Songs That Begin With The Chorus-SiriusXM This Week

Tune in Saturday April 29th, 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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Michael Rapino-This Week's Podcast

All you ever wanted to know about ticketing, and more!

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/michael-rapino-113965049/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/michael-rapino/id1316200737?i=1000610848499

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3lLR1qxf58U26HLaif0ZYA?si=_YOkKMuFSNuhjOaoKznS4g

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/19100e59-b002-42c1-8528-0a041ced43b1/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-michael-rapino

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/michael-rapino-302566680


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Disney/DeSantis

You don't mess with the Mouse.

Conventional wisdom was Bob Chapek lost his job as a result of wading into politicized cultural issues. But now Iger has doubled-down.

Let's be clear, the government is the underdog when it comes to battles with corporations. Sure, you can regulate, but never forget you need their money to operate, you can't get elected without cash, and that's who has it, the corporations, after all they're people, right?

But it gets worse than this. Who hates Disney? Talk about picking a target... You can attack homeless people. You can take money from widows and children. But you're going to try to pin the Mouse?

That's how America survives, on fantasy. Tell people the absolute truth and they'd kill themselves, or kill you. Without hope, often irrational, it's hard to keep on living.

Fantasy rules. Believe me, it wasn't that comic books were unknown back in the sixties and early seventies, it's not that they made no movies based on them, it's just that people wanted something more visceral in their films, something they could relate to. Now fantasy is king because real life is so damn hard. And people end up thinking fantasy is real, because otherwise, like I referenced above, it's just too disillusioning.

So I don't care how many people live in Florida. Many more go to Disney properties, never mind buy Disney merch or see the company's movies or subscribe to the Disney+ streaming service. Right now, Disney+ has 161.8 million subscribers. That's a worldwide number, in the U.S. it's 42 million. Florida only has 21.78 million residents. Furthermore, Disney+ may only have 42 million subscribers in the U.S., but it has 122 million VIEWERS! Think about that, Disney has its own propaganda outlet that a third of the public sees. And they pay to see it. Or at least someone in their family or a close friend does. And they're subjected to Disney products constantly, it's almost brainwashing, it's not like Iger needs to spread the company's philosophy, delineate its business challenges, the audience is just mesmerized, not only by Mickey and Minnie, but Nemo, Dory and so many more! These are the people you want to pick a fight with?

And what is the fight about? The fight isn't about Disney, it's about the company standing up for the downtrodden, the persecuted. Sure, some voters want those people put down, but they also love to go to Disney!

As for the business shenanigans...

I could walk you through the county and the taxes and the boards...but most people don't go that deep, they're only experiencing it on an emotional level. Why is the state of Florida messing with Disney? Furthermore, it wants to tax Disney residents and businesses to be messed with, someone has to pay the legal fees. How is this a winning strategy?

This is what happens when you live in a bubble. You've got no perspective. Hell, everybody should be made to spend at least an hour a day online, half on social media and half with the news, to try to get their finger on the pulse of the nation. Everybody's pontificating, but they're clueless. This is how the major new outlets missed Trump back in 2016. They were living in a echo chamber, they didn't know any blue collar people who'd lost their jobs, or white nationalists.

Kind of like Biden. Not even giving a live, in-person announcement of his decision to run in 2024? What are they hiding? No one's given so few press conferences since Reagan. And sure, Biden was gaffe-prone decades ago, but if you can't even stand up and make a speech, won't stand up and make a speech, you're making it hard for followers to defend you. This is what is happening in Israel right now. The far right has gained control, but is sacrificing the soul of the country in the process. Same deal with the right and abortion. Sure, they won the war, but at what cost?

Monomaniacal myopic quests only work in politics if you're striving for autocracy, dictatorship, because otherwise a huge chunk of the public is turned off or feels left out. And isn't that the first rule of political victory, making people feel included, so they like and vote for you?

Insiders have told us for a year that DeSantis is unlikable. Now we've got proof. Not only did he pick the wrong fight here, for no good reason other than cultural ones, not financial ones, he angered the majority of Americans. Was there ever a cost/benefit analysis?

Then again, most companies are so afraid of losing revenue, taking a hit to their image, that they back down, they've got no backbone.

Even worse is the "artists." From musicians to comedians to... They don't want to take a position for fear it'll alienate some potential customer when the truth is their careers are based on honesty and credibility, or else they're transient. Stand for nothing and there's nothing to cling to.

So this story is big everywhere. People may not know the truth about the Dominion/Fox lawsuit, but they're aware of Disney's lawsuit in Florida. Because Disney is bigger than the government. Think otherwise, but you'd be wrong.

Do you want a guy like this running the government? One so busy satiating a minority that he can't even see the needs, wants and desires of the majority?

Today DeSantis had his Muskie moment. His presidential hopes have been dashed. It's not like we didn't see it coming, it's not like this is his only misstep, but his inner circle said he was winning, when he was actually losing. In one fell swoop he showed he wasn't presidential material.

And to think that people saw DeSantis as a credible candidate.

To think it's going to be another test between Biden and Trump.

At least other Republicans have put their hats in the ring, have a running start. But the Democrats are so party loyal that they won't stand up to the inanity of running an octogenarian for president. There better not be any debates. You start early if you want to challenge the status quo, but everybody on the left is too afraid of...exactly who?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that Biden is too old to be re-elected president.

And not only Biden, but Trump too.

How about someone who grew up with the internet, who is familiar with tech, who can get ahead of Silicon Valley instead of being behind?

Don't get your hopes up.

But surprises happen every day, that's why we live.

And DeSantis got a big one today. A knife through the heart. He lost in the battle between good and evil. Maybe he should sign up as a Disney villain. It would pay better than his future in politics.


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Bud Light

Anheuser-Busch broke the number one rule of social media...DON'T RESPOND!

Now the real problem with Bud is it's no longer owned by a family, but a beer conglomerate, i.e. the Belgian Brazilian InBev. Bud is no longer the King of Beers, its sales have dropped dramatically, the Clydesdales rarely appear, the company is ruled purely by spreadsheet, not emotion, and when the numbers are everything you're heading for a bruising.

You see when it's your own money... You pay attention. You built the company from scratch, you know the perils of the consumer, of advertising, you know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, when to risk and when not to.

Would family owners have empowered a marketing executive to deal with a trans person? I highly doubt it, because the company is selling beer, and previously beer was not political, nor religious, it was agnostic, you either drank it or didn't, liked it or did not.

Not that I ever found anyone who liked Bud. It was ubiquitous, but real beer drinkers always seemed to favor something else. Like Schlitz, or Pabst Blue Ribbon, or anything where they could show their identity. That's what America is all about, showing who you are, and what beer you drink is important.

And the big kahuna is always being attacked.

But it's a bad look when the big kahuna reacts.

So Kid Rock shot up some beer cans. How long was that story gonna last? Kid Rock himself...there was no more news, except to recite the brief history of the Bud Light boycott. So far, in the twenty first century, boycotts have not worked. Artists not going to states, consumers not using Amazon... You see there's no cohesiveness in society anymore, you don't feel like you're truly part of something, that you're making a difference, so ultimately you take the narcissistic viewpoint, you do what is right for yourself. And Amazon is damn convenient...

And the truth is Bud Light usurped the light beer title from Miller Lite. It was a staple of society. No hard core beer drinker likes to admit they drink light beer, it's for wimps, they want the hard core meaty stuff. But in truth, so many are worried about their waistlines and just like Diet Coke eclipsed regular Coke as the premier/best-selling brand, light beer took over the mainstream marketplace.

Of course the hipness was all on the fringe. First Boston Brewing Company's Samuel Adams, but when that became the Bud of craft beers, it became about regional beers, local beers, beers that messed with the formula, that were unique.

And let's be clear, beer drinkers don't think first about social issues, that's not the profile. They may be on social media, but we've learned from the original Budweiser that the advertisements were all about making loyal fans feel good about the beer that they were drinking, as opposed to convincing them that it was really the best and they should imbibe. As for social media influencers influencing people's choice of beer... Social media isn't about earthiness, mainstream, it's about outliers, people saying "look at me," promoting new, edgy products that they don't believe in, but companies will pay them to promote. Is this the right place to promote Bud Light? OF COURSE NOT!

I mean if you want to buy canned ads on social media, sure. But just because influencers are in the news, you don't just follow them willy-nilly into the wilderness. You just don't hire a social media marketer because everyone else does. And if anything, you start from the ground up, not the top down. You get the people already drinking Bud Light to testify, you don't try to get attention whores to convince them to imbibe.

And if Anheuser-Busch was still family owned, someone would have been hands-on, would have been paying attention, regarding who was hired and what messages were sent and... Because the brand is everything, you don't screw with the brand.

As for InBev... As long as beer in total, around the world, is selling, it's not that concerned with individual brand case volume.

In other words, InBev was hands-off.

This is why major record labels are always behind the eight ball. No one's got any skin in the game. At best they can overpay for what independents have built. They're not looking for unknown talent, they want you to become known, for the marketplace to vote, before they lay their bread down. Because after all, these are public companies and money comes first. Oh, believe me, money always came first at the major independents of yore... But they'd ride out fallow periods, they'd invest heavily in what they believed in. In truth, they acted more on gut instinct than financial wizardry.

So, if Bud had been on the ball, it never would have gotten into this mess...

But once you're in the mess... Say nothing. Believe me, people shooting up Bud Light cans has none of the staying power of the war in Ukraine, or Fox News/Dominion/Tucker Carlson, or even Elon Musk's Twitter, which everybody seems to complain about but doesn't leave, i.e. there is no boycotting. So the Bud Light boycott would have faded away, because people like what they like, they don't switch beer brands that easily. Come on, when was the last time you switched toothpaste? Even deodorant? You like what you like and this kerfuffle might make someone try another light beer, but beer choice is a preference, it's not casual, and it's nearly impossible to get someone to switch brands, so if Anheuser-Busch just clammed up, the crisis would have passed.

But even though the company was smart enough to hire a social media marketer, the executives have no knowledge of social media. Come on, everyone of age testifies against social media. They might have been on Facebook for a minute, but social media is the devil, so they don't understand it whatsoever, furthermore their contracts are ironclad and not only are they paid a lot, if they screw up and get canned they've got a golden parachute. So what's the big deal?

Well, Anheuser-Busch made it a big deal by putting the two executives responsible on leave. One a woman. So now all the non-beer drinkers are pissed off. You support your employees, and you don't do this to a woman. So those who didn't care before now do. Gasoline has been poured on the fire. So you've ended up pissing off everyone. Those on the right who drink Bud Light and those on the left who may not even drink beer at all.

What's the lesson here? STFU! And the crisis will pass. Social media is all about controversy, you don't want to engender one, you don't want to amplify one, and without oxygen, the fire burns out.

But no one at Anheuser-Busch knew this.

But a teenager or young twentysomething would. Someone who lives in the social media world 24/7. You don't have contempt for your audience, you understand where people are coming from. And this basic rule was broken by Anheuser-Busch to begin with. But everybody makes mistakes. But it's a whole 'nother level of misstep when one amplifies said mistake, which is what Anheuser-Busch did here.

And I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. Don't ever apologize unless you think you've truly done something wrong. Don't apologize for the crowd, then you look wimpy, with no backbone, you sacrifice your identity, you no longer stand for something. Furthermore, those trying to get you to apologize are always a small subset of society, agitators who are pissed at you this week and someone else the next. Ignore them. They'll certainly soon ignore you.

Unless you give them what they want.

Which is exactly what Anheuser-Busch did here. It blinked. Putting the execs "on leave." I mean if someone does something that crosses the line you fire them. But if they don't... And why leave? There's nothing to investigate here. Are they supposed to sit at home and contemplate the fact that they did their work, performed their mission, and then the company did a one-eighty? This is what they were hired to do. And if brand management was that important why was nobody supervising them? I mean where exactly is the offense?

Oh, that's right, Kid Rock was offended. He's a celebrity so there was some news. But talk to a celebrity, it's nearly impossible to keep yourself in the news every day, the only one who seems to be able to do this is Donald Trump, who sacrificed his credibility in the process. Trump is a twenty first century celebrity, who'll do and say anything to make it, to keep himself in the conversation. And, unfortunately, this is how many "musicians" act today, sacrificing their credibility. And credibility/your image is everything. If you're in the public eye you must manage and protect it. But nobody at Anheuser-Busch knew this. How come?


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Tucker Carlson

He was working for the man.

I don't care what side of the political spectrum you're on, that's not what this is about. This is about the fact that Tucker Carlson was an employee and now he lost his job. As Bob Dylan so famously sang forty years ago, we've all gotta serve somebody.

So if you go back in internet history, everybody with a gig jumped ship for fame and fortune elsewhere. Sasha Frere-Jones left the "New Yorker" for Genius.com. A dumb move. He soon left and then ended up at the L.A. "Times," where he was quickly let go, supposedly for expensing 5k at a strip club. Heard about Jones recently? No, crickets.

And then one of the two deans of tech reporting, David Pogue, left the "New York Times" for Yahoo! His word was godhead, now he's barely on the radar screen. The "Times" ultimately gave him a new gig, barely noticeable, and he appears sometimes on "CBS Sunday Morning," but his profile is gone. This would be like the star pitcher of the Yankees going to play Japanese ball for the money and then trying to come back after the Yankee roster had been rebuilt. You're older, the world has adjusted, there's really no place for you, except maybe as a coach, or the bat boy.

And then there's Kara Swisher. Who worked her way up to the "New York Times," had a prominent podcast with the Gray Lady, and thought her stature and reach were a result of her talents as opposed to the imprimatur of the "New York Times." She started a podcast with "Vox" that got so little traction they reduced its frequency, and as for the Pivot podcast, the star is Scott Galloway, who cannot only do it by himself, he is doing so, with multiple podcasts a week sans Kara.

So Tucker Carlson believes he's a world-beater, that he's in control.

But the company is in control, never think you're bigger than the company. All those bigwigs getting canned for sexual harassment... I mean why risk your gig, you know the rules, but they think the rules don't apply to them.

Remember when Bill O'Reilly was the evil big daddy?

Well, he got canned and has a podcast, and I'd quote the numbers, but I reach more people every day than that dude, you might know his name, but you haven't heard of anything he's done in years.

Ditto Roger Ailes. Before he died he was not only a pariah, he was an irrelevant pariah with no audience.

Because the audience belonged to Fox, not him.

And then there's Heather Cox Richardson.

Now if you've been following Substack, you know it's in financial trouble. How bad are things over at the newsletter company? Substack asked its writers to invest! That'd be like you paying to work at the department store. Or paying Universal to release your music. Why would you do that? Why does Substack need the money? Because it was a bad business idea!

You did see that Buzzfeed News folded. Had nothing to do with its reach and impact, but everything to do with money. You've got to know, these new enterprises are not there for their employees' health, and certainly not for their contributors' and freelancers' health, but for the owners/investors' financial health. And if the numbers don't work... They'll lean the company down, lay employees off until the numbers do make sense or they'll pull the plug completely. They don't care about you, you've got to care about you.

As for Heather Cox Richardson, she's hosted by Substack, but she doesn't need the company. Because her success is all based on her. And the paradigm she employees is not evidenced elsewhere. Academic explains the day's events with a sense of history, written in a fashion that's palatable to the hoi polloi. And that's a big deal, most academic writing is piss-poor, as is judicial writing. The facts are there, but unless you're in the field you don't care.

In other words, build it yourself and you own it.

This is the opposite of the classic rock game. You needed the label to build it. You couldn't build it alone, no classic rock act made it as an independent. They were working for the man, but the contract ended, and now they're reaping the rewards on live tours, assuming they're alive. You can't predict the future. Then again, the artists knew they didn't own their recorded work, but the public perceived that they did. As in the songs were identified with the artist, not the company.

And today you don't even need to be with the record company to succeed. And if you build it yourself, you own everything, especially the names of your fans and how to reach them, you are in control.

Tucker Carlson's success was positively old school. Without a Fox evening slot, he meant little, or shall I say he reached little, as he will reach little today.

Sure, he could enter politics, but as many bridges as Donald Trump has burned, Carlson has burned more. And Trump has more charisma, but Carlson is smarter. Ignorance is not a sales point for Carlson. Which is why he's scarier, he knows exactly what he is doing.

So, Carlson's future is in the news/commentary business.

No other outlet is going to hire him, he's radioactive. Maybe Newsmax or OAN but that'd be like dropping from the major league to a AA farm club. You can play, but you're off the radar of most people and others don't take you seriously.

Carlson could write a book. But not the book people want to read, the one where he owns the truth revealed in the Dominion discovery. His thoughts about Trump, et al. But that would be career suicide. Furthermore, despite all the hype books are not like records, except for a very few, they reach almost nobody. There's the hype, and then nothing. And if you've got anything to say, it comes out in the hype, so why read the book. You own the news cycle for a couple of days and then you're done.

Oh, you could start over, but with a fraction of the audience, like Glenn Beck. But Beck's empire is not growing in any significant way, it's positively niche.

So, Carlson is screwed. He thought he was bigger than the company, bigger than Rupert Murdoch, he thought he was in control. But he was not. If he'd been a student of the game...but history is in the rearview mirror with all these cats...he would have looked back to Barry Diller's tenure at Fox. Diller did the undoable, he created a successful fourth TV network. And then Barry went to Murdoch and asked for a piece of the company. Rupert told him there was only one owner at Fox, and Diller left.

Now Diller is a smart businessman and ultimately became a billionaire, but...owning dating sites and a motley crew of internet companies isn't very sexy. Barry did it his way, but other than his money...what is there to admire?

No, Carlson is about impact.

And impact is always more important money. Really, it's all about power. But you want to build that power for yourself if you want to skate on it forever, otherwise you're beholden to the owner, or the corporate board, you can't be uncompromised. Sure, the news outlet can make you a star overnight, but once you're gone... Heard anything about Kara DioGuardi recently? She was a judge on "American Idol" for two seasons. If it was about her, if she drove the ratings, if she was indispensable, she'd still have her job or have a high profile elsewhere. But you don't even see Kara's name anymore, never mind know where she is.

Now you're entitled to employ your own strategy. Take the money and run. Sign up with the major label and try to become an instant hit. That's your option. Or you could build it yourself. But building it yourself happens slower than ever, and you're not entitled to bitch about it, it's a bad look. You build your audience, it keeps you alive, and that's all you get. No one gets to be top of mind with the entire population anymore. Unless they're Trump or they kill someone. People don't even think about Biden every day, and he's President!

So when you read all the news articles about Tucker's future... Know that they're written by those working for the man, their perspective is limited. Sure, they can delineate the possibilities, but they haven't got any idea what goes on in the independent sphere, and their goal is to satiate the owner, not the reader. Their goal is to keep their job. So their perspective is off.

Tucker Carlson has been marginalized, permanently. Not only did he lose his gig, Rupert showed him who was boss. And it wasn't Tucker. Carlson was just a pawn in Rupert's game, and he was easy to sacrifice, to save the operation.

Yes, it's a good look for Rupert. He can say he's not passive, he cut out the cancer. Believe it or not, but one thing is for sure, Tucker Carlson has been excised and he didn't even see it coming.

This is as high as Carlson will ever go. Audiences are declining. Assuming you have one to begin with. Those viewers are Fox's, not Carlson's, and he's going to find this out if and when he decides to start over.

I know who my readers are. Carlson has no idea who his viewers are. He'd be starting from scratch. Doing it independently. But Tucker's a corporate guy. He's got no reasonable options.

He's like Joe McCarthy, or Father Coughlin. A lightning rod most would like to see silenced. His constituency is minor. I mean even if you like what Tucker says, his smartest kid in the classroom who wears a suit when everyone else is in dungarees who thinks he knows everything and talks down to others in the process act is not endearing, it's off-putting. You can get the same message from somebody else, who is warmer. Even Sean Hannity! Who those on both the right and left say they like personally. But not Tucker Carlson. He can continue to run for school president but he's never going to win, he burned too many bridges, almost no one likes him. Unless he was only in it for the money, all one can say is he played the game wrong, didn't even understand the game he was playing, didn't know corporate rules, he can only blame himself.

But he'll never own that.


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My Favorite Bob Dylan Songs-Playlist

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3oHn1gl

IN ORDER:

"It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding) "

"Tangled Up In Blue"

"Dear Landlord"

"I and I"

"Sign On the Window"

"Positively 4th Street"

"Meet Me in the Morning"

"When You Gonna Wake Up"

"Buckets of Rain"

"Father of Night"

"Man Gave Names to All the Animals"

"New Morning"

"Gotta serve Somebody"

"Subterranean Homesick Blues"

"Hurricane"

"Things Have Changed"

"The Times They Are A-Changin'"

"Ballad of a Thin Man"

"My Back Pages"

"Maggie's Farm"

"Gates of Eden"

"I Want You"

"Days of '49"

"The Wicked Messenger"

"Love Sick"


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Hysteria

"I got to know tonight
If you're alone tonight"

Gregg found Armin. Felice's brother-in-law likes to live large. I was happy with Uber, until...

They stopped coming to the hills. If you could even get a driver, they'd drop you just minutes before they were supposed to pick you up. Uber used to be dependable, but now... As for those who are Lyft fans, Lyft's in deep trouble, because they never diversified. Their market share and value is declining, even though I still check their prices, which are sometimes cheaper, but I wouldn't even risk Uber in the hills.

And I have airport anxiety. I need to be there early. This came up at dinner the other night, I've never been late for a flight. But we almost missed our plane today, because halfway to Denver Felice realized she'd left her license and credit card in her ski vest. I keep my passport in my computer bag, and I'm not going anywhere without my computer. Yeah, you can operate on an iPhone. But if you want to type something, like this, even an iPad is insufficient.

But we turned around, and then someone drove the items to the Conoco station at Copper, and we made our flight. I'd like to tell you that Clear saved the day, but in truth the line for standard admission to screening was pretty short.

So I didn't get much sleep last night, I was too wound up. And I tried to sleep on the airplane, but I only got about fifteen minutes.

Felice wanted to fly to Burbank, which is very low key. This is what people in the East can't understand about Southern California. The baggage carousel is outside. I used to be shocked that schools had outside hallways. But it's all de rigueur where it's never cold and almost never rains.

So we had Armin picking us up. But he wouldn't pick us up where regular people pick people up, right at the curb. You see he has a TCP license. You know, those little white numbers on the bumper of the Escalade...

That's the standard black car these days. Lincoln stopped making its sedan, the standard "limo" of yore.

And I was pissed Armin wouldn't pick us up right where we were and we had to schlepp our gear to his location, but it turns out with a TCP license you can't drive up close and personal.

So we're driving home. And I've always wondered the source of Armin's music that is shown in the dash. Was it a mixtape (and don't tell me cassettes are coming back, please), or SiriusXM, or...

Armin told me it was Spotify. He just punched in seventies and eighties, he loved that music.

So I started asking him about his favorite acts. The first person he mentioned was Lionel Richie. I like "All Night Long," and I've come to love "Brick House" from weddings, but my favorite Commodores song is from when he'd already left, "Nightshift." It's all just too MOR for me.

But then Armin was mentioning a cornucopia of musical genres. And suddenly, nearly sotto voce, he told us he loved country music. The old stuff. And he had to play us "Rhinestone Cowboy."

All these years later, it sounded really good. I hated it when it was overexposed way back when, but I can never forget Johnny Carson singing it while sitting on a horse on "The Tonight Show."

And he's mentioning acts from the past. But then Armin says his favorite artist is Garth Brooks. And then he mentioned Jake Owen. So I wondered, did he like Morgan Wallen?

OF COURSE! He said in the way of a dyed-in-the-wool hipster.

And as our luggage was being brought into the house, Armin told me his favorite band ever was Led Zeppelin.

I told him my favorite Led Zeppelin song was "Ten Years Gone." He was flummoxed. So I pulled it up on Spotify on my phone and...he didn't know it.

But then, when all the luggage was inside, he nearly begged me to come back to his car. He apologized for eating up my time. He just had to demonstrate his car stereo, it was so great.

Sure, I'll come listen to your car stereo.

And he brings up "Ten Years Gone," and boy does it sound phenomenal.

And then I saw him scrolling, and I saw "Ramble On," so we listened to that.

And then he asked me if I liked the Scorpions. I said I loved "Rock You Like a Hurricane," had hung with them back in the day, but they weren't one of my favorites.

And Armin started searching for this one special Scorpions song to play me. Yet he couldn't find it.

But as he's scrolling, from the back seat, I see...

"Hysteria."

"Pyromania" was the breakthrough. People will tell you they were into the previous album, but it got no airplay, Def Leppard was seen as somewhat lightweight. I remember when we were negotiating for Iron Maiden to play the first Rock in Rio, Rod Smallwood insisted that Maiden go on after Leppard, if Leppard wasn't excised from the bill entirely.

But then came "Photograph."

It was the harmonies, the Beach Boys element in aggressive rock, even if you couldn't call it metal.

And then there was... F-f-f-"Foolin'."

And "Rock of Ages."

And if you had the album and played it, which so many of us did, there was "Too Late for Love."

And then came the car accident, and a start with another producer, and it was three and a half years before the release of "Hysteria."

You see the special sauce was Mutt Lange. Pronounced "Lang-eh" if you're overseas, not like the ski boot, as we do in the good ole' U.S.A. Word was Mutt could make the albums all by himself. Stayed in the studio after everybody had left and perfected the sound. And "Hysteria" was released in August of '87 and...

I bought it the day it came out. It was different from "Pyromania." As in all the tracks somehow sounded the same, they blended together, but the first track that jumped out was "Animal."

And "Hysteria" wasn't an instant hit. The first single, "Women," underperformed. It was followed by "Animal," which was a smash when it was released first in the U.K., but someone in the U.S. overthought it and put out "Women" first. And "Animal" did better than "Women" in the U.S., but man, the sheen was gone, Leppard looked like has-beens to the general public, a band that could not follow-up its success.

And then came "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

Credit MTV. Leppard was fresh-faced as opposed to the grizzled veterans of the hard rock scene. And unlike so many of the hard rockers, women LOVED Leppard.

And the rest is history.

There were endless singles. The album sold twelve million copies in the U.S. Leppard was bigger than any act today, they were ubiquitous, part of the culture in a way that even Drake and Taylor Swift are not. That might be hard to believe if you're a youngster, but you didn't live through the MTV era, the eighties, when if it was on MTV, it was truly everywhere. Radio took its clues from MTV. World domination was still a thing. If you made it on MTV, you could tour the entire planet.

Now "Hysteria" is sixty two minutes and thirty two seconds long. That might sound average today, but not yesterday, when CDs still hadn't peaked, when you had to fit all the music on the vinyl album, which I purchased first.

Meaning...it took a long time to digest.

I loved "Armageddon It." And, of course, "Rocket." And the closer, "Love and Affection." But as time passed, a song that never registered previously started to emerge, to the point that the title track is now my favorite, that's right, "Hysteria."

"Hysteria" is subtle, it doesn't have the in-your-face sounds of "Photograph." It sneaks up on you and then you've got to play it incessantly, to be in the groove, to be in the mood.

By this point I had the CD, so that's what I did, put it on endless repeat.

"Out of touch, out of reach, yeah
You could try to get closer to me'

But it's not about the lyrics at this point, but the guitar riff, played over and over and over again.

But then Joe Elliott needs to know...are you alone tonight?

"Hysteria" is personal. Not for everybody in an arena. You hear it and think you're the only one listening, it boosts your mood, to make an approach...

And then that hypnotic guitar figure once again.

And "Hysteria" is nearly endless, it's five minutes and fifty four seconds long, which is an eternity for a pop number. And that's what "Hysteria" is. It's definitely rock, but it's poppy.

It breaks down in the middle. There's essentially a brief drum solo. And then the guitars truly begin to wail. Remember when we had guitar heroes? And everybody knew who they were? Before people thought playing fast was everything, before rock was eclipsed by hip-hop. Actually, all over America there are kids playing this music, not only at the School of Rock, just go on YouTube, not only guys, but girls. They replicate the classics of yore.

And after more singing, there's another guitar solo. But subtle, it doesn't beat you over the head. And Joe exclaims in the background. And then it fades away, and all you can ask yourself is...WHAT WAS THAT?

It's like a train, a mirage, a fantasy, came rolling down the track, pike, road, you were mesmerized, and then it rolled right past you. You couldn't let it fade away, you had to catch it, you had to play the track again. And again.

Not that you could explain the magic. It was a feeling. Sure, the rock critics of yore, with their leather jackets and skinny jeans, couldn't endorse "Hysteria," it wasn't noisy, it wasn't thrashy, it wasn't cut in New York, it was edging on slick when rough was exalted.

But the public didn't know all this. And the public won this war, not only on "Hysteria," today critics are meaningless.

And "Hysteria" sustains.

And I've got to say, Armin's system in his Escalade was top-notch. The music was plenty loud, but he'd turn down the peaks, as if I couldn't handle it, I may be seventy years old but...TURN IT UP!

Then I thought about listening to this music via earbuds. It wouldn't work, you'd miss the flavor. Oh, you can buy headphones that overemphasize the bass, but then you've got inaccuracy. And that's not what Mutt was selling. He was presenting precision, you could turn it up and it didn't distort, it just got louder, took over your whole life.

And Armin is in the front seat beaming, he starts to testify about "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

Which I know by heart, all of us who lived through those years do.

So I figured I'd had enough, we'd peaked, we'd bonded. And I opened the door to get out. But Armin rushed out of the driver's seat. To meet me by the tailgate, before I went into the house. It was like he'd met a long lost brother. He held his fist to his chest. Then he put it against mine.

He said some words, but I don't remember them, I just remember the connection, the feeling.

And I walk into the house and tell myself what I lived through was real. It was not like today, where there's music, but it's part of the machine, it's sales, not art.

Of course there are exceptions, but it's akin to what it was like prior to the Beatles.

And there are people who say the seventies don't compare to the sixties. And that the eighties are a joke. But compared to today...

In the sixties they told us rock and roll would never die.

In the seventies they beat it into our heads.

And the eighties were a victory lap. The sound was everywhere.

And you put on certain records and...

"It's such a magical mysteria
When you get that feeling better start believing
Because it's a miracle..."

That's rock and roll.


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