grist for the mill these days. Nothing sticks, nothing lasts, you feel powerless.
But the power of one single person to change the world...
Like the overeducated fruit vendor who started the Arab Spring.
Ultimately that didn't work out so well, but that does not mean the sentiment went away.
So you watch video of these Chinese people protesting and the first thing that crosses your mind is...they're anything but backward. Yes, we've been told China is no match for America, how different it is. But the video tells us otherwise.
And they're not drones.
This is more exciting than any record, than any movie, even any streaming TV show. You see the creators are afraid, of pissing someone off, of leaving some money on the table, so they've sacrificed their backbones. Keep your political opinions to yourself. But the reason music was so powerful back in the sixties was because the artists were just the opposite, they wanted to make a statement, which they owned, and if it pissed people off, that was just fine.
In the endless hype for his new album, and it's starting to bother me, he's everywhere, Neil Young has been going on about climate change. Saying to tune out the gotcha for profit news the outlets are feeding you. To come together and address the problem. As for those who aren't with you, forget it. This is the sixties spirit. Although Young is depicting a dire situation, his ultimate message is one of optimism.
And Neil reached me, he got me to think. Which is the opposite of today's wanker musicians who just want to get you to buy.
And then there's the Twitter story... Having fired so many people, Elon Musk doesn't have enough staff to counter the spam from China, trying to take the focus off and hold back the news of the protests.
"Twitter grapples with Chinese spam obscuring news of protests - For hours, links to adult content overwhelmed other posts from cities where dramatic rallies escalated": https://wapo.st/3U7nwdD
Isn't this what the naysayers have been saying for weeks?
Everything's groovy until there's a crisis. Detroit and its just-in-time manufacturing blueprint...didn't work during Covid, i.e the supply chain crisis. Yes, we can't have excess inventory, it'll affect our numbers, the Street won't like it. Well, the Street REALLY doesn't like it when you can't make cars!
Nobody thinks there's a tomorrow anymore. This is what drives everybody wild about the government, it doesn't DO ANYTHING! Yes, I'm looking at you, Republicans. If you think this is satiating the public, you're completely wrong. If you go to work and do nothing...YOU LOSE YOUR JOB! (Well, maybe, it's really hard to fire people these days.)
It turns out you can only push people so far. Isn't this the point re Trump and the last election? The people without megaphones didn't like 1/6, didn't like authoritarianism, thought Biden was elected fair and square, and they voted and ergo the result. As for you fans of Trump... I'm doing you a favor, the sooner you get off the Trump train the sooner you can get back to victory. I'm not saying DeSantis can win, I'm just saying Trump cannot.
You see the people had too much.
The people can surprise you.
Like all the people not going to the movie theatre anymore. Why? It's a bad proposition economically and time-wise. Do movie theatres really have to exist?
But that's anathema in Hollywood. David Zaslav is so retro he's destroying the enterprise. If you make the trains run on time... You end up with a railroad. Great, but what about airplanes, automobiles? To quote the bard with clay feet once again, "He not busy being born is busy dying." All that crap about returning to the past... I want you to tell me when it's succeeded?
I rest my case.
But that's not my point. My point is we're at an inflection point in society. That is seemingly incomprehensible. There's a war in Ukraine and we might read about it, but we can't feel it. People are dying, there's no electricity, and we'd be shocked if the internet went down here, which it never does anymore. However, your power may go out if it gets hot or cold enough. Didn't that used to be a given, that the power stayed on?
Nobody in the media predicted these protests in China. They all talked about the power of Xi, his total control. But ultimately you can't control the people, there are just too many of them. And when you push them to the wall... Let's be clear, it's after the zero-Covid policy went on for years that people ultimately revolted, but they're not revolting only against that, but everything else that has them under Xi's thumb.
They're asking for him to go. They say they want democracy.
Really, just watch this, it will blow your mind:
"Footage Shows Protests Across China Over Covid Restrictions": https://nyti.ms/3Vbwkk3
Don't think this doesn't affect you. Rust never sleeps. Anger doesn't dissipate. And it can't only happen in China.
Wow.
"I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3gMDJHj
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2A3cK24
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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