Songs with "Morning" in the title.
Tune in Saturday June 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
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
Friday, 2 June 2023
Stolen Moments
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/bde3z7r6
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/3tfjmu2h
You know when it's a Lucinda Williams song.
I got burned out on the podcasts. People pontificating about politics, business seers, it's all contemporary, yet dated. There's no soul. Nothing that touches me. But that's the world we live in, where money is everything and you can make beaucoup bucks just talking about the commercial world. So I decided to listen to new music. A chore, a hill too steep to climb, I mean where do you start?
You can't begin with the Spotify Top 50, you can read the list, but you don't want to listen. It's for a very definitive market, and I'm not a member, it's a club, and you're probably not in it either. You remember what once was, but you feel like you're being ignored, no one cares about your tastes, and if it makes money it can't be criticized.
I decided to start in country. I couldn't believe how many playlists there were. And I could easily find one with ancient hits, but that was not what I was looking for, I wanted something contemporary. So I pulled up Hot Country, the hits of the format, what dreck, unlistenable, talk about commerce, no one is testing any limits, they're just delivering what they think people want, and therefore it doesn't truly resonate with anybody. Art comes from within, it's not a marketing exercise. You need to bleed, get your message out, even if you're limiting your market share with every word you write, with every note you play.
So maybe Americana was what I was looking for. But what exactly is that? It implies red, white and blue, but the best artists in the format are anything but the popular conception of America, yet are they the true heart of the country.
Think about it, the most revered artist in Nashville is Chris Stapleton. And he looks and sounds like nobody else. Like in that old Leonard Cohen song, everybody knows. But they are afraid, or not talented enough. So Chris stands exalted, above the rest.
Chris was in this Americana playlist. Which for some reason included Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan, as well as Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell. And I love an Americana that includes the Mac and the Dan, but that's not what most people think of when they hear "Americana," but I do love that they included "Midnite Cruiser," an album track buried in the first side of "Can't Buy a Thrill." Then again, if you give it enough plays, and you should, nothing on "Can't Buy a Thrill" is secondary.
And in truth, nothing new sounds good as you ascend the mountain, get the juices flowing on the steepest part of the path. But as I climbed further up the Backbone Trail, my legs were settled, in a groove, and my mind was finally relaxed, and when I got to a sub-peak, I turned around.
Now in truth everything sounds better on the way down. That's the power of exercise, do it enough and it changes your mood.
But just because it sounds better, that does not mean it's great. But I'm about a third of the way down and I hear this stinging guitar playing descending notes. It immediately reached me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, I needed to know who this was. Lucinda Williams? And about forty seconds in Lu started to sing and it was clear.
"Driving down Sunset I'm stuck in traffic
With the sun coming in from the west"
It does, come in from the west. And as bad as traffic on Sunset can be, the Boulevard is always liberating, it's the essence of L.A. Unlike an avenue in Manhattan, it's not straight. And when you get to Beverly Hills it starts to twist and turn, go up and down, I'd love to see Lewis Hamilton test the limits on an open roadway. Sunset is where I learned the capabilities of my 2002, accelerating into the curves. And now with a four-wheel drive sports car and Michelin Pilots I have to be aware of the speed limit, otherwise I'm pulling around those corners, at one with my machine, not thinking, just feeling, and it feels so good.
There are a ton of songs about Sunset, but the one I thought of while listening to this track was by Bryan Ferry, "Can't Let Go" from his second best solo album, "The Bride Stripped Bare."
"It's a winding road from Cuesta Way
Down Sunset to the beach"
Ferry is infatuated with Los Angeles, as the song says:
"They said 'Go west young man, that's best
It's there you'll feel no pain'"
But "Stolen Moments" sounds nothing like "Can't Let Go." Rather than a moonlight drive, "Stolen Moments" is late afternoon, with the heat and the pollution, contemplating your life as you inch along.
"So I cover my eyes
And I wait for the light to change
And I think about you
And it's kinda strange, but I think about you"
Lucinda Williams has a strange writing style. In that a lot is left out. It's sparse. In her tracks the music and the words blend to emit a feeling, the music speaks as much as the words.
So I can view it. I can put myself in the seat of that car. It's a STOLEN MOMENT!
Wow, that's exactly what it is! The song has set my mind free and I'm thinking, I'm having a stolen moment myself. When you break up with someone, you don't talk to them, but in a stolen moment, when you least expect it, you think about them. It's personal, and it's eerie.
"Sitting in the back seat of a downtown taxi
Speeding across New York City
Somewhere between First Avenue and Second Street
I think about you
It's like a heartbeat, I think about you"
Oh, I thought this was an L.A. song. But really the location is not as important as the thought. These people follow you from place to place, even if you were never there together, especially in those moments when you're disengaged. And that's an artist's job, to be disengaged and let the feelings flow, to observe and distill. This is what the 9-5 crowd can't understand. It's not a job, it's beyond a calling, you've got no choice. You can't do what they do and they can't do what you do. You can't spend all day in the office playing politics or buried in irrelevancies, a cog in the system. It's less of a judgment than it just doesn't resonate, it doesn't add up, what are you accomplishing? Getting paid is not enough. Even if it's a ton. Because you're somewhat different, you're the other.
And the track is so damn good I'm wondering whether it can continue at this level. Kinda like the first time I saw "Hamilton," can it really continue to be this great, can it sustain?
"In stolen moments you're riding with me
You're riding with me again
You're riding with me in stolen moments
You're riding with me again, in stolen moments"
I'd be lying if I said the chorus was musically as good as what came before, but it was good enough not to harm the track. Then again, instead of banging you over the head, the chorus has almost a repetitive feel, setting the mood, and then the guitar starts to wail again. And I'm reminded of a bygone era, when this was a feature of records, the guitar-playing, when style was more important than technique, not showing off, but channeling the song, in service to it.
"From an airplane window I look out in wonder
At a rainbow through the clouds
Thirty thousand feet up in the air
And I swear you're with me there
Like a prayer, you're with me there"
And this is when my adrenaline starts to flow. Man, this track is GREAT! This is exactly what I'm looking for, not that I could have described it before I heard it, which is the case with all the real stuff, it doesn't deliver what you want, but what you need.
And I'm contemplating all those stolen moments. Live long enough and you've got plenty. The track is not in-your-face. Rather, it locks into a groove, just like "Midnight Rider" did on "Idlewild South," not that the tracks are the same. But both lock you in right away and you're removed from the everyday world, you're now living in your brain, with this track and your thoughts alone.
Those stolen moments, I'm haunted by them. And so are you. You can fight them off, or you can embrace them. Then again, get old enough and if you embrace them you might become paralyzed. I was talking to an attractive sixty year old woman on the chairlift, talking about how Logan Ury taught my college buddy how to do online dating and how he was now in the depths of finding his person, what he was looking for with all of his heart and mind, because you get old enough and it's all you want, someone to share it with. And then she said, "Who says I want a relationship?"
Hmm... Her life worked, why cock it up?
My life is all cocked up, and so is yours, it's just a matter of whether you admit it or not. So many loose ends. Friends just fade away, what are they up to now? You were so close to the loves of your past, do they think about you the way you think about them? Is it all a fantasy, if you saw them would you lock right back in or..? Furthermore, when it comes to love relationships there's a reason you broke up, hang with them for even a brief period at a later date and you'll be reminded of it, the problem is still there. So, in truth are we all just living in a fantasy world? Then again, hard core reality is boring, unfulfilling, which is why people are watching television, listening to music, that's what resonates, makes your life complete. We're in the heyday of television, not that everything is good, but if you know where to look you'll find programs that lock you in and set your mind free. Music used to own this sphere. And movies too. But they've abdicated this power in search of cash.
Which brings us back to the podcasts and the news.
And then you remember when you could be addicted to music instead of the news, when less was at stake. Talk to anybody in the music business and it won't be long before they start talking politics, it's more interesting and more vital than the music. As George Drakoulias told me, he used to fight about records. When was the last time you did this?
But it gets better. I'm looking at my phone. Lucinda has stopped singing, that guitar is wailing again, and then...it all goes quiet. But I can see there's still thirty seconds left in the track. The drum starts to pound. The guitar starts playing that circular riff that's the bedrock of the track and then it all slows down, comes together, twinkles, and it's over. Whew! Someone was thinking about this. This is the way tracks used to end when artists wanted to get it right, make a statement. "Stolen Moments" is not made for the radio, but the listener, directly from the artist's heart into yours, sans middleman/woman. You can feel it.
I was blown away. I had to listen to "Stolen Moments" again.
And then I had to do some research. Because there were some winners on this playlist that were a decade old. Maybe "Stolen Moments" is ancient and I was just out of the loop, I'd write about it and be excoriated. But research told me it was recent, and that it was about Tom Petty. TOM PETTY?
When I think of Lucinda Williams I don't think of Tom Petty, I don't classify them in the same oeuvre. And then I remembered, she opened during the final tour. I saw her in the fading daylight at the Hollywood Bowl preceding Petty just days before his death.
And the funny thing is despite being from Florida, Tom Petty was fully Californian. No, let's check that, Tom Petty was an ANGELENO! You remember him singing about Reseda and Ventura Boulevard. Wanting to glide down over Mulholland, at the crest of the mountains, separating the Valley from the beach. From Malibu. Where Tom had a house.
Yes, I could see it. At first I was disappointed, I thought the track represented something more amorphous, thought it was mysterious like those Dylan numbers. Then again, at this late date we know those Dylan tracks were not as mysterious as they looked back then, they too were about real people and real situations, we just didn't know them.
But even though Lucinda is thinking about Tom, inspired her to write the song, that does not excise my feelings, my thoughts of stolen moments, I can own the song for myself nonetheless. This is why Journey can go out and do boffo business without Steve Perry, because the band no longer owns those songs, the audience does.
Here's where I give the caveat, that your mileage my vary, you may not like "Stolen Moments." Then again, we can argue why. Assuming it's important enough to you, it is to me.
How could this be hiding in plain sight? Just when you're ready to give up, believing there's no new music with the essence of the old, still testing limits...
And it all comes down to the song. But "Stolen Moments" is a record.
This has got nothing to do with Lucinda Williams the person. It's all in the stream. You need no backstory. You can just go in fresh and get it.
You should.
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/3tfjmu2h
You know when it's a Lucinda Williams song.
I got burned out on the podcasts. People pontificating about politics, business seers, it's all contemporary, yet dated. There's no soul. Nothing that touches me. But that's the world we live in, where money is everything and you can make beaucoup bucks just talking about the commercial world. So I decided to listen to new music. A chore, a hill too steep to climb, I mean where do you start?
You can't begin with the Spotify Top 50, you can read the list, but you don't want to listen. It's for a very definitive market, and I'm not a member, it's a club, and you're probably not in it either. You remember what once was, but you feel like you're being ignored, no one cares about your tastes, and if it makes money it can't be criticized.
I decided to start in country. I couldn't believe how many playlists there were. And I could easily find one with ancient hits, but that was not what I was looking for, I wanted something contemporary. So I pulled up Hot Country, the hits of the format, what dreck, unlistenable, talk about commerce, no one is testing any limits, they're just delivering what they think people want, and therefore it doesn't truly resonate with anybody. Art comes from within, it's not a marketing exercise. You need to bleed, get your message out, even if you're limiting your market share with every word you write, with every note you play.
So maybe Americana was what I was looking for. But what exactly is that? It implies red, white and blue, but the best artists in the format are anything but the popular conception of America, yet are they the true heart of the country.
Think about it, the most revered artist in Nashville is Chris Stapleton. And he looks and sounds like nobody else. Like in that old Leonard Cohen song, everybody knows. But they are afraid, or not talented enough. So Chris stands exalted, above the rest.
Chris was in this Americana playlist. Which for some reason included Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan, as well as Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell. And I love an Americana that includes the Mac and the Dan, but that's not what most people think of when they hear "Americana," but I do love that they included "Midnite Cruiser," an album track buried in the first side of "Can't Buy a Thrill." Then again, if you give it enough plays, and you should, nothing on "Can't Buy a Thrill" is secondary.
And in truth, nothing new sounds good as you ascend the mountain, get the juices flowing on the steepest part of the path. But as I climbed further up the Backbone Trail, my legs were settled, in a groove, and my mind was finally relaxed, and when I got to a sub-peak, I turned around.
Now in truth everything sounds better on the way down. That's the power of exercise, do it enough and it changes your mood.
But just because it sounds better, that does not mean it's great. But I'm about a third of the way down and I hear this stinging guitar playing descending notes. It immediately reached me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, I needed to know who this was. Lucinda Williams? And about forty seconds in Lu started to sing and it was clear.
"Driving down Sunset I'm stuck in traffic
With the sun coming in from the west"
It does, come in from the west. And as bad as traffic on Sunset can be, the Boulevard is always liberating, it's the essence of L.A. Unlike an avenue in Manhattan, it's not straight. And when you get to Beverly Hills it starts to twist and turn, go up and down, I'd love to see Lewis Hamilton test the limits on an open roadway. Sunset is where I learned the capabilities of my 2002, accelerating into the curves. And now with a four-wheel drive sports car and Michelin Pilots I have to be aware of the speed limit, otherwise I'm pulling around those corners, at one with my machine, not thinking, just feeling, and it feels so good.
There are a ton of songs about Sunset, but the one I thought of while listening to this track was by Bryan Ferry, "Can't Let Go" from his second best solo album, "The Bride Stripped Bare."
"It's a winding road from Cuesta Way
Down Sunset to the beach"
Ferry is infatuated with Los Angeles, as the song says:
"They said 'Go west young man, that's best
It's there you'll feel no pain'"
But "Stolen Moments" sounds nothing like "Can't Let Go." Rather than a moonlight drive, "Stolen Moments" is late afternoon, with the heat and the pollution, contemplating your life as you inch along.
"So I cover my eyes
And I wait for the light to change
And I think about you
And it's kinda strange, but I think about you"
Lucinda Williams has a strange writing style. In that a lot is left out. It's sparse. In her tracks the music and the words blend to emit a feeling, the music speaks as much as the words.
So I can view it. I can put myself in the seat of that car. It's a STOLEN MOMENT!
Wow, that's exactly what it is! The song has set my mind free and I'm thinking, I'm having a stolen moment myself. When you break up with someone, you don't talk to them, but in a stolen moment, when you least expect it, you think about them. It's personal, and it's eerie.
"Sitting in the back seat of a downtown taxi
Speeding across New York City
Somewhere between First Avenue and Second Street
I think about you
It's like a heartbeat, I think about you"
Oh, I thought this was an L.A. song. But really the location is not as important as the thought. These people follow you from place to place, even if you were never there together, especially in those moments when you're disengaged. And that's an artist's job, to be disengaged and let the feelings flow, to observe and distill. This is what the 9-5 crowd can't understand. It's not a job, it's beyond a calling, you've got no choice. You can't do what they do and they can't do what you do. You can't spend all day in the office playing politics or buried in irrelevancies, a cog in the system. It's less of a judgment than it just doesn't resonate, it doesn't add up, what are you accomplishing? Getting paid is not enough. Even if it's a ton. Because you're somewhat different, you're the other.
And the track is so damn good I'm wondering whether it can continue at this level. Kinda like the first time I saw "Hamilton," can it really continue to be this great, can it sustain?
"In stolen moments you're riding with me
You're riding with me again
You're riding with me in stolen moments
You're riding with me again, in stolen moments"
I'd be lying if I said the chorus was musically as good as what came before, but it was good enough not to harm the track. Then again, instead of banging you over the head, the chorus has almost a repetitive feel, setting the mood, and then the guitar starts to wail again. And I'm reminded of a bygone era, when this was a feature of records, the guitar-playing, when style was more important than technique, not showing off, but channeling the song, in service to it.
"From an airplane window I look out in wonder
At a rainbow through the clouds
Thirty thousand feet up in the air
And I swear you're with me there
Like a prayer, you're with me there"
And this is when my adrenaline starts to flow. Man, this track is GREAT! This is exactly what I'm looking for, not that I could have described it before I heard it, which is the case with all the real stuff, it doesn't deliver what you want, but what you need.
And I'm contemplating all those stolen moments. Live long enough and you've got plenty. The track is not in-your-face. Rather, it locks into a groove, just like "Midnight Rider" did on "Idlewild South," not that the tracks are the same. But both lock you in right away and you're removed from the everyday world, you're now living in your brain, with this track and your thoughts alone.
Those stolen moments, I'm haunted by them. And so are you. You can fight them off, or you can embrace them. Then again, get old enough and if you embrace them you might become paralyzed. I was talking to an attractive sixty year old woman on the chairlift, talking about how Logan Ury taught my college buddy how to do online dating and how he was now in the depths of finding his person, what he was looking for with all of his heart and mind, because you get old enough and it's all you want, someone to share it with. And then she said, "Who says I want a relationship?"
Hmm... Her life worked, why cock it up?
My life is all cocked up, and so is yours, it's just a matter of whether you admit it or not. So many loose ends. Friends just fade away, what are they up to now? You were so close to the loves of your past, do they think about you the way you think about them? Is it all a fantasy, if you saw them would you lock right back in or..? Furthermore, when it comes to love relationships there's a reason you broke up, hang with them for even a brief period at a later date and you'll be reminded of it, the problem is still there. So, in truth are we all just living in a fantasy world? Then again, hard core reality is boring, unfulfilling, which is why people are watching television, listening to music, that's what resonates, makes your life complete. We're in the heyday of television, not that everything is good, but if you know where to look you'll find programs that lock you in and set your mind free. Music used to own this sphere. And movies too. But they've abdicated this power in search of cash.
Which brings us back to the podcasts and the news.
And then you remember when you could be addicted to music instead of the news, when less was at stake. Talk to anybody in the music business and it won't be long before they start talking politics, it's more interesting and more vital than the music. As George Drakoulias told me, he used to fight about records. When was the last time you did this?
But it gets better. I'm looking at my phone. Lucinda has stopped singing, that guitar is wailing again, and then...it all goes quiet. But I can see there's still thirty seconds left in the track. The drum starts to pound. The guitar starts playing that circular riff that's the bedrock of the track and then it all slows down, comes together, twinkles, and it's over. Whew! Someone was thinking about this. This is the way tracks used to end when artists wanted to get it right, make a statement. "Stolen Moments" is not made for the radio, but the listener, directly from the artist's heart into yours, sans middleman/woman. You can feel it.
I was blown away. I had to listen to "Stolen Moments" again.
And then I had to do some research. Because there were some winners on this playlist that were a decade old. Maybe "Stolen Moments" is ancient and I was just out of the loop, I'd write about it and be excoriated. But research told me it was recent, and that it was about Tom Petty. TOM PETTY?
When I think of Lucinda Williams I don't think of Tom Petty, I don't classify them in the same oeuvre. And then I remembered, she opened during the final tour. I saw her in the fading daylight at the Hollywood Bowl preceding Petty just days before his death.
And the funny thing is despite being from Florida, Tom Petty was fully Californian. No, let's check that, Tom Petty was an ANGELENO! You remember him singing about Reseda and Ventura Boulevard. Wanting to glide down over Mulholland, at the crest of the mountains, separating the Valley from the beach. From Malibu. Where Tom had a house.
Yes, I could see it. At first I was disappointed, I thought the track represented something more amorphous, thought it was mysterious like those Dylan numbers. Then again, at this late date we know those Dylan tracks were not as mysterious as they looked back then, they too were about real people and real situations, we just didn't know them.
But even though Lucinda is thinking about Tom, inspired her to write the song, that does not excise my feelings, my thoughts of stolen moments, I can own the song for myself nonetheless. This is why Journey can go out and do boffo business without Steve Perry, because the band no longer owns those songs, the audience does.
Here's where I give the caveat, that your mileage my vary, you may not like "Stolen Moments." Then again, we can argue why. Assuming it's important enough to you, it is to me.
How could this be hiding in plain sight? Just when you're ready to give up, believing there's no new music with the essence of the old, still testing limits...
And it all comes down to the song. But "Stolen Moments" is a record.
This has got nothing to do with Lucinda Williams the person. It's all in the stream. You need no backstory. You can just go in fresh and get it.
You should.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
Thursday, 1 June 2023
Tony's Politics
I got a number of e-mails asking for a link to the TikTok video I referenced in my article about "Succession."
I went through my TikTok history and found it, the guy operates under the name: tonyspolitics
So the specific video I was referencing is here:
"Conservative Rage Explained": https://tinyurl.com/ycku9c82
I'm going to list a couple more of his videos, you can watch even more if you want to:
"Conservative Rage Explained Part 2": https://tinyurl.com/45nfj7dh
"How to talk to your MAGA Family and Friends": https://tinyurl.com/4wuxs4r3
"Why Conservatives Hate Socialism": https://tinyurl.com/mxjpx5vs
P.S. Once again, you do not have to sign up for TikTok to watch these videos. When confronted with the "Log in to TikTok" screen when you paste one of the above URLS into your browser, just click the "X" in the upper right-hand corner to make it disappear, and then watch away.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
I went through my TikTok history and found it, the guy operates under the name: tonyspolitics
So the specific video I was referencing is here:
"Conservative Rage Explained": https://tinyurl.com/ycku9c82
I'm going to list a couple more of his videos, you can watch even more if you want to:
"Conservative Rage Explained Part 2": https://tinyurl.com/45nfj7dh
"How to talk to your MAGA Family and Friends": https://tinyurl.com/4wuxs4r3
"Why Conservatives Hate Socialism": https://tinyurl.com/mxjpx5vs
P.S. Once again, you do not have to sign up for TikTok to watch these videos. When confronted with the "Log in to TikTok" screen when you paste one of the above URLS into your browser, just click the "X" in the upper right-hand corner to make it disappear, and then watch away.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
Steve Lukather-This Week's Podcast
Guitarist extraordinaire and member of Toto Steve Lukather is brutally honest in this podcast, you need to hear it.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/steve-lukather-116322293/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-lukather/id1316200737?i=1000615273641
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7qyalQKDI70wNpSGr8xr3M?si=W-4RrhWVQpW_CvV7lTxgBA
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/7d8ba862-0b6f-4e13-a5fd-fcf86c599226/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-steve-lukather
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/steve-lukather-303952747
--
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
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/steve-lukather-116322293/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-lukather/id1316200737?i=1000615273641
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7qyalQKDI70wNpSGr8xr3M?si=W-4RrhWVQpW_CvV7lTxgBA
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/7d8ba862-0b6f-4e13-a5fd-fcf86c599226/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-steve-lukather
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/steve-lukather-303952747
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Succession Finale
Nobody watched it.
Oh, that's not true. But relatively speaking it is. 2.9 million people in a country of 331.9 million. A rounding error. I mean everybody says the U.S. population s 330 million, not 331.9.
But if you read the press, you'd think that the "Succession" finale was the Super Bowl.
Now I see no reason to delve too deeply into the show itself, although I will say what little I saw lacked the gravitas of a great European drama, "Borgen," or "The Bureau" or "Line of Duty," take your pick. "Succession" was a cartoon. Not radically different from a Marvel movie if you think about it. But those who watched it could feel good about themselves, that they understood high finance, the workings of the media and how families transfer wealth and power. Ain't that a laugh. Want to know more about that...well, it's basically boring, and you don't. Which is why it was gussied up for television, made as entertainment.
Now let's add some more perspective. In the U.S., HBO has 46.8 million subscribers. HBO is the Tiffany network, not CBS. And almost everybody who subscribes chose not to watch the "Succession" finale, and they're paying for the service! As for those who are not, they're completely out of the loop, they see no reason to lay down their cash, they can live without the service, never mind "Succession," but, once again, you'd think "Succession" is the most popular show on television, that it is single-handedly carrying the flag of HBO. But it's not, nowhere close.
"White Lotus" had an average of 15.5 million viewers per episode. But it gets even worse. "Euphoria" had an average of 19.5 million viewers per episode. And "House of the Dragon" and "The Last of Us" 30 million.
Now HBO says that the last season of "Succession" was averaging 8.7 million viewers per episode. Which is not nothing, Then again, if these were diehard viewers, why weren't they tuned in on Sunday night? They obviously didn't need to see the finale that bad. Which was pitched as a modern day "Who Shot J.R.?"
HBO gets all the love, but the big kahuna is Netflix, by far. Netflix represents between 70% and 80% of the top ten most viewed shows every week. Combine Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max and they don't even add up to Netflix's share. But Netflix is in the crapper and the others are big winners. That's the story that's been spread.
As for final seasons... Netflix's "Ozark" was the second most streamed original program in 2022, and number four overall. Did we see all these stories about the finale of "Ozark"? Of course not!
Because "Ozark" didn't play by the rules. Didn't dribble out episodes week by week. Satiating the news media but not the viewer.
If you thought that media would drive attention and viewership to "Succession," that's not the case. Otherwise numbers would have expanded exponentially, they didn't.
In other words, it was a circle jerk.
I'd argue that "Succession" would have done better if it was dropped all at once, like a Netflix show. Because then no one would have felt left out. You watch a Netflix show when you want, you don't feel left out if you don't binge it on day one. And frequently, you binge a series, maybe even the whole thing, long after it's been released. You see the buzz ultimately reaches you, you want to be a member of the club. Whereas if you're not watching "Succession" week by week on HBO, you're left out, and there's little incentive to catch up.
Netflix shows build on word of mouth, HBO shows still rely on hype.
But conventional hype does not work in a world with a zillion choices.
But my main point here is media is out of touch with the TV viewing masses, never mind those who don't even have cable or streaming accounts, who are dedicated to TikTok, which is the choice of the young 'uns, primarily because it's more human and more interesting than most of the fare on broadcast, cable and streaming outlets.
But TikTok is pooh-poohed by the press. Seen as a youth folly. Déclassé. And the funny thing is the people testifying as to TikTok's faults never even go on the service. Which is like reviewing a TV program without ever seeing it.
But my main point here isn't about "Succession," most people didn't watch and don't care, but how the media is covering other stories!
Like its infatuation with DeSantis's botched Twitter announcement. I hate to tell you, the regular public doesn't care. They didn't tune in, never planned to tune in, and it will have no effect on whether they vote for DeSantis or not. But if you read the news stories, the launch wounded DeSantis significantly. But that's completely untrue.
It's even worse in music, where it's all Taylor Swift all the time. When the biggest act in the business today is Morgan Wallen. But the media's decided he's a racist backwoods hick so he doesn't even get a fraction of the attention. And in case you didn't know, Morgan Wallen sells out stadiums too. His album will be bumped from number one this week by a plethora of Swift special projects, physical product that's counted disproportionately by the music business charts so that Swift and her team/label can tell everybody how well they're doing. But, Wallen will be number one again the week after that. Wallen's material has got staying power.
But neither Swift nor Wallen are number one on the Spotify Top 50 today. That position is held by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma's "Ella Baila Sola." One of your favorites, right? You spin Armado's album "Desvelado" constantly! Let's be real, you've never even heard of it, it's all news to you!
And Karol G. is playing stadiums! You might have heard her name, but you can't sing a song.
As a matter of fact, you probably can't sing a song from the new work by Swift or Wallen either, because in truth they're both niche products!
The music world is completely different these days. A better indicator of popularity is the touring chart, that's where fans lay down hard cash to see their favorites. You can have a big hit on the Spotify Top 50 and barely be able to sell a ticket!
The news is distorted, it's out of touch with the populace.
We've known this for years, but it's only gotten worse.
I was served a video of this guy on TikTok... An evangelical Christian. Who ultimately went to a non-Christian law school. The professor testified to some fact and the guy freaked out, stood up and said it wasn't true and walked out and then dropped the class. And ultimately realized he was the one who was wrong, he'd been brainwashed. And then in a series of videos he explains the right wing evangelical Christian mind-set. There's no way you can reach these people. But the left wing media, the middle of the road media, keep believing they can, but they can't. That's right, I learned more about the country's political landscape on TikTok than I did in the "New York Times," never mind the "Wall Street Journal" or the "Washington Post" or MSNBC or... Gave me a whole new perspective. The coming election is not about ideas, but getting out the vote. But we're going to read about the horse race on a granular level for eighteen months.
You see the traditional media doesn't want to lose power. It may be online, but it's almost the same as it ever was, with the same kinds of writers. Today it's not about going out with your notebook and getting the story, it's about reading or listening to the words of those who are living the story. They're readily available online, then again, mainstream media is caught up in this inane story that online is the devil. That we must keep kids from social media. Cut down their screen time. When in truth, the joke is on them, not only are the kids alright, they're in the know!
And the point of all this is not to argue or offend you, but to wake you up, the world is much more vast than you're being told, much more complicated. The successes are not as big as you're being told, certainly not compared to the successes of the much smaller pre-internet world, and there are numerous players that have sustaining audiences that get no love from the media, but are adored by their fans.
This is a huge problem. It's a distortion of the landscape.
Used to be you could get truth from a record. Now you're better off checking out streaming TV, TikTok even more. You hear about all these influencers trying to make money... That's the minority. Today the script has flipped, the public is the star. People want to be heard and the vast majority are listening.
But not the machers in the mainstream press.
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-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Oh, that's not true. But relatively speaking it is. 2.9 million people in a country of 331.9 million. A rounding error. I mean everybody says the U.S. population s 330 million, not 331.9.
But if you read the press, you'd think that the "Succession" finale was the Super Bowl.
Now I see no reason to delve too deeply into the show itself, although I will say what little I saw lacked the gravitas of a great European drama, "Borgen," or "The Bureau" or "Line of Duty," take your pick. "Succession" was a cartoon. Not radically different from a Marvel movie if you think about it. But those who watched it could feel good about themselves, that they understood high finance, the workings of the media and how families transfer wealth and power. Ain't that a laugh. Want to know more about that...well, it's basically boring, and you don't. Which is why it was gussied up for television, made as entertainment.
Now let's add some more perspective. In the U.S., HBO has 46.8 million subscribers. HBO is the Tiffany network, not CBS. And almost everybody who subscribes chose not to watch the "Succession" finale, and they're paying for the service! As for those who are not, they're completely out of the loop, they see no reason to lay down their cash, they can live without the service, never mind "Succession," but, once again, you'd think "Succession" is the most popular show on television, that it is single-handedly carrying the flag of HBO. But it's not, nowhere close.
"White Lotus" had an average of 15.5 million viewers per episode. But it gets even worse. "Euphoria" had an average of 19.5 million viewers per episode. And "House of the Dragon" and "The Last of Us" 30 million.
Now HBO says that the last season of "Succession" was averaging 8.7 million viewers per episode. Which is not nothing, Then again, if these were diehard viewers, why weren't they tuned in on Sunday night? They obviously didn't need to see the finale that bad. Which was pitched as a modern day "Who Shot J.R.?"
HBO gets all the love, but the big kahuna is Netflix, by far. Netflix represents between 70% and 80% of the top ten most viewed shows every week. Combine Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max and they don't even add up to Netflix's share. But Netflix is in the crapper and the others are big winners. That's the story that's been spread.
As for final seasons... Netflix's "Ozark" was the second most streamed original program in 2022, and number four overall. Did we see all these stories about the finale of "Ozark"? Of course not!
Because "Ozark" didn't play by the rules. Didn't dribble out episodes week by week. Satiating the news media but not the viewer.
If you thought that media would drive attention and viewership to "Succession," that's not the case. Otherwise numbers would have expanded exponentially, they didn't.
In other words, it was a circle jerk.
I'd argue that "Succession" would have done better if it was dropped all at once, like a Netflix show. Because then no one would have felt left out. You watch a Netflix show when you want, you don't feel left out if you don't binge it on day one. And frequently, you binge a series, maybe even the whole thing, long after it's been released. You see the buzz ultimately reaches you, you want to be a member of the club. Whereas if you're not watching "Succession" week by week on HBO, you're left out, and there's little incentive to catch up.
Netflix shows build on word of mouth, HBO shows still rely on hype.
But conventional hype does not work in a world with a zillion choices.
But my main point here is media is out of touch with the TV viewing masses, never mind those who don't even have cable or streaming accounts, who are dedicated to TikTok, which is the choice of the young 'uns, primarily because it's more human and more interesting than most of the fare on broadcast, cable and streaming outlets.
But TikTok is pooh-poohed by the press. Seen as a youth folly. Déclassé. And the funny thing is the people testifying as to TikTok's faults never even go on the service. Which is like reviewing a TV program without ever seeing it.
But my main point here isn't about "Succession," most people didn't watch and don't care, but how the media is covering other stories!
Like its infatuation with DeSantis's botched Twitter announcement. I hate to tell you, the regular public doesn't care. They didn't tune in, never planned to tune in, and it will have no effect on whether they vote for DeSantis or not. But if you read the news stories, the launch wounded DeSantis significantly. But that's completely untrue.
It's even worse in music, where it's all Taylor Swift all the time. When the biggest act in the business today is Morgan Wallen. But the media's decided he's a racist backwoods hick so he doesn't even get a fraction of the attention. And in case you didn't know, Morgan Wallen sells out stadiums too. His album will be bumped from number one this week by a plethora of Swift special projects, physical product that's counted disproportionately by the music business charts so that Swift and her team/label can tell everybody how well they're doing. But, Wallen will be number one again the week after that. Wallen's material has got staying power.
But neither Swift nor Wallen are number one on the Spotify Top 50 today. That position is held by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma's "Ella Baila Sola." One of your favorites, right? You spin Armado's album "Desvelado" constantly! Let's be real, you've never even heard of it, it's all news to you!
And Karol G. is playing stadiums! You might have heard her name, but you can't sing a song.
As a matter of fact, you probably can't sing a song from the new work by Swift or Wallen either, because in truth they're both niche products!
The music world is completely different these days. A better indicator of popularity is the touring chart, that's where fans lay down hard cash to see their favorites. You can have a big hit on the Spotify Top 50 and barely be able to sell a ticket!
The news is distorted, it's out of touch with the populace.
We've known this for years, but it's only gotten worse.
I was served a video of this guy on TikTok... An evangelical Christian. Who ultimately went to a non-Christian law school. The professor testified to some fact and the guy freaked out, stood up and said it wasn't true and walked out and then dropped the class. And ultimately realized he was the one who was wrong, he'd been brainwashed. And then in a series of videos he explains the right wing evangelical Christian mind-set. There's no way you can reach these people. But the left wing media, the middle of the road media, keep believing they can, but they can't. That's right, I learned more about the country's political landscape on TikTok than I did in the "New York Times," never mind the "Wall Street Journal" or the "Washington Post" or MSNBC or... Gave me a whole new perspective. The coming election is not about ideas, but getting out the vote. But we're going to read about the horse race on a granular level for eighteen months.
You see the traditional media doesn't want to lose power. It may be online, but it's almost the same as it ever was, with the same kinds of writers. Today it's not about going out with your notebook and getting the story, it's about reading or listening to the words of those who are living the story. They're readily available online, then again, mainstream media is caught up in this inane story that online is the devil. That we must keep kids from social media. Cut down their screen time. When in truth, the joke is on them, not only are the kids alright, they're in the know!
And the point of all this is not to argue or offend you, but to wake you up, the world is much more vast than you're being told, much more complicated. The successes are not as big as you're being told, certainly not compared to the successes of the much smaller pre-internet world, and there are numerous players that have sustaining audiences that get no love from the media, but are adored by their fans.
This is a huge problem. It's a distortion of the landscape.
Used to be you could get truth from a record. Now you're better off checking out streaming TV, TikTok even more. You hear about all these influencers trying to make money... That's the minority. Today the script has flipped, the public is the star. People want to be heard and the vast majority are listening.
But not the machers in the mainstream press.
--
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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Monday, 29 May 2023
Sugar Babe (Live at Berkeley 1971)
Spotify: https://shorturl.at/LNPW3
YouTube: https://shorturl.at/zDL26
1
Most people had no idea Stephen Stills could wail until "Super Session." As for the Buffalo Springfield... Most people considered it a band with a hit single and not much more. The Springfield really didn't experience a renaissance until after the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash record in '69, people wanted more and they purchased the Springfield compilation "Retrospective" primarily to hear Stills's "Rock & Roll Woman," the closest thing to the new sound of CSN. Sure, you were exposed to Neil Young's "Broken Arrow" and "Mr. Soul," but at this point Young was a relative unknown, having released his initial, eponymous record to crickets. "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" came out mere months later, but it only generated airplay, had an impact, after Young had joined the band and "Déjà Vu" had been released in March of 1970. And then Young put out "After the Gold Rush" in September of that same year and his great ascension really began. The others were just starting their solo careers, whereas Neil had hit his stride. But really, "After the Gold Rush" was a dorm room favorite, something you heard on FM rock stations, which were now nationwide, it wasn't until "Heart of Gold" became a hit single on AM radio at the advent of 1972 that Neil Young was ubiquitous, when the masses adopted him as a seer. And not long thereafter Neil went on the road and played all new material in a hard rocking fashion and drove the mainstream away and delivered himself endless runway, the looky-loos had moved on, and in truth they never came back, now it was only the hard core who cared, but that was large enough when he dropped "Rust Never Sleeps" with its hard-edged statement "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" that endeared him to the Seattle grungers, who warmly embraced Neil, even on MTV.
But Stephen...
He was the star. Sans Stephen, Crosby, Stills & Nash, with or without Young, didn't work. Sure, the trio's debut was fantastic, playable throughout, but "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" eclipsed the rest of the tracks, as did the not quite as good but still magical opener on "Déjà Vu," "Carry On." You have no idea how good "Carry On" sounded on the stereos of the day. People were accumulating sound equipment, they needed to be closer to the music, and a ton of dough was spent on getting the track right and it was transcendent, with not only the exquisite harmonies but the stinging guitar underpinning the whole thing.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were the biggest band in the land. Whose popularity was goosed by their appearance in that spring's "Woodstock" movie and soundtrack album. Sure, the live harmonies were imperfect, and we all knew it, but we also knew they were scared sh*tless at the breakthrough festival and we overlooked the recording's flaws.
And then came the solo albums. The aforementioned "After the Gold Rush" and just before Thanksgiving of 1970, Stephen Stills' self-titled debut. "Love the One You're With" was everywhere. It was a victory lap today's acts can only dream about, its constant exhibition ran through the Christmas holiday, if you hadn't gotten "Stephen Stills" as a gift, you bought it, and continued to play it into the new year.
Along with the two American Elton John albums. And George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," and Bob Dylan's "New Morning," and if you were in the know, Rod Stewart's "Gasoline Alley" and... In other words, Stephen Stills was not alone at the top, there was a plethora of meaningful, hit material. And James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" still had legs and "Mud Slide Slim" came along in April and then there was the great unknown, unseen "Tapestry" which came along like the little engine that could and confoundingly dominated. Stephen Stills was not quite the hero he once was, mere months later, when he released "Stephen Stills 2" at the end of June 1971. Suddenly the press turned. This was not the fawning writers of today, rock critics were exalted, and they had it out for you, they were the enemy, and they were not enamored of the album.
2
But back to "Super Session."
It's hard to fathom fifty plus years later, but the most played cut wasn't on the Mike Bloomfield first side, but the Stephen Stills second side. It was the eleven minute version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch." It was when extended cuts were seen as a breakthrough. "Season of the Witch" was a reimagining of Donovan's original, which was an album cut, not a hit single. And by this time Donovan had lost his cred. And it had nothing to do with Bob Dylan dissing the English bard in "Don't Look Back," but even though they show that film in college classes today, almost no one saw it back then, it had limited distribution in an era where documentaries were sideshows, and Dylan had retreated to Woodstock after his motorcycle accident and the focus was elsewhere.
Bloomfield was a star to those in the know, but they were limited in number. Paul Butterfield never had a hit, the Electric Flag never broke through and...Bloomfield was supposed to play on the complete album but left town and Stephen took his place and suddenly everybody knew his music, "Super Session" was huge. Al Kooper got the most credit, but it was hard to ignore Stills's contributions, especially the phased guitar solo at the end of "Season of the Witch," which built and built, jabbing you in the gut with a blunt, not sharp, end which meant it felt so good, and then Stills's playing became ethereal and you drifted away...this was back when marijuana was starting to permeate the hinterlands, you'd drop the needle and... Funny today how drug addiction starts in the hinterlands, not the city, whereas everything used to happen in the city first. But that's the legacy of OxyContin. And that same Stills guitar was on "You Don't Love Me," which had the driving energy of a Cream song. And then there was the complete reworking of Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," wherein Stills demonstrated range, the skills which would shine on "Crosby, Stills & Nash."
But Stephen was still relatively unknown until the trio's first LP. And then the audience couldn't get enough of him, and here he was on "Super Session" as well as "Retrospective" and Stills was a star. No, a superstar. A status cemented by his solo LP. Which was his peak.
Yes, Stills' solo album eclipsed the subsequent solo debuts of David Crosby and Graham Nash, and then...
The audience turned against him.
We love to hate our stars. And this was in an era where there was so little news, but gossip was rampant, even your local punter believed they were in the know. Supposedly Stephen Stills was an authoritarian drunk, too big for his britches, not humble like Neil Young...ain't that a joke. And as I referenced above, it's not like the populace was starved for stars it could pledge devotion to. Rod Stewart broke through with "Maggie May" and at the end of the summer there was "Live: At Fillmore East" and "Who's Next" and earlier in the spring Leon Russell's "Shelter People" and..."Stephen Stills 2" wasn't as good as the debut and was trashed by critics and suddenly, Stephen Stills had been eclipsed.
So Stills stepped back and regrouped. Formed a band, Manassas, and released a double album evidencing all sides of his abilities and personality. Short CSN/country/solo-type stuff on the first two sides, and extended wailing on the second two. But as good as the eight plus minute "The Treasure" was, this was 1972, not 1968. FM radio now wanted shorter cuts, not longer ones. And as great as "Manassas' was there were no hit singles, in an era where hit singles were starting to mean less and less but were still the way to cement popularity, to sell tonnage. So Stephen Stills put out the best album of his solo career, and few cared.
But it was worse than that. Out of nowhere came a track that digested what Stills, et al, had done before and trumped it. Talk about a summer tune... "Take It Easy" was everywhere, AM and FM. It was smooth and slick to the point where you wondered if this band called "Eagles" was a one hit wonder, but you were forced to buy the album, the debut, and found out they were not. The second cut, "Witchy Woman," alone convinced you of this. This was a band for the seventies, self-contained, with no obvious history, other than that of Randy Meisner, who was seen as secondary anyway, he was just the bass player...as for his rich, high voice, the public was completely unfamiliar with it, to this day they can't attribute it to him. It was a new era. Hippies, love-ins, they were history. FM was no longer free-form. And the record business was bigger than ever. WEA had been formed the year before, and now with branch distribution more albums could be sold than ever before, assuming the goods were delivered, and the Eagles did.
As did Elton John with "Rocket Man" and Jethro Tull with "Thick as a Brick" and Deep Purple with "Machine Head" and the Stones with "Exile" and the hits just kept on coming, and Stephen Stills was now just one of the pack, he was no longer above it. And there was more press, which not being new he got less of, and...it was essentially over for Stills' solo career. He kept on putting out albums, but to fewer and fewer returns. He switched from Atlantic to Columbia, but it made little difference, and then there was only one thing to do, reunite with Crosby and Nash.
1977's "CSN" blew people's minds, they never expected the band to get back together, everything was there, the harmonies, the songs weren't quite as good as what came before, but there were peaks and no valleys, but... Now, years later, Stills could no longer dominate, he needed Crosby and Nash just like they needed him. So, he had to sacrifice some of the songwriting. The album didn't even open with a Stills cut, but one by David Crosby, with Craig Doerge," "Shadow Captain." And, in true CSN fashion, the Top Forty hit was written by Graham Nash, "Just a Song Before I Go." But the songs played the most on FM were Stills's, "Fair Game," "Dark Star" and "I Give You Give Blind." And then there was that one special number, track two, "See the Changes," the flip side of "4 + 20" on "Déjà Vu."
"Ten years singing right out loud
I never looked was anybody listening
Then I fell out of a cloud
I hit the ground and noticed something missing"
It was less about the past than the future. All the hits did not fill that hole in his heart.
"Now I have someone
She has seen me changing
And it gets harder as you get closer"
Ain't that the truth. The baby boomer anthem. It was now the mid-seventies. The Vietnam war was over. What was life about? And I'm not saying that "See the Changes" is unknown, but it's been forgotten and it rings so true, to this day, it still gets harder as you get closer, unless you give up, as so many boomers have now done.
And then the three went their separate ways, and found most didn't care, and then reunited in 1982 for "Daylight Again," which contained the band and Stephen's last hit, the overplayed "Southern Cross." And then there were decades of albums, even a short-lived Buffalo Springfield reunion and Neil Young is seen as being contemporary, but the other three? Has-beens.
3
Until you saw Stills' performance in "Echo in the Canyon." It isn't on the soundtrack album, but Eric Clapton played and then the image shifted to Stephen Stills in the studio positively wailing, never having lost a step, he still had it, in spades, he eclipsed the now self-destructing Clapton, but...crickets.
So Stephen Stills is hiding in plain sight. Not completely ignored, he did do that album and tour with Judy Collins and he is going to be playing at Clapton's Guitar Festival in September, but when it comes to the younger generation...he's a cipher. Joni Mitchell got her victory lap, deservedly so, however unending it might be, so many of the heroes of yore have been lionized, but not Stephen Stills, who could not only play at a world class level, but write and sing. Sure, his voice has suffered. And it's hard to write new songs when no one cares, despite stories absolutely everywhere Graham Nash's new album doesn't even have one track in six digits on Spotify, six cuts are still in four, you can't even lead the audience to the water, never mind have them partake, but Stephen Stills can still play, he can still play.
4
Stephen Stills has a new album. Well, not exactly new, it's a live recording, from 1971. You might be aware of this, but most people are not, it's not even listed on Stills's Wikipedia page, it's got about the same number of streams as Nash's new, original work. In other words, bupkes.
Now if it were still 1971, this live album would have been at the top of the chart, in everybody's house, because it contains the old as well as the new and it's got a sense of immediacy, but times change.
Not that I want to overrate this album, but today I got hooked on "Sugar Babe."
"You can do what you want to do
You can be who you want to be"
No you can't. That's what we believed in the sixties, but that's in the rearview mirror, today people are just trying to survive. Maybe not those who go to elite institutions, frequently on the coattails of their parents, but they can't be who they want to be, not unless they want to be broke. Of course there are exceptions, but we all believed we could live a fulfilled life back when, on our own journey of exploration. So you can work at the bank, but if you want to be an artist...good luck. Funny, no one complained about being broke back in the day, no one thought they were entitled to attention and riches, then again you could survive on minimum wage.
And if you read this week's "New Yorker" article about privates, you can see it's no longer your father's music business, there's money, but...
"How to Hire a Pop Star for Your Private Party": https://rb.gy/vpxxn
If you're a pro you know all of this, but the one thing that comes across is how these gigs are soul-crushing, as Dylan sang we all have to serve someone, or maybe everybody just can't say no to the cash anymore.
But once they could.
"People need love
People need trust
People need one another
And that means us"
True. But, once again, it's no longer the sixties. Today it seems that hate is rampant. We trust almost no one. And people think they can live without others, whether it be the checkout person at the grocery store, assuming you aren't forced to check out yourself, or the red states that want to secede not knowing that it's the blue states that are propping up their economies. Money trumps everything, just ask Fox News.
"So close, then again so far away
Where are the answers, I hear them every day"
Now that applies, is just as truthful today. The closer we get, the further off the destination seems to be, meanwhile people don't stop telling us who to be, what to believe.
Now today music is everywhere, but it sounds worse than ever. And you can't blame the streaming services, you've got to blame yourself. Those earbuds you're using. The truth is you can listen to better than CD quality, pretty cheaply on Amazon Music and Apple charges no more and then there's Qobuz, which for some reason sounds better than all the rest.
So I'm sitting on the couch earlier today and I got a hankering to hear "Sugar Babe," don't ask me where these inclinations come from, I don't know, it's one of the surprises of life, and I look for it on Qobuz and then I'm reminded of the live version from Berkeley. I've heard it before, but it was never foreground, I wasn't giving it my undivided attention. But today it grabbed me.
This ain't no machine. This is a human being. You can hear it in the recording. You can get close if you want to, most people don't bother to. Today most music is background, or loved by the barely pubescent, who haven't experienced the world. And the "stars" pander to them. But we looked up to the stars of yore, because they had preternatural wisdom. How did they know so much at such a young age?
"Everyone knows that it ain't easy
But when you get it all together in your heart
It's the easiest thing to do to be pleasin'
Folks ain't made to live apart"
But they are. Stephen is in limbo. He's feeling the distance. He's not sure where he is.
"I got to get next to the girl or I got to get away"
And you've got to get next to the person too. Unfortunately, business success, money, doesn't fill that hole in your heart. And in order to get the dividends, you've got to pay. You've got to put in the hard work. You can go from person to person for the high, but you'll never get the rewards. You see it works best when you're low, or they are, and you can be there for each other, no one wants to be alone, no matter what they say.
We used to love our acts. They weren't evanescent, they were here to stay. They had to earn our trust, it was not easy to do, but if they did we were along for the ride. You might feel like a party of one, but in truth that was not the case. You went to the gig and found others who knew the songs as well as you did, who needed to be there just like you, who had to bow at the feet of these gods.
We don't have gods today. Everybody's sold out. Or angry that no one is paying attention. Being good enough to triumph on talent alone... No, you'd better bring in outside writers, sign up with the hit-making producers, polish the track again and again, you want to capture lightning in a bottle, but to do that you've got to let go, you've got to channel the essence, whereas most acts today don't even know how to do that, even though they protesteth, too much.
But the funny thing is the truth is still out there, still contained in the records of yore. So old that they seem new. Their messages are timeless. As is the playing.
"Let yourself be open honey, learn to bend
Remember everyone gets scared
But I'm still your best friend"
I am not, your best friend. You don't really know me, but you think you do. Just like I think I know Stephen Stills. I've been around him a couple of times, but he wouldn't remember, even though I do. But I've imbued so much meaning into his work. He reached me, he's continued to do so.
And that's the goal of an artist.
Full stop.
YouTube: https://shorturl.at/zDL26
1
Most people had no idea Stephen Stills could wail until "Super Session." As for the Buffalo Springfield... Most people considered it a band with a hit single and not much more. The Springfield really didn't experience a renaissance until after the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash record in '69, people wanted more and they purchased the Springfield compilation "Retrospective" primarily to hear Stills's "Rock & Roll Woman," the closest thing to the new sound of CSN. Sure, you were exposed to Neil Young's "Broken Arrow" and "Mr. Soul," but at this point Young was a relative unknown, having released his initial, eponymous record to crickets. "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" came out mere months later, but it only generated airplay, had an impact, after Young had joined the band and "Déjà Vu" had been released in March of 1970. And then Young put out "After the Gold Rush" in September of that same year and his great ascension really began. The others were just starting their solo careers, whereas Neil had hit his stride. But really, "After the Gold Rush" was a dorm room favorite, something you heard on FM rock stations, which were now nationwide, it wasn't until "Heart of Gold" became a hit single on AM radio at the advent of 1972 that Neil Young was ubiquitous, when the masses adopted him as a seer. And not long thereafter Neil went on the road and played all new material in a hard rocking fashion and drove the mainstream away and delivered himself endless runway, the looky-loos had moved on, and in truth they never came back, now it was only the hard core who cared, but that was large enough when he dropped "Rust Never Sleeps" with its hard-edged statement "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" that endeared him to the Seattle grungers, who warmly embraced Neil, even on MTV.
But Stephen...
He was the star. Sans Stephen, Crosby, Stills & Nash, with or without Young, didn't work. Sure, the trio's debut was fantastic, playable throughout, but "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" eclipsed the rest of the tracks, as did the not quite as good but still magical opener on "Déjà Vu," "Carry On." You have no idea how good "Carry On" sounded on the stereos of the day. People were accumulating sound equipment, they needed to be closer to the music, and a ton of dough was spent on getting the track right and it was transcendent, with not only the exquisite harmonies but the stinging guitar underpinning the whole thing.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were the biggest band in the land. Whose popularity was goosed by their appearance in that spring's "Woodstock" movie and soundtrack album. Sure, the live harmonies were imperfect, and we all knew it, but we also knew they were scared sh*tless at the breakthrough festival and we overlooked the recording's flaws.
And then came the solo albums. The aforementioned "After the Gold Rush" and just before Thanksgiving of 1970, Stephen Stills' self-titled debut. "Love the One You're With" was everywhere. It was a victory lap today's acts can only dream about, its constant exhibition ran through the Christmas holiday, if you hadn't gotten "Stephen Stills" as a gift, you bought it, and continued to play it into the new year.
Along with the two American Elton John albums. And George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," and Bob Dylan's "New Morning," and if you were in the know, Rod Stewart's "Gasoline Alley" and... In other words, Stephen Stills was not alone at the top, there was a plethora of meaningful, hit material. And James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" still had legs and "Mud Slide Slim" came along in April and then there was the great unknown, unseen "Tapestry" which came along like the little engine that could and confoundingly dominated. Stephen Stills was not quite the hero he once was, mere months later, when he released "Stephen Stills 2" at the end of June 1971. Suddenly the press turned. This was not the fawning writers of today, rock critics were exalted, and they had it out for you, they were the enemy, and they were not enamored of the album.
2
But back to "Super Session."
It's hard to fathom fifty plus years later, but the most played cut wasn't on the Mike Bloomfield first side, but the Stephen Stills second side. It was the eleven minute version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch." It was when extended cuts were seen as a breakthrough. "Season of the Witch" was a reimagining of Donovan's original, which was an album cut, not a hit single. And by this time Donovan had lost his cred. And it had nothing to do with Bob Dylan dissing the English bard in "Don't Look Back," but even though they show that film in college classes today, almost no one saw it back then, it had limited distribution in an era where documentaries were sideshows, and Dylan had retreated to Woodstock after his motorcycle accident and the focus was elsewhere.
Bloomfield was a star to those in the know, but they were limited in number. Paul Butterfield never had a hit, the Electric Flag never broke through and...Bloomfield was supposed to play on the complete album but left town and Stephen took his place and suddenly everybody knew his music, "Super Session" was huge. Al Kooper got the most credit, but it was hard to ignore Stills's contributions, especially the phased guitar solo at the end of "Season of the Witch," which built and built, jabbing you in the gut with a blunt, not sharp, end which meant it felt so good, and then Stills's playing became ethereal and you drifted away...this was back when marijuana was starting to permeate the hinterlands, you'd drop the needle and... Funny today how drug addiction starts in the hinterlands, not the city, whereas everything used to happen in the city first. But that's the legacy of OxyContin. And that same Stills guitar was on "You Don't Love Me," which had the driving energy of a Cream song. And then there was the complete reworking of Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," wherein Stills demonstrated range, the skills which would shine on "Crosby, Stills & Nash."
But Stephen was still relatively unknown until the trio's first LP. And then the audience couldn't get enough of him, and here he was on "Super Session" as well as "Retrospective" and Stills was a star. No, a superstar. A status cemented by his solo LP. Which was his peak.
Yes, Stills' solo album eclipsed the subsequent solo debuts of David Crosby and Graham Nash, and then...
The audience turned against him.
We love to hate our stars. And this was in an era where there was so little news, but gossip was rampant, even your local punter believed they were in the know. Supposedly Stephen Stills was an authoritarian drunk, too big for his britches, not humble like Neil Young...ain't that a joke. And as I referenced above, it's not like the populace was starved for stars it could pledge devotion to. Rod Stewart broke through with "Maggie May" and at the end of the summer there was "Live: At Fillmore East" and "Who's Next" and earlier in the spring Leon Russell's "Shelter People" and..."Stephen Stills 2" wasn't as good as the debut and was trashed by critics and suddenly, Stephen Stills had been eclipsed.
So Stills stepped back and regrouped. Formed a band, Manassas, and released a double album evidencing all sides of his abilities and personality. Short CSN/country/solo-type stuff on the first two sides, and extended wailing on the second two. But as good as the eight plus minute "The Treasure" was, this was 1972, not 1968. FM radio now wanted shorter cuts, not longer ones. And as great as "Manassas' was there were no hit singles, in an era where hit singles were starting to mean less and less but were still the way to cement popularity, to sell tonnage. So Stephen Stills put out the best album of his solo career, and few cared.
But it was worse than that. Out of nowhere came a track that digested what Stills, et al, had done before and trumped it. Talk about a summer tune... "Take It Easy" was everywhere, AM and FM. It was smooth and slick to the point where you wondered if this band called "Eagles" was a one hit wonder, but you were forced to buy the album, the debut, and found out they were not. The second cut, "Witchy Woman," alone convinced you of this. This was a band for the seventies, self-contained, with no obvious history, other than that of Randy Meisner, who was seen as secondary anyway, he was just the bass player...as for his rich, high voice, the public was completely unfamiliar with it, to this day they can't attribute it to him. It was a new era. Hippies, love-ins, they were history. FM was no longer free-form. And the record business was bigger than ever. WEA had been formed the year before, and now with branch distribution more albums could be sold than ever before, assuming the goods were delivered, and the Eagles did.
As did Elton John with "Rocket Man" and Jethro Tull with "Thick as a Brick" and Deep Purple with "Machine Head" and the Stones with "Exile" and the hits just kept on coming, and Stephen Stills was now just one of the pack, he was no longer above it. And there was more press, which not being new he got less of, and...it was essentially over for Stills' solo career. He kept on putting out albums, but to fewer and fewer returns. He switched from Atlantic to Columbia, but it made little difference, and then there was only one thing to do, reunite with Crosby and Nash.
1977's "CSN" blew people's minds, they never expected the band to get back together, everything was there, the harmonies, the songs weren't quite as good as what came before, but there were peaks and no valleys, but... Now, years later, Stills could no longer dominate, he needed Crosby and Nash just like they needed him. So, he had to sacrifice some of the songwriting. The album didn't even open with a Stills cut, but one by David Crosby, with Craig Doerge," "Shadow Captain." And, in true CSN fashion, the Top Forty hit was written by Graham Nash, "Just a Song Before I Go." But the songs played the most on FM were Stills's, "Fair Game," "Dark Star" and "I Give You Give Blind." And then there was that one special number, track two, "See the Changes," the flip side of "4 + 20" on "Déjà Vu."
"Ten years singing right out loud
I never looked was anybody listening
Then I fell out of a cloud
I hit the ground and noticed something missing"
It was less about the past than the future. All the hits did not fill that hole in his heart.
"Now I have someone
She has seen me changing
And it gets harder as you get closer"
Ain't that the truth. The baby boomer anthem. It was now the mid-seventies. The Vietnam war was over. What was life about? And I'm not saying that "See the Changes" is unknown, but it's been forgotten and it rings so true, to this day, it still gets harder as you get closer, unless you give up, as so many boomers have now done.
And then the three went their separate ways, and found most didn't care, and then reunited in 1982 for "Daylight Again," which contained the band and Stephen's last hit, the overplayed "Southern Cross." And then there were decades of albums, even a short-lived Buffalo Springfield reunion and Neil Young is seen as being contemporary, but the other three? Has-beens.
3
Until you saw Stills' performance in "Echo in the Canyon." It isn't on the soundtrack album, but Eric Clapton played and then the image shifted to Stephen Stills in the studio positively wailing, never having lost a step, he still had it, in spades, he eclipsed the now self-destructing Clapton, but...crickets.
So Stephen Stills is hiding in plain sight. Not completely ignored, he did do that album and tour with Judy Collins and he is going to be playing at Clapton's Guitar Festival in September, but when it comes to the younger generation...he's a cipher. Joni Mitchell got her victory lap, deservedly so, however unending it might be, so many of the heroes of yore have been lionized, but not Stephen Stills, who could not only play at a world class level, but write and sing. Sure, his voice has suffered. And it's hard to write new songs when no one cares, despite stories absolutely everywhere Graham Nash's new album doesn't even have one track in six digits on Spotify, six cuts are still in four, you can't even lead the audience to the water, never mind have them partake, but Stephen Stills can still play, he can still play.
4
Stephen Stills has a new album. Well, not exactly new, it's a live recording, from 1971. You might be aware of this, but most people are not, it's not even listed on Stills's Wikipedia page, it's got about the same number of streams as Nash's new, original work. In other words, bupkes.
Now if it were still 1971, this live album would have been at the top of the chart, in everybody's house, because it contains the old as well as the new and it's got a sense of immediacy, but times change.
Not that I want to overrate this album, but today I got hooked on "Sugar Babe."
"You can do what you want to do
You can be who you want to be"
No you can't. That's what we believed in the sixties, but that's in the rearview mirror, today people are just trying to survive. Maybe not those who go to elite institutions, frequently on the coattails of their parents, but they can't be who they want to be, not unless they want to be broke. Of course there are exceptions, but we all believed we could live a fulfilled life back when, on our own journey of exploration. So you can work at the bank, but if you want to be an artist...good luck. Funny, no one complained about being broke back in the day, no one thought they were entitled to attention and riches, then again you could survive on minimum wage.
And if you read this week's "New Yorker" article about privates, you can see it's no longer your father's music business, there's money, but...
"How to Hire a Pop Star for Your Private Party": https://rb.gy/vpxxn
If you're a pro you know all of this, but the one thing that comes across is how these gigs are soul-crushing, as Dylan sang we all have to serve someone, or maybe everybody just can't say no to the cash anymore.
But once they could.
"People need love
People need trust
People need one another
And that means us"
True. But, once again, it's no longer the sixties. Today it seems that hate is rampant. We trust almost no one. And people think they can live without others, whether it be the checkout person at the grocery store, assuming you aren't forced to check out yourself, or the red states that want to secede not knowing that it's the blue states that are propping up their economies. Money trumps everything, just ask Fox News.
"So close, then again so far away
Where are the answers, I hear them every day"
Now that applies, is just as truthful today. The closer we get, the further off the destination seems to be, meanwhile people don't stop telling us who to be, what to believe.
Now today music is everywhere, but it sounds worse than ever. And you can't blame the streaming services, you've got to blame yourself. Those earbuds you're using. The truth is you can listen to better than CD quality, pretty cheaply on Amazon Music and Apple charges no more and then there's Qobuz, which for some reason sounds better than all the rest.
So I'm sitting on the couch earlier today and I got a hankering to hear "Sugar Babe," don't ask me where these inclinations come from, I don't know, it's one of the surprises of life, and I look for it on Qobuz and then I'm reminded of the live version from Berkeley. I've heard it before, but it was never foreground, I wasn't giving it my undivided attention. But today it grabbed me.
This ain't no machine. This is a human being. You can hear it in the recording. You can get close if you want to, most people don't bother to. Today most music is background, or loved by the barely pubescent, who haven't experienced the world. And the "stars" pander to them. But we looked up to the stars of yore, because they had preternatural wisdom. How did they know so much at such a young age?
"Everyone knows that it ain't easy
But when you get it all together in your heart
It's the easiest thing to do to be pleasin'
Folks ain't made to live apart"
But they are. Stephen is in limbo. He's feeling the distance. He's not sure where he is.
"I got to get next to the girl or I got to get away"
And you've got to get next to the person too. Unfortunately, business success, money, doesn't fill that hole in your heart. And in order to get the dividends, you've got to pay. You've got to put in the hard work. You can go from person to person for the high, but you'll never get the rewards. You see it works best when you're low, or they are, and you can be there for each other, no one wants to be alone, no matter what they say.
We used to love our acts. They weren't evanescent, they were here to stay. They had to earn our trust, it was not easy to do, but if they did we were along for the ride. You might feel like a party of one, but in truth that was not the case. You went to the gig and found others who knew the songs as well as you did, who needed to be there just like you, who had to bow at the feet of these gods.
We don't have gods today. Everybody's sold out. Or angry that no one is paying attention. Being good enough to triumph on talent alone... No, you'd better bring in outside writers, sign up with the hit-making producers, polish the track again and again, you want to capture lightning in a bottle, but to do that you've got to let go, you've got to channel the essence, whereas most acts today don't even know how to do that, even though they protesteth, too much.
But the funny thing is the truth is still out there, still contained in the records of yore. So old that they seem new. Their messages are timeless. As is the playing.
"Let yourself be open honey, learn to bend
Remember everyone gets scared
But I'm still your best friend"
I am not, your best friend. You don't really know me, but you think you do. Just like I think I know Stephen Stills. I've been around him a couple of times, but he wouldn't remember, even though I do. But I've imbued so much meaning into his work. He reached me, he's continued to do so.
And that's the goal of an artist.
Full stop.
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