She was not a femme fatale.
The first time I saw Diane Keaton was on Broadway, in "Play It Again, Sam." My mother was a culture vulture, if there was a play worth seeing, she'd go, and for certain productions she insisted we go too, like with "Play It Again, Sam."
Woody Allen was still a cult item. He had one movie, "Take the Money and Run," which I saw at the Fine Arts in Westport, and the most memorable scene was when he used a gun carved out of soap to escape from jail and then it rained and the gun turned into suds and...
You can see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhX3d5fjxOg
Woody was a known quantity, assuming you were into comedy. He was a youngster with a standup routine who migrated into films, back when films were the highest visual art form, before they descended into mass market tripe with blockbusters made for all, oftentimes featuring superheroes, and then Tony Soprano single-handedly stole the mantel from the multiplex.
Now eventually they made a movie out of "Play It Again, Sam," but when I saw it on stage it was fresh. As for Bogie... Do kids even know who Bogie is/was? Can they quote "Casablanca"? I remember seeing "The African Queen" in college, and "The Treasure of Sierra Madre"... "We don't need no stinkin' badges!"
We were the first generation whose lives were completely documented via moving pictures. These movies were touchstones, you could go back and relive your youth, still can. But now with a plethora of visual entertainment the past is truly history, unless you're' a film student you're not watching the flicks of yore, when they were less about flash and more about life.
In "Play It Again, Sam," Woody falls in love with his best friend's wife, Keaton and... WHO WOULDN'T?
That was the thing about Keaton, she was relatable. You didn't put her on a pedestal, you felt you could talk to her, she'd understand you, if you could just get close, she was everything you wanted.
Sure, Diane was attractive, but she was neither dull nor removed. She was alive and animated, she was a dream. Not the dream of the magazines, but of those boys like Woody Allen who had not been the life of their high school, but wanted something...more.
Of course you can talk about Keaton's role in the "Godfather" movies. She was good, but never the focus.
Arguably, her personal tour-de-force was "Baby Boom," wherein she triumphed as an entrepreneur, after giving up the fast lane live, moving to Vermont and starting over selling gourmet baby food. You rooted for her, in a way quite different from how you rooted for Goldie Hawn in "Private Benjamin." Keaton was not a ditz, she was aware. But learned she did not know everything and she grew personally and...
Really, it all comes down to "Annie Hall."
Funny how Woody Allen is a pariah today. Then again, he always marched to the beat of his own drummer, he refused to attend the Oscars when he won, deservedly.
But... It was not like today, you did not know that much about a film before you saw it. I went on my birthday and can still tell you where I sat in the theatre, I was riveted, I was wowed, kind of like seeing "Hamilton"...can this continue to be this good? And it was!
So Diane as Annie Hall is unique in identity, both inside and outside, a pure original. She had no desire to look like everybody else, and therefore she stood out. In this film and in life.
And there are lines from this movie I repeat all the time, even to my shrink last week, you remember when Allen as Alvy complains about not having enough sex and Diane says they're doing it all the time?
And the scene with the cockroach... As formidable as a woman may seem, she still has weaknesses.
And then there was the moment of intimacy and laughs out on the island, with the escaped lobster.
Diane was what every regular boy wanted. Someone you could relate to, who understood you, who was not concerned about image.
Not that she ultimately lived her personal life that way, after all she got involved with Warren Beatty and... She lived more in your mind than in your real life.
So...
Diane Keaton was a movie star, an anti-movie star, and we loved her for it. She was on the last cusp of movie stardom, not only playing on the big screen but one step removed from regular life, she did not show up online warts and all.
So you can point to the roles, but even more when you hear the name Diane Keaton it immediately engenders a feeling inside. Of warmth, humanity and understanding. She was one of us...albeit one step removed, one BIG step removed.
So, when Diane Keaton dies...part of you dies too. Your hopes. Your desires. We were all looking for our own Diane Keaton, and if the original is gone and we're as old as we are...
Where does that leave us?
--
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
Saturday, 11 October 2025
John Lodge
Wasn't he just on the road?
Is that how this works? You're alive and fresh, kicking as Simple Minds would say, and then one day you're just gone? I mean 82 years old. You can't say that he was ripped-off. But he was vital, and now he's not here anymore. And another slice of my musical history falls off the cliff.
We all knew "Go Now," a great moody ballad from before John Lodge, never mind Justin Hayward, was even in the Moody Blues.
But then Denny Laine exited, and the band's bass player too, and there ensued a new act with the same moniker that was completely different. They recorded "Days of Future Passed" with the so-called London Festival Orchestra, that didn't really exist, and...
You heard "Tuesday Afternoon" on FM radio. At least I did. I taped it on my Norelco from WDRC in Hartford. I'd gone to Radio Shack to buy a cable to connect it to my stereo and...
That was a thing we did back then, hunt for new FM stations. We got all the ones from New York, but there was one in New Haven and one on Long Island and even the University of Bridgeport had one. Seems quaint today, but it was cutting edge back then.
So when I just read in an obituary that "Tuesday Afternoon" had little impact upon release, that had me scratching my head, because I loved it...once again, not only the mood, but the sweet vocal. Back before music had to be in your face, back before it was just special sauce for a good time, it was something more...truly its own art form. The Beatles exploded the old singles paradigm and a bunch of groups followed them into albumsville. You wanted to make a statement. There didn't have to be a concept or a story, but the music had to hang together, it had to be representative of who you were, and even though there were some legendary producers who worked on multiple albums, the records all sounded different, especially those of the Moody Blues. As a matter of fact, it was when they started to have hit singles that the magic disappeared. There were songs that hit the airwaves, but the albums didn't hang together like they had previously.
I started with "Days of Future Passed." I distinctly remember my parents driving me to my first semester in college and playing it on that same Norelco deck. This was the one and only rock record my father didn't insist on immediately turning off, he even came to like it.
And after I bought "Days of Future Passed," I bought "On the Threshold of a Dream," which had a gatefold cover when that was not assured, when it was only for the biggest and most special of acts. And inside there was a multi-page booklet with lyrics and that first side... "Lovely to See You" to "Dear Diary" to "Send Me No Wine"... That was a murderer's row of music. You didn't cherry-pick cuts, you let them play through, and John Lodge wrote "Send Me No Wine."
Now you've got to know, the Moody Blues (referred to in the press as the "Moodies," but we never called them that) were a relatively faceless band. The act was not on the album cover and no one was the obvious lead singer...it was an ensemble. Meaning, just being a member of the group was enough. I could single out the songs Lodge wrote, the chart success of said, but that would be missing the point. When you talk about album acts, the Moody Blues represented the apotheosis. You were either in or you were out. And for a long time it was a cult. Like I referenced above, when they had a hit with "A Question of Balance" more people knew them, but the albums were a step down from what had come before.
And I didn't know all that had come before. But when I was a freshman in college we all hung in Dave McCormick's room on the second floor of Hepburn Hall during Winter Term and... It would be cold and snowy out, but inside...we'd light the zilch and listen to "Layla," "Idlewild South" and...
"In Search of the Lost Chord" and "To Our Children's Children's Children." They were new to me then, now I know them by heart.
"Timothy...Leary."
I think "In Search of the Lost Chord" would blow the minds of the younger generation. Because it was sui generis, and it was out there. This was not music made for Top Forty radio, not by a long shot, this was an excursion into a realm that could not be conceived, they concocted a whole world based on mind expansion and you could be sitting at home listening and go on more of a trip than if you actually flew to Africa and looked for Dr. Livingstone.
As for "To Our Children's Children's Children"... Before I bought the LP I wasn't sure how many "Children" were actually in the title.
Anyway, we used to start this album on the second side. With "Gypsy (Of a Strange and Distant Time)" and "Eternity Road," and then the best song on the album, Lodge's "Candle of Life."
"Something you can't hide
Says you're lonely"
Absolutely!
The older you get, the happier you are. But when you're a kid, you're part of a family obeying rules you may not agree with and you're looking for acceptance and understanding and I found it in records.
Let's be clear, these acts were rich. And they were Gods. But they were very different from today's stars. First, there was no access, and very little news. All we could do was speculate, maybe go to a show...but I actually never saw the Moody Blues...they never toured near me during their heyday. And, the question was, how were they going to reproduce those sounds on stage? They didn't have the samples and hard drives of today, this was before the synthesizer, all there was was the legendarily unreliable Mellotron.
"Hidden deep inside
Of you only"
We were singular. Not like the younger generations who needed to be members of the group. I only wish there was an internet back then so I could have connected with like-minded people.
So...
The band broke up, Lodge and Hayward, the seeming essence of the group, made a record together, and ultimately the band got back together, and by that time I was aware, paying attention, but I no longer bought the records. Times had changed. The free-for-all, the experimentation of the late sixties and early seventies, was history. Now it became about maintaining the lifestyle.
But there was a day...
I wanted to do a podcast with John Lodge, I did one with Justin Hayward, the timing was bad the last time he was in town and...
Now he's gone.
Sure, the records remain, but something bigger has been lost.
First and foremost, only one Moody Blues member survives, Justin Hayward, the rest of them are dead. But we knew them when they were in their twenties, not that much older than us, but an entire lifetime apart.
And every single member of the Band is gone. EVERY SINGLE ONE!
How do we square this?
The classic rockers are too old to die young. You can't say they were cut down before their time and sure, some people live to be a hundred, but not everybody.
When is it going to end?
And how do you live, how do you pass the time?
Do you marinate in the past or continue to push the envelope of the future, wasting so much time in the process.
Speaking of wasting time... We went to bars in the hope, in the HOPE, of meeting a member of the opposite sex. And how often did this happen? ALMOST NEVER! But we had to get out there, because you couldn't meet anybody staying at home, but you did have your records...and they were better company, better friends, than what you usually found out and about.
Incels may be pissed they can't get a date, but back in the day...you'd be stunned how many guys NEVER went on a date. It's one thing to be rejected on Tinder, quite another for there to be no Tinder!
Never mind social media.
Our records were all we had. And the radio that played them. We got turned on to stuff and we played this music INCESSANTLY! Eventually with cassettes you could take it with you, but the Walkman really didn't break through until the eighties. But at home, a record was always on, ALWAYS!
And the Moody Blues were one of the acts that I spun. Like Howard Stern, I thought they belonged in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame WAY before than they were inducted.
But the Moody Blues never filled a slot. The long-hair, motorcycle jacket rock critic type, the punk, they had no interest in the Moody Blues, the music was too smooth and intellectual for them. Thank god there are no gatekeepers today.
But there are no acts as good as the Moody Blues. And the Moody Blues weren't the only ones!
82... Robert Redford lived until 89. Now if you live that long, we expect you to make it into your nineties, to essentially fall apart, not be cut down before.
Because if you're vulnerable in your eighties...where does that leave Paul and Ringo?
And J.D. Souther had all his faculties, and BOOM!
An obituary does not do these people justice. They were part of the fabric, part of our everyday world, they influenced our thinking...you can't see it in chart numbers, they weren't worried about breaking records, no one needed an award, a Grammy was a joke, but...
The acts represented so much more back then.
And one of them was the Moody Blues.
And John Lodge was a member of the Moody Blues. I know it like I know my own name.
So I sit here and can't say John Lodge got died before his time. And this makes me think of the nature of life. It's a cycle. And when you're young you think the world revolves around you and when you're old you know it doesn't and then you're gone.
Then again, the Moody Blues left their mark, unlike the boys accumulating toys to impress...exactly who?
So I'm not devastated that John Lodge died. I was a bit shocked that it happened now. But they're dropping like flies, it's to be expected.
And I'd say that we're next, but no one wants to admit it. Everybody thinks they've got years ahead. But one day you're going to end up like Justin Hayward, the only member of your group still here.
And then you'll be gone too.
--
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
Is that how this works? You're alive and fresh, kicking as Simple Minds would say, and then one day you're just gone? I mean 82 years old. You can't say that he was ripped-off. But he was vital, and now he's not here anymore. And another slice of my musical history falls off the cliff.
We all knew "Go Now," a great moody ballad from before John Lodge, never mind Justin Hayward, was even in the Moody Blues.
But then Denny Laine exited, and the band's bass player too, and there ensued a new act with the same moniker that was completely different. They recorded "Days of Future Passed" with the so-called London Festival Orchestra, that didn't really exist, and...
You heard "Tuesday Afternoon" on FM radio. At least I did. I taped it on my Norelco from WDRC in Hartford. I'd gone to Radio Shack to buy a cable to connect it to my stereo and...
That was a thing we did back then, hunt for new FM stations. We got all the ones from New York, but there was one in New Haven and one on Long Island and even the University of Bridgeport had one. Seems quaint today, but it was cutting edge back then.
So when I just read in an obituary that "Tuesday Afternoon" had little impact upon release, that had me scratching my head, because I loved it...once again, not only the mood, but the sweet vocal. Back before music had to be in your face, back before it was just special sauce for a good time, it was something more...truly its own art form. The Beatles exploded the old singles paradigm and a bunch of groups followed them into albumsville. You wanted to make a statement. There didn't have to be a concept or a story, but the music had to hang together, it had to be representative of who you were, and even though there were some legendary producers who worked on multiple albums, the records all sounded different, especially those of the Moody Blues. As a matter of fact, it was when they started to have hit singles that the magic disappeared. There were songs that hit the airwaves, but the albums didn't hang together like they had previously.
I started with "Days of Future Passed." I distinctly remember my parents driving me to my first semester in college and playing it on that same Norelco deck. This was the one and only rock record my father didn't insist on immediately turning off, he even came to like it.
And after I bought "Days of Future Passed," I bought "On the Threshold of a Dream," which had a gatefold cover when that was not assured, when it was only for the biggest and most special of acts. And inside there was a multi-page booklet with lyrics and that first side... "Lovely to See You" to "Dear Diary" to "Send Me No Wine"... That was a murderer's row of music. You didn't cherry-pick cuts, you let them play through, and John Lodge wrote "Send Me No Wine."
Now you've got to know, the Moody Blues (referred to in the press as the "Moodies," but we never called them that) were a relatively faceless band. The act was not on the album cover and no one was the obvious lead singer...it was an ensemble. Meaning, just being a member of the group was enough. I could single out the songs Lodge wrote, the chart success of said, but that would be missing the point. When you talk about album acts, the Moody Blues represented the apotheosis. You were either in or you were out. And for a long time it was a cult. Like I referenced above, when they had a hit with "A Question of Balance" more people knew them, but the albums were a step down from what had come before.
And I didn't know all that had come before. But when I was a freshman in college we all hung in Dave McCormick's room on the second floor of Hepburn Hall during Winter Term and... It would be cold and snowy out, but inside...we'd light the zilch and listen to "Layla," "Idlewild South" and...
"In Search of the Lost Chord" and "To Our Children's Children's Children." They were new to me then, now I know them by heart.
"Timothy...Leary."
I think "In Search of the Lost Chord" would blow the minds of the younger generation. Because it was sui generis, and it was out there. This was not music made for Top Forty radio, not by a long shot, this was an excursion into a realm that could not be conceived, they concocted a whole world based on mind expansion and you could be sitting at home listening and go on more of a trip than if you actually flew to Africa and looked for Dr. Livingstone.
As for "To Our Children's Children's Children"... Before I bought the LP I wasn't sure how many "Children" were actually in the title.
Anyway, we used to start this album on the second side. With "Gypsy (Of a Strange and Distant Time)" and "Eternity Road," and then the best song on the album, Lodge's "Candle of Life."
"Something you can't hide
Says you're lonely"
Absolutely!
The older you get, the happier you are. But when you're a kid, you're part of a family obeying rules you may not agree with and you're looking for acceptance and understanding and I found it in records.
Let's be clear, these acts were rich. And they were Gods. But they were very different from today's stars. First, there was no access, and very little news. All we could do was speculate, maybe go to a show...but I actually never saw the Moody Blues...they never toured near me during their heyday. And, the question was, how were they going to reproduce those sounds on stage? They didn't have the samples and hard drives of today, this was before the synthesizer, all there was was the legendarily unreliable Mellotron.
"Hidden deep inside
Of you only"
We were singular. Not like the younger generations who needed to be members of the group. I only wish there was an internet back then so I could have connected with like-minded people.
So...
The band broke up, Lodge and Hayward, the seeming essence of the group, made a record together, and ultimately the band got back together, and by that time I was aware, paying attention, but I no longer bought the records. Times had changed. The free-for-all, the experimentation of the late sixties and early seventies, was history. Now it became about maintaining the lifestyle.
But there was a day...
I wanted to do a podcast with John Lodge, I did one with Justin Hayward, the timing was bad the last time he was in town and...
Now he's gone.
Sure, the records remain, but something bigger has been lost.
First and foremost, only one Moody Blues member survives, Justin Hayward, the rest of them are dead. But we knew them when they were in their twenties, not that much older than us, but an entire lifetime apart.
And every single member of the Band is gone. EVERY SINGLE ONE!
How do we square this?
The classic rockers are too old to die young. You can't say they were cut down before their time and sure, some people live to be a hundred, but not everybody.
When is it going to end?
And how do you live, how do you pass the time?
Do you marinate in the past or continue to push the envelope of the future, wasting so much time in the process.
Speaking of wasting time... We went to bars in the hope, in the HOPE, of meeting a member of the opposite sex. And how often did this happen? ALMOST NEVER! But we had to get out there, because you couldn't meet anybody staying at home, but you did have your records...and they were better company, better friends, than what you usually found out and about.
Incels may be pissed they can't get a date, but back in the day...you'd be stunned how many guys NEVER went on a date. It's one thing to be rejected on Tinder, quite another for there to be no Tinder!
Never mind social media.
Our records were all we had. And the radio that played them. We got turned on to stuff and we played this music INCESSANTLY! Eventually with cassettes you could take it with you, but the Walkman really didn't break through until the eighties. But at home, a record was always on, ALWAYS!
And the Moody Blues were one of the acts that I spun. Like Howard Stern, I thought they belonged in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame WAY before than they were inducted.
But the Moody Blues never filled a slot. The long-hair, motorcycle jacket rock critic type, the punk, they had no interest in the Moody Blues, the music was too smooth and intellectual for them. Thank god there are no gatekeepers today.
But there are no acts as good as the Moody Blues. And the Moody Blues weren't the only ones!
82... Robert Redford lived until 89. Now if you live that long, we expect you to make it into your nineties, to essentially fall apart, not be cut down before.
Because if you're vulnerable in your eighties...where does that leave Paul and Ringo?
And J.D. Souther had all his faculties, and BOOM!
An obituary does not do these people justice. They were part of the fabric, part of our everyday world, they influenced our thinking...you can't see it in chart numbers, they weren't worried about breaking records, no one needed an award, a Grammy was a joke, but...
The acts represented so much more back then.
And one of them was the Moody Blues.
And John Lodge was a member of the Moody Blues. I know it like I know my own name.
So I sit here and can't say John Lodge got died before his time. And this makes me think of the nature of life. It's a cycle. And when you're young you think the world revolves around you and when you're old you know it doesn't and then you're gone.
Then again, the Moody Blues left their mark, unlike the boys accumulating toys to impress...exactly who?
So I'm not devastated that John Lodge died. I was a bit shocked that it happened now. But they're dropping like flies, it's to be expected.
And I'd say that we're next, but no one wants to admit it. Everybody thinks they've got years ahead. But one day you're going to end up like Justin Hayward, the only member of your group still here.
And then you'll be gone too.
--
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, 10 October 2025
Loser Songs-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in Saturday October 11th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
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
Phone #: 844-686-5863
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
Thursday, 9 October 2025
Paul Janeway-This Week's Podcast
Lead singer of St. Paul & the Broken Bones.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-janeway/id1316200737?i=1000730966531
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xaUp5LRJ9lB1LP4evQFsH?si=t5lt2vsdSYmQt4ZV0wvlqg
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/paul-janeway-299591908/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/44aa011d-ce08-436d-8a46-b472ebecc3de/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-paul-janeway
--
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
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-janeway/id1316200737?i=1000730966531
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xaUp5LRJ9lB1LP4evQFsH?si=t5lt2vsdSYmQt4ZV0wvlqg
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/paul-janeway-299591908/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/44aa011d-ce08-436d-8a46-b472ebecc3de/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-paul-janeway
--
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
Wednesday, 8 October 2025
Rolling Stone 250
a"The 250 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century So Far": https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-the-21st-century-1235410452/train-drops-of-jupiter-1235414778/
1
Clickbait.
The only thing all these songs have in common is they were listened to by the arbiters of this list, and probably ONLY by the arbiters of this list.
Let's be clear here, I'm taking the bait, by commenting. Yet I'm not going to quibble with the choices, BUT THE ENTIRE CONCEPT!
Which is rooted in a paradigm that's long gone.
Hell, I'd find it more interesting if it was a list of the 250 most listened songs from the 20th century! Seeing what survives!
Anyway, in the sixties, AM radio ruled. A hit was a hit, and if you were a fan of popular music, you knew them all, they were all on your local AM Top Forty station.
And then along came album rock and FM. Suddenly it wasn't about the single, but the entire body of work. What an act stood for, what they had to say. And in the sixties, the album rockers were still one step removed, off to the side.
But in the seventies, the script flipped. AM became a backwater. Cracks me up when people reference Top Forty hits from the seventies. All the action was on the FM dial, with AOR, which dominated. And so much money came raining down... Because albums cost more than singles and if you were a fan of the album, you were much more likely to buy a ticket to see the act, and then...
Corporate rock and disco came along and imploded the entire marketplace. Let's be clear, Boston was never corporate rock, and that initial album stands up to this day. But there became a formula, repeated endlessly with little artistic merit. Ditto on disco. There were some great early disco tracks, but then everybody got into the market and released tripe and...
Everything was moribund until MTV came along in the eighties to save the recording industry. It was about single hits once again. Which you could only get by buying the entire album.
The roots of the music took a back seat to how you looked, how good your video was. Those were the price of admission, and if you didn't tick those boxes, good luck.
And the labels LOVED this system. Because it was clearly defined. If you got on MTV you had a hit, and the new Top Forty stations on the FM dial took their playlist from MTV and with the introduction of the expensive CD, cash was plentiful. That's an understatement, the labels were rolling in dough, getting the acts to take low royalties on CDs to grow the format and never raising them.
And as rock started to become stale, with the hair bands, hip-hop came along to usurp the crown, being much more earthy and honest than the rock music of the day.
But in the nineties... Rock had a resurgence with indie labels. And this is where the action with rock remains... Off the radar screen. Acts who have an audience, can sell some tickets, but use their records as a blueprint at most. They don't focus on singles because they know there's nowhere for them in the singles marketplace. Which was terrestrial radio and is now the Spotify Top 50. Where you've got to appeal to a large group, the younger and more undeveloped the better, who will stream your tracks ad infinitum and give the impression that everybody is listening to them.
But they're not.
2
Now this "Rolling Stone" list does a halfway decent job of cherry-picking from all genres, although there are a lot of touring acts, mostly playing rock-based music, that are not represented. However, unless you're a fan of the Spotify Top 50, which the major labels are, which the press is, because it's comprehensible, you're going to read this list and get PISSED! Because the other genres are only paid lip-service, the listings are far from comprehensive.
If you're a fan of country music, which is bigger than ever, and has always focused on careers, you're going to be scratching your head wondering where all your favorites are. Yes, there's a track by Jason Isbell, more Americana than regular country, and Eric Church...good, but I don't see any Luke Bryan... "Play It Again" is a better song than at least half of the list, a lot of which is rhythm based, sans melody. But that's too mainstream for these wanker rankers.
Pick any genre you want... Metal, Latin... This smorgasbord pays lip service AT BEST! It's a complete misrepresentation of today's marketplace. Which is extremely diverse, and rarely comes together.
Morgan Wallen plays stadiums... What has he got in common with Taylor Swift or Beyoncé who plays the same places? NOTHING! Other than hit records in their formats. Sure, there are some people who like them all, but they're more like the brain dead fans listening to AM hits in the late sixties and seventies when all the action was over on the FM dial.
Let's go one step further... Today's music market is INCOMPREHENSIBLE!
In the old, pre-internet days, those in the industry knew every record on the chart. Now that's impossible, there's just too much. And sure, a lot of it is crap, but not all of it.
Meanwhile, all this focus on the Spotify Top 50 is doing a disservice to the marketplace in general. Rüfüs Du Soul plays the Rose Bowl... It'd be more interesting if the press made non-fans aware of success in other genres. But it's Spotify Top 50 all the time.
And the labels kind of like this, because they don't know how to break a record. Best to have defined formats/genres, so they can aim only for the Spotify Top 50, working the acts signed to their labels and overpaying for that which breaks on social media.
The whole construct is broken. It's a self-serving circle jerk. The major labels want it to be the way it always was, AND IT'S NOT! It's kind of like Napster... Who'd want anything but a CD? Why download music? How did that work out! And as far as people not wanting to pay for music...that was because the labels couldn't adjust their business model to offer what the customer wanted. Daniel Ek did this. And saved the recording industry.
Since we live in a Tower of Babel society, with all of us listening to different music, overriding enemies who touch everybody become the focus. Like Ticketmaster. Like Daniel Ek. As for those complaining that ticket prices are too high...only because everybody wants to pay the freight to go to the show! As for Daniel Ek... I'm still waiting for an explanation why those whose music isn't listened to should make a living as a result of streaming. That's a nonstarter... That's like saying you make bespoke, overpriced potholders and you want to make as much as the mass producer. That doesn't work in any other industry.
But I don't want to lose the plot here.
Taylor Swift set a record...based on vinyl, but other than Taylor and her team, who is impressed? Those who don't listen to her music?
That's how far we've come. The press is for those who don't care.
Where is all the K-pop on this list? That's a huge market. You may not want to listen to it, and that's fine...but the soundtrack from "KPop Demon Hunters" dominated the marketplace and...
Lists like this do a disservice. They perpetuate a myth. That we're one cohesive market. The question is how do we GROW the market, which depends on driving people to music in other genres they might enjoy that don't get the press, are not focused on as we hear endlessly about the Spotify Top 50 and their brand extensions.
Then again, who in the hell is reading "Rolling Stone"? It's a brand name and nothing more. Almost all of its content is behind a paywall, and most people are not paying.
Then again, that's one thing Apple News+ ("Rolling Stone" is included) has taught us. That all of the old school media outlets are fighting for attention via clickbait headlines. There's no there there.
I'd rather hear from TikTok users what their favorites are rather than these self-satisfied "writers."
Movie critics no longer matter. Rock criticism is dead. What makes you think you can recapture a past glory when the world has changed and no one cares? If I want to take the pulse of America, I go to TikTok. You might not like it, but there's more truth there than there is in almost all of the remnants of magazines from the last century.
There is good new music. The problem is not that it's not making enough money, but that potential fans can't find it.
Hell, you could look at this list and not only hate so much of the hit fodder, but not even recognize, never mind having heard, the entries!
That was impossible in the AM Top Forty mid-sixties and the MTV eighties, but that's where we are today.
CAN WE AT LEAST ADMIT IT?
--
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
1
Clickbait.
The only thing all these songs have in common is they were listened to by the arbiters of this list, and probably ONLY by the arbiters of this list.
Let's be clear here, I'm taking the bait, by commenting. Yet I'm not going to quibble with the choices, BUT THE ENTIRE CONCEPT!
Which is rooted in a paradigm that's long gone.
Hell, I'd find it more interesting if it was a list of the 250 most listened songs from the 20th century! Seeing what survives!
Anyway, in the sixties, AM radio ruled. A hit was a hit, and if you were a fan of popular music, you knew them all, they were all on your local AM Top Forty station.
And then along came album rock and FM. Suddenly it wasn't about the single, but the entire body of work. What an act stood for, what they had to say. And in the sixties, the album rockers were still one step removed, off to the side.
But in the seventies, the script flipped. AM became a backwater. Cracks me up when people reference Top Forty hits from the seventies. All the action was on the FM dial, with AOR, which dominated. And so much money came raining down... Because albums cost more than singles and if you were a fan of the album, you were much more likely to buy a ticket to see the act, and then...
Corporate rock and disco came along and imploded the entire marketplace. Let's be clear, Boston was never corporate rock, and that initial album stands up to this day. But there became a formula, repeated endlessly with little artistic merit. Ditto on disco. There were some great early disco tracks, but then everybody got into the market and released tripe and...
Everything was moribund until MTV came along in the eighties to save the recording industry. It was about single hits once again. Which you could only get by buying the entire album.
The roots of the music took a back seat to how you looked, how good your video was. Those were the price of admission, and if you didn't tick those boxes, good luck.
And the labels LOVED this system. Because it was clearly defined. If you got on MTV you had a hit, and the new Top Forty stations on the FM dial took their playlist from MTV and with the introduction of the expensive CD, cash was plentiful. That's an understatement, the labels were rolling in dough, getting the acts to take low royalties on CDs to grow the format and never raising them.
And as rock started to become stale, with the hair bands, hip-hop came along to usurp the crown, being much more earthy and honest than the rock music of the day.
But in the nineties... Rock had a resurgence with indie labels. And this is where the action with rock remains... Off the radar screen. Acts who have an audience, can sell some tickets, but use their records as a blueprint at most. They don't focus on singles because they know there's nowhere for them in the singles marketplace. Which was terrestrial radio and is now the Spotify Top 50. Where you've got to appeal to a large group, the younger and more undeveloped the better, who will stream your tracks ad infinitum and give the impression that everybody is listening to them.
But they're not.
2
Now this "Rolling Stone" list does a halfway decent job of cherry-picking from all genres, although there are a lot of touring acts, mostly playing rock-based music, that are not represented. However, unless you're a fan of the Spotify Top 50, which the major labels are, which the press is, because it's comprehensible, you're going to read this list and get PISSED! Because the other genres are only paid lip-service, the listings are far from comprehensive.
If you're a fan of country music, which is bigger than ever, and has always focused on careers, you're going to be scratching your head wondering where all your favorites are. Yes, there's a track by Jason Isbell, more Americana than regular country, and Eric Church...good, but I don't see any Luke Bryan... "Play It Again" is a better song than at least half of the list, a lot of which is rhythm based, sans melody. But that's too mainstream for these wanker rankers.
Pick any genre you want... Metal, Latin... This smorgasbord pays lip service AT BEST! It's a complete misrepresentation of today's marketplace. Which is extremely diverse, and rarely comes together.
Morgan Wallen plays stadiums... What has he got in common with Taylor Swift or Beyoncé who plays the same places? NOTHING! Other than hit records in their formats. Sure, there are some people who like them all, but they're more like the brain dead fans listening to AM hits in the late sixties and seventies when all the action was over on the FM dial.
Let's go one step further... Today's music market is INCOMPREHENSIBLE!
In the old, pre-internet days, those in the industry knew every record on the chart. Now that's impossible, there's just too much. And sure, a lot of it is crap, but not all of it.
Meanwhile, all this focus on the Spotify Top 50 is doing a disservice to the marketplace in general. Rüfüs Du Soul plays the Rose Bowl... It'd be more interesting if the press made non-fans aware of success in other genres. But it's Spotify Top 50 all the time.
And the labels kind of like this, because they don't know how to break a record. Best to have defined formats/genres, so they can aim only for the Spotify Top 50, working the acts signed to their labels and overpaying for that which breaks on social media.
The whole construct is broken. It's a self-serving circle jerk. The major labels want it to be the way it always was, AND IT'S NOT! It's kind of like Napster... Who'd want anything but a CD? Why download music? How did that work out! And as far as people not wanting to pay for music...that was because the labels couldn't adjust their business model to offer what the customer wanted. Daniel Ek did this. And saved the recording industry.
Since we live in a Tower of Babel society, with all of us listening to different music, overriding enemies who touch everybody become the focus. Like Ticketmaster. Like Daniel Ek. As for those complaining that ticket prices are too high...only because everybody wants to pay the freight to go to the show! As for Daniel Ek... I'm still waiting for an explanation why those whose music isn't listened to should make a living as a result of streaming. That's a nonstarter... That's like saying you make bespoke, overpriced potholders and you want to make as much as the mass producer. That doesn't work in any other industry.
But I don't want to lose the plot here.
Taylor Swift set a record...based on vinyl, but other than Taylor and her team, who is impressed? Those who don't listen to her music?
That's how far we've come. The press is for those who don't care.
Where is all the K-pop on this list? That's a huge market. You may not want to listen to it, and that's fine...but the soundtrack from "KPop Demon Hunters" dominated the marketplace and...
Lists like this do a disservice. They perpetuate a myth. That we're one cohesive market. The question is how do we GROW the market, which depends on driving people to music in other genres they might enjoy that don't get the press, are not focused on as we hear endlessly about the Spotify Top 50 and their brand extensions.
Then again, who in the hell is reading "Rolling Stone"? It's a brand name and nothing more. Almost all of its content is behind a paywall, and most people are not paying.
Then again, that's one thing Apple News+ ("Rolling Stone" is included) has taught us. That all of the old school media outlets are fighting for attention via clickbait headlines. There's no there there.
I'd rather hear from TikTok users what their favorites are rather than these self-satisfied "writers."
Movie critics no longer matter. Rock criticism is dead. What makes you think you can recapture a past glory when the world has changed and no one cares? If I want to take the pulse of America, I go to TikTok. You might not like it, but there's more truth there than there is in almost all of the remnants of magazines from the last century.
There is good new music. The problem is not that it's not making enough money, but that potential fans can't find it.
Hell, you could look at this list and not only hate so much of the hit fodder, but not even recognize, never mind having heard, the entries!
That was impossible in the AM Top Forty mid-sixties and the MTV eighties, but that's where we are today.
CAN WE AT LEAST ADMIT IT?
--
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
Tuesday, 7 October 2025
Bondi In Congress
Did you catch the Ryder Cup story?
Trump and his minions attended the contest and were so out of control, even a beer was thrown at Rory McIlroy's wife, that...
McIlroy went nuclear!
He said you had to respect the game, that there was no place for this behavior on the golf course. Furthermore, he rubbed it in the mob's face by emphasizing that despite all the rabble-rousing, Europe WON!
So what happened?
PGA of America president Don Rea, Jr. apologized.
As for Heather McMahan, the emcee of the event, she apologized too, after inciting the crowd by saying "f*ck you, Rory" into the microphone. Furthermore, she lost her gig.
But it's just golf.
Or is it?
What I don't understand about Bondi's performance in Congress today, is if you look at the record, and the past is prologue, everybody who went the extra mile for Trump, who defended him with their words even though their positions were indefensible, ultimately got f*cked. His personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. And Rudolph Giuliani. And Jenna Ellis lost her law license. You lose your bar membership, good luck trying to earn a living. As for Giuliani, he got sued and lost a lot of what he had.
For WHAT?
Momentary fame?
Everybody is expendable other than Trump himself. Kind of like Fox... Rupert Murdoch taught Tucker Carlson a lesson.
Did you watch any of the hearing today? The Judiciary Committee members were asking questions, and Pam Bondi was interrupting and losing her sh*t. I mean even when she said she refused to answer a question, she did it with attitude, with a sneer. WHY?
She's an attorney, she knows you can't get away with this behavior in court.
Now when the Allies liberated France...they killed those who cooperated with the Nazis. Now after all the shenanigans with lawsuits back and forth, I'm almost willing to let everybody slide after Trump's term, clean the slate and start all over again. Then again, I still can't rationalize the pardoning of the January 6th rioters. What exactly am I supposed to take from that? That if I'm connected enough the law doesn't apply to me? That the law is irrelevant if my guy is more powerful than yours? Now that ain't the America I remember.
The Judiciary Committee is entitled to ask questions. That's their job. Why should they be excoriated for doing their job?
And if you think while biting back that everybody who doesn't agree with the president has Trump Derangement Syndrome...
I think it's the rank and file who voted for him that have that.
Let me see... They're not rich enough to save any serious money with the tax cuts. Their health care is going to go up in price. The local hospital might close. Their business might sink as a result of tariffs...but they still defend Trump.
You can't defy gravity. Things are not going to turn out well. If it weren't for all the investment in AI the financial numbers would not look good.
And what do you say when the pollution from fossil fuels shortens your life and causes your relatives' death? I mean the Marlboro Man died. Sure, you can smoke a pack or two a day and live to be a hundred, but the odds are not good.
Aren't these the same people who told us just weeks ago that it was about reasonable discourse, that that was the essence of Charlie Kirk? Then what explains Pam Bondi's performance today? Throwing random digs all the while. Interrupting a relatively calm Adam Schiff and calling him a bad lawyer.
Why does Trump and everybody who surrounds him act like they're so OPPRESSED! They control the government, with the presidency and two houses of Congress and arguably the Supreme Court and... They can't stop saying that the problem is the Democrats. Explain that to me, it's not like the left has any true power.
Then again, if only a Democrat would act like Rory McIlroy and push back.
I mean imagine Pam Bondi giving this performance in high school. When called into the principal's office, what is she going to do, BARK BACK? She knows better than that. So why doesn't she know better with the Judiciary Committee? Talk about a persecution complex.
The right thinks they can act like this and there will be no reaction? That everybody will just take it? I mean despite having all the power, they've got to stick it in your eye to boot!
There's a good piece in today's "Los Angeles Times":
"As Trump reign implodes, tell MAGA 'I told you so'"
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-10-07/trump-maga-i-told-you-so
The writer's take is the left should stop pussyfooting around the Republicans. Democrats should stop flagellating themselves over the past election and the ineptitude of their officials and just state the obvious...things aren't good in America right now, and they're about to get worse.
But if you don't say what the right wants to hear, if you don't toe the line, their minions will come down on you and...what is unfathomable to me is most of these morons who bite back at me each and every day don't have any money! They're living from paycheck to paycheck. Man were they snookered.
But we're supposed to stay quiet for fear of pissing them off.
The Senate Judiciary Committee exists to ask questions. You can be civil or...
What's going to happen when the left starts to behave just like the right?
Watch out!
P.S. No matter what happens, anything bad will be blamed on Biden and the Democrats.
P.P.S. I mean if I acted this way at the DINNER TABLE, my father would have reached over and hit me. If you act like Bondi did today at the corporation, you lose your job! What lesson is being taught here? And, once again, you can act this way and I can't? Do you think if you keep saying the problem is Antifa and the woke mob on the left that that will make Democrats cower? It's a witch hunt, and today the witch flew in on her broom and tried to cast her spell, but...magic is a ruse, and boorishness will get you nowhere.
--
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
Trump and his minions attended the contest and were so out of control, even a beer was thrown at Rory McIlroy's wife, that...
McIlroy went nuclear!
He said you had to respect the game, that there was no place for this behavior on the golf course. Furthermore, he rubbed it in the mob's face by emphasizing that despite all the rabble-rousing, Europe WON!
So what happened?
PGA of America president Don Rea, Jr. apologized.
As for Heather McMahan, the emcee of the event, she apologized too, after inciting the crowd by saying "f*ck you, Rory" into the microphone. Furthermore, she lost her gig.
But it's just golf.
Or is it?
What I don't understand about Bondi's performance in Congress today, is if you look at the record, and the past is prologue, everybody who went the extra mile for Trump, who defended him with their words even though their positions were indefensible, ultimately got f*cked. His personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. And Rudolph Giuliani. And Jenna Ellis lost her law license. You lose your bar membership, good luck trying to earn a living. As for Giuliani, he got sued and lost a lot of what he had.
For WHAT?
Momentary fame?
Everybody is expendable other than Trump himself. Kind of like Fox... Rupert Murdoch taught Tucker Carlson a lesson.
Did you watch any of the hearing today? The Judiciary Committee members were asking questions, and Pam Bondi was interrupting and losing her sh*t. I mean even when she said she refused to answer a question, she did it with attitude, with a sneer. WHY?
She's an attorney, she knows you can't get away with this behavior in court.
Now when the Allies liberated France...they killed those who cooperated with the Nazis. Now after all the shenanigans with lawsuits back and forth, I'm almost willing to let everybody slide after Trump's term, clean the slate and start all over again. Then again, I still can't rationalize the pardoning of the January 6th rioters. What exactly am I supposed to take from that? That if I'm connected enough the law doesn't apply to me? That the law is irrelevant if my guy is more powerful than yours? Now that ain't the America I remember.
The Judiciary Committee is entitled to ask questions. That's their job. Why should they be excoriated for doing their job?
And if you think while biting back that everybody who doesn't agree with the president has Trump Derangement Syndrome...
I think it's the rank and file who voted for him that have that.
Let me see... They're not rich enough to save any serious money with the tax cuts. Their health care is going to go up in price. The local hospital might close. Their business might sink as a result of tariffs...but they still defend Trump.
You can't defy gravity. Things are not going to turn out well. If it weren't for all the investment in AI the financial numbers would not look good.
And what do you say when the pollution from fossil fuels shortens your life and causes your relatives' death? I mean the Marlboro Man died. Sure, you can smoke a pack or two a day and live to be a hundred, but the odds are not good.
Aren't these the same people who told us just weeks ago that it was about reasonable discourse, that that was the essence of Charlie Kirk? Then what explains Pam Bondi's performance today? Throwing random digs all the while. Interrupting a relatively calm Adam Schiff and calling him a bad lawyer.
Why does Trump and everybody who surrounds him act like they're so OPPRESSED! They control the government, with the presidency and two houses of Congress and arguably the Supreme Court and... They can't stop saying that the problem is the Democrats. Explain that to me, it's not like the left has any true power.
Then again, if only a Democrat would act like Rory McIlroy and push back.
I mean imagine Pam Bondi giving this performance in high school. When called into the principal's office, what is she going to do, BARK BACK? She knows better than that. So why doesn't she know better with the Judiciary Committee? Talk about a persecution complex.
The right thinks they can act like this and there will be no reaction? That everybody will just take it? I mean despite having all the power, they've got to stick it in your eye to boot!
There's a good piece in today's "Los Angeles Times":
"As Trump reign implodes, tell MAGA 'I told you so'"
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-10-07/trump-maga-i-told-you-so
The writer's take is the left should stop pussyfooting around the Republicans. Democrats should stop flagellating themselves over the past election and the ineptitude of their officials and just state the obvious...things aren't good in America right now, and they're about to get worse.
But if you don't say what the right wants to hear, if you don't toe the line, their minions will come down on you and...what is unfathomable to me is most of these morons who bite back at me each and every day don't have any money! They're living from paycheck to paycheck. Man were they snookered.
But we're supposed to stay quiet for fear of pissing them off.
The Senate Judiciary Committee exists to ask questions. You can be civil or...
What's going to happen when the left starts to behave just like the right?
Watch out!
P.S. No matter what happens, anything bad will be blamed on Biden and the Democrats.
P.P.S. I mean if I acted this way at the DINNER TABLE, my father would have reached over and hit me. If you act like Bondi did today at the corporation, you lose your job! What lesson is being taught here? And, once again, you can act this way and I can't? Do you think if you keep saying the problem is Antifa and the woke mob on the left that that will make Democrats cower? It's a witch hunt, and today the witch flew in on her broom and tried to cast her spell, but...magic is a ruse, and boorishness will get you nowhere.
--
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
Ohio
1
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own"
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was the biggest band in the land.
It started in 1969, with the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash album. A record no one was anticipating that was a slow burner that truly didn't gain traction until the fall. Although "Marrakesh Express" made inroads on Top 40 radio, it was the opening cut on the LP that opened the doors, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." You heard it once and...
You hadn't heard anything quite like this before. Rock had gotten harder. Amplification was the thing. Acoustic guitars? Harmonies? Multiple movements, i.e. a suite? You dropped the needle and were wowed.
And by this time the goal was to have the best stereo you could afford, to get ever closer to the music, you wanted to be INSIDE the music.
The rest of the record... Was at times heavy, laden with meaning. No one was appealing to the gatekeepers, this was music made on its own terms.
Meanwhile, Neil Young was an unknown quantity to most. His solo albums had no impact. The first time many even heard his name was when it was appended to the moniker of the group. With the release of "Déjà Vu" on March 11, 1970.
This was serious business. The record was encased in a faux-leather jacket. You only wished you could get closer to these gentlemen living in a rarefied air of money, sex and music. This was a tablet brought down from the mountaintop.
And the opener was "Carry On."
"One morning, I woke up..."
This wasn't quite "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," but what could be? Yet, the mellifluous sound was there, pure magic to the ears.
And, once again, it was the Graham Nash song that crossed over to AM radio, "Teach Your Children." But by this time...
Album rock ruled. And FM rock radio was infiltrating more markets. And as big as music was, then came the "Woodstock" movie...a cultural moment that eclipsed the festival itself. It was all there, and you might have lamented you missed the event, but one thing you needed was to get ever closer, to the music.
So the U.S. had been involved in Vietnam for years, to the point where many were fatigued with the saga. The fall of 1969 was one of major protest, most especially the Moratorium in D.C. on November 15th. In this pre-internet era when network news still dominated, the story was everywhere. But the result?
Same old war. And by time 1970 rolled around, the younger generation was licking its wounds. Until Nixon decided to invade Cambodia at the beginning of May.
This was news, if you were paying attention. And those on campus were tuned in and started to protest. We'd seen this movie before, until...
Nixon called the National Guard to Kent State and they fired bullets and killed four.
2
Sure. there were guns, shootings before Kent State, but the young on campus thought they were immune. Shooting deaths took place overseas, in the inner city, not on the leafy green campus.
And then they did.
And a rash of protest ensued. To the point where Nixon himself left the White House in the early morning of May 9th to commune with protesters at the Lincoln Memorial.
And then came "Ohio."
"Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down"
Unlike the crap in the Spotify Top 50, "Ohio" was not written by committee and massaged for success. Neil Young composed it on inspiration and it was cut on May 21st and released shortly thereafter, which was unheard of back then. And when that guitar intro blasted out of the radio...
It was a rallying cry, you felt like someone was on your side.
So...
All of this was unpredicted spontaneity. Nixon didn't think his attack on Cambodia was going to cause such massive protest, he certainly didn't think that the National Guard, a poorly trained force of weekend soldiers, would get trigger happy and shoot students. That was not foreseen. But that is what happened.
What is going to happen now?
3
Today it's 1970 squared. Trump is acting with impunity, and the general public is paying the price.
Now you've got to know, not every citizen was anti-war back in 1970, although their numbers were growing. Just like every citizen is not anti-Trump today. But what is the unforeseen trigger that is going to touch people off?
It could be ICE. Because despite the hoopla of ridding the country of illegals, the effects of these raids are trickling down to many. You might not have been drafted, but someone you knew was...
You can be totally legal and get caught up in the dragnet. People have lost their lives. At what point is it too much?
America is a tinderbox. It's just one step away from a conflagration.
It happened in the sixties on a regular basis. Can you say "Chicago," the Democratic convention of 1968?
The same thing happened, in that the authorities clamped down, with force...believing all that mattered was order, as if the people involved were not citizens, as if they deserved no protection.
This is what is in the offing. It's not about the government shutdown, it's not about the 2028 election, never mind the 2026 and gerrymandering. It's something you feel more than see. It's the agitation of the populace.
As for those enthralled by Trump... On one hand, there's nothing he can do that will cause them to uncouple, they hate the libs that much. But when the effects of his actions touch them...
That's what's coming down the pike. Trump is not pulling back, he's doubling down, pouring flammable gasoline on the nation seemingly every day. And the left has no ruling power and the right is pledging fealty to Trump and will not stand in his way and...
It's just a matter of when.
And it won't be foreseeable. It will be spontaneous. Nearly instantaneous. Because when you keep pushing...there's ultimately a concomitant push back.
It will not come from elected officials. It will not come from those with money. Those with nothing to lose, who are losing as a result of Trump's policies, are the ones are going to get touched off and react.
This is where we're headed.
You don't have any power, and you're being constricted constantly. If you say anything negative about Charlie Kirk, if you make a bad joke, if...
Disney and the multinational corporations will cave.
But not the people.
It all comes down to the people. And as calm as the country might look today...
Be ready for tomorrow.
--
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
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own"
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was the biggest band in the land.
It started in 1969, with the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash album. A record no one was anticipating that was a slow burner that truly didn't gain traction until the fall. Although "Marrakesh Express" made inroads on Top 40 radio, it was the opening cut on the LP that opened the doors, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." You heard it once and...
You hadn't heard anything quite like this before. Rock had gotten harder. Amplification was the thing. Acoustic guitars? Harmonies? Multiple movements, i.e. a suite? You dropped the needle and were wowed.
And by this time the goal was to have the best stereo you could afford, to get ever closer to the music, you wanted to be INSIDE the music.
The rest of the record... Was at times heavy, laden with meaning. No one was appealing to the gatekeepers, this was music made on its own terms.
Meanwhile, Neil Young was an unknown quantity to most. His solo albums had no impact. The first time many even heard his name was when it was appended to the moniker of the group. With the release of "Déjà Vu" on March 11, 1970.
This was serious business. The record was encased in a faux-leather jacket. You only wished you could get closer to these gentlemen living in a rarefied air of money, sex and music. This was a tablet brought down from the mountaintop.
And the opener was "Carry On."
"One morning, I woke up..."
This wasn't quite "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," but what could be? Yet, the mellifluous sound was there, pure magic to the ears.
And, once again, it was the Graham Nash song that crossed over to AM radio, "Teach Your Children." But by this time...
Album rock ruled. And FM rock radio was infiltrating more markets. And as big as music was, then came the "Woodstock" movie...a cultural moment that eclipsed the festival itself. It was all there, and you might have lamented you missed the event, but one thing you needed was to get ever closer, to the music.
So the U.S. had been involved in Vietnam for years, to the point where many were fatigued with the saga. The fall of 1969 was one of major protest, most especially the Moratorium in D.C. on November 15th. In this pre-internet era when network news still dominated, the story was everywhere. But the result?
Same old war. And by time 1970 rolled around, the younger generation was licking its wounds. Until Nixon decided to invade Cambodia at the beginning of May.
This was news, if you were paying attention. And those on campus were tuned in and started to protest. We'd seen this movie before, until...
Nixon called the National Guard to Kent State and they fired bullets and killed four.
2
Sure. there were guns, shootings before Kent State, but the young on campus thought they were immune. Shooting deaths took place overseas, in the inner city, not on the leafy green campus.
And then they did.
And a rash of protest ensued. To the point where Nixon himself left the White House in the early morning of May 9th to commune with protesters at the Lincoln Memorial.
And then came "Ohio."
"Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down"
Unlike the crap in the Spotify Top 50, "Ohio" was not written by committee and massaged for success. Neil Young composed it on inspiration and it was cut on May 21st and released shortly thereafter, which was unheard of back then. And when that guitar intro blasted out of the radio...
It was a rallying cry, you felt like someone was on your side.
So...
All of this was unpredicted spontaneity. Nixon didn't think his attack on Cambodia was going to cause such massive protest, he certainly didn't think that the National Guard, a poorly trained force of weekend soldiers, would get trigger happy and shoot students. That was not foreseen. But that is what happened.
What is going to happen now?
3
Today it's 1970 squared. Trump is acting with impunity, and the general public is paying the price.
Now you've got to know, not every citizen was anti-war back in 1970, although their numbers were growing. Just like every citizen is not anti-Trump today. But what is the unforeseen trigger that is going to touch people off?
It could be ICE. Because despite the hoopla of ridding the country of illegals, the effects of these raids are trickling down to many. You might not have been drafted, but someone you knew was...
You can be totally legal and get caught up in the dragnet. People have lost their lives. At what point is it too much?
America is a tinderbox. It's just one step away from a conflagration.
It happened in the sixties on a regular basis. Can you say "Chicago," the Democratic convention of 1968?
The same thing happened, in that the authorities clamped down, with force...believing all that mattered was order, as if the people involved were not citizens, as if they deserved no protection.
This is what is in the offing. It's not about the government shutdown, it's not about the 2028 election, never mind the 2026 and gerrymandering. It's something you feel more than see. It's the agitation of the populace.
As for those enthralled by Trump... On one hand, there's nothing he can do that will cause them to uncouple, they hate the libs that much. But when the effects of his actions touch them...
That's what's coming down the pike. Trump is not pulling back, he's doubling down, pouring flammable gasoline on the nation seemingly every day. And the left has no ruling power and the right is pledging fealty to Trump and will not stand in his way and...
It's just a matter of when.
And it won't be foreseeable. It will be spontaneous. Nearly instantaneous. Because when you keep pushing...there's ultimately a concomitant push back.
It will not come from elected officials. It will not come from those with money. Those with nothing to lose, who are losing as a result of Trump's policies, are the ones are going to get touched off and react.
This is where we're headed.
You don't have any power, and you're being constricted constantly. If you say anything negative about Charlie Kirk, if you make a bad joke, if...
Disney and the multinational corporations will cave.
But not the people.
It all comes down to the people. And as calm as the country might look today...
Be ready for tomorrow.
--
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
Monday, 6 October 2025
Zach Bryan's New Song
"And ICE is gonna come, bust down your door
Try to build a house no one builds no more
But I got a telephone
Kids are all scared and all alone
The Boss stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling
The middle finger's rising and it won't stop showing
I got some bad news
The fading of the red, white and blue"
Have you heard about the South Carolina judge whose house exploded?
By time you read this, they may have more news, but as of now...there's no knowledge of the cause. Then again, how often do houses explode, especially those of people who have been subjected to death threats?
And I'm just about through with my web roundup, my three sets of tab groups in Safari, and Drudge (a font of great links) sends me to this:
"'ICE Is Gonna Come Bust Down Your Door'" - Zach Bryan Teases Politicallly-Charged New Song, 'Bad News'"
http://bit.ly/3ILslJY
Subsequent research says the song is entitled "The Fading of the Red, White and Blue," but who knows for sure, BECAUSE IT'S NOT OUT YET!
It's only a snippet, and you can see Zach playing the guitar and singing here, and you should:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-IdmlcT1Obw
This is the difference between a pro and an amateur, someone doing it from the heart as opposed to someone trying to cash in. With this one snippet, Zach Bryan has eclipsed all of Jesse Welles's clips... This is not a lark, this is dead serious, from one of the biggest acts in the land.
But no one e-mailed me about it. Doing research, I find that "Billboard" did cover it...but that magazine doesn't know whether it's consumer or industry-facing and it's no longer a must-read. As for hitsdailydouble...I didn't see it there, then again...Bryan wasn't paying them for promotion, so...
My point here is news bubbles up from the underground. There's a lot of discussion of this new song on reddit. But as of now, the general public can miss it.
Have you been following the rollout of Taylor Swift's new album?
I think she's review-proof, but there's a lot of fodder here for her to react to on her next album.
First I read Amanda Petrusich's erudite take in "The New Yorker":
"'Why Does Taylor Swift Think She's Cursed? - 'The Life of a Showgirl,' the artist's new album, is full of cringey sexual innuendo, millennial perfectionism, and an obsession with haters that wears thin."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/why-does-taylor-swift-think-shes-cursed
Now wait just a minute, weren't essentially all of the initial reviews positive?
Then again, I point you to this clip from marketing guru Rory Sutherland, wherein he claims you get more independent thinking from working class people than those further up the economic food chain. He says:
"The upper middle class in the U.K. is reputationally paranoid. Is incapable of expressing opinions that might get them disinvited from dinner parties."
https://www.tiktok.com/@mindset.to.mills/video/7556574404763864342?_r=1&_t=ZP-90Kx97GUVqQ
Watch this clip, really.
And my point here is all the initial reviewers who were positive, were they afraid to be on the wrong side of the fence, wary of being denigrated not only by the Swifties, but their compatriots in the field?
Because days later you get this:
"Finally, everyone can say bad things about Taylor Swift"
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/entertainment/being-mean-to-taylor-swift
Once again, Swift is review-proof. The legs of the album will depend upon hit singles. There's no middle ground in the Swift camp, you're either in or you're out, and it doesn't matter what anybody has to say about her and her work. But the casual listener/fan can be exposed to a hit track and listen some more.
Then again, we're talking here about pop music, hit music, Spotify Top 50 music. That's what the business cares about, that's what you read about on hitsdailydouble.com
Then again, Zach Bryan is signed to Warner, and has had arguably two hits, but that doesn't mean you sell the most tickets ever to a gig, 112,408 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
Are the hoi polloi aware of this date?
I'd say many more are aware of Taylor Swift's new album, but...where is the heart of today's music world, is it pop or...
Or to quote Don Henley, "we haven't had that spirit here since 1969." But if Zach Bryan throws it all down, not some ancient classic rocker, does that signify a renaissance, a changing of the guard from the pop dross of the past decades?
And Zach Bryan isn't easily claimed by one political tribe or the other, after all, he served in the Marines. But here, he's definitely taking a swing at ICE... Which has more press than any act, it's number one with a bullet in the news right now. If you heard Governor Pritzker's speech today...
But this is just a snippet, that's all. But Zach's audience is hungry for everything he does.
But isn't he worried about BACKLASH?
God, you can't get a musician with traction to stand up to Trump. Tons of nobodies, but they're just doing it for attention, and when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.
Are Trumpsters going to burn Zach Bryan records like they did with the Beatles?
Well, there are no records. Sure, there are some physical souvenirs, but everything is available to everyone online, it's just a click away.
So we've got ICE...
And the phone... You can be informed and broadcast right from your palm.
And the reference to Springsteen and maybe rock being dead, who knows, lyrics are up to the eye of the beholder.
But one thing is for sure, Zach Bryan is disillusioned with America.
And one other thing... We're never going to have an overarching protest song like we had in the sixties. That's not how it works anymore. Everything is niche, including Zach Bryan and Taylor Swift.
But this kerfuffle, and it is one online, was all started by just a clip, Zach Bryan and his guitar. There were no co-writers, no remixers, none of the b.s. dominating the Spotify Top 50. Zach didn't need Max Martin to gain the public's attention, he could do it all by his lonesome, which hearkens back to those "Hotel California" days.
Does the entire song come out and become a national discussion point? Or is it released to a thud and instantly forgotten.
One never knows anymore.
But those who take chances end up the victors. Those evidencing unrestrained humanity, their voice to our ears with no intermediaries, are the winners.
More like this please!
--
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
Try to build a house no one builds no more
But I got a telephone
Kids are all scared and all alone
The Boss stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling
The middle finger's rising and it won't stop showing
I got some bad news
The fading of the red, white and blue"
Have you heard about the South Carolina judge whose house exploded?
By time you read this, they may have more news, but as of now...there's no knowledge of the cause. Then again, how often do houses explode, especially those of people who have been subjected to death threats?
And I'm just about through with my web roundup, my three sets of tab groups in Safari, and Drudge (a font of great links) sends me to this:
"'ICE Is Gonna Come Bust Down Your Door'" - Zach Bryan Teases Politicallly-Charged New Song, 'Bad News'"
http://bit.ly/3ILslJY
Subsequent research says the song is entitled "The Fading of the Red, White and Blue," but who knows for sure, BECAUSE IT'S NOT OUT YET!
It's only a snippet, and you can see Zach playing the guitar and singing here, and you should:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-IdmlcT1Obw
This is the difference between a pro and an amateur, someone doing it from the heart as opposed to someone trying to cash in. With this one snippet, Zach Bryan has eclipsed all of Jesse Welles's clips... This is not a lark, this is dead serious, from one of the biggest acts in the land.
But no one e-mailed me about it. Doing research, I find that "Billboard" did cover it...but that magazine doesn't know whether it's consumer or industry-facing and it's no longer a must-read. As for hitsdailydouble...I didn't see it there, then again...Bryan wasn't paying them for promotion, so...
My point here is news bubbles up from the underground. There's a lot of discussion of this new song on reddit. But as of now, the general public can miss it.
Have you been following the rollout of Taylor Swift's new album?
I think she's review-proof, but there's a lot of fodder here for her to react to on her next album.
First I read Amanda Petrusich's erudite take in "The New Yorker":
"'Why Does Taylor Swift Think She's Cursed? - 'The Life of a Showgirl,' the artist's new album, is full of cringey sexual innuendo, millennial perfectionism, and an obsession with haters that wears thin."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/why-does-taylor-swift-think-shes-cursed
Now wait just a minute, weren't essentially all of the initial reviews positive?
Then again, I point you to this clip from marketing guru Rory Sutherland, wherein he claims you get more independent thinking from working class people than those further up the economic food chain. He says:
"The upper middle class in the U.K. is reputationally paranoid. Is incapable of expressing opinions that might get them disinvited from dinner parties."
https://www.tiktok.com/@mindset.to.mills/video/7556574404763864342?_r=1&_t=ZP-90Kx97GUVqQ
Watch this clip, really.
And my point here is all the initial reviewers who were positive, were they afraid to be on the wrong side of the fence, wary of being denigrated not only by the Swifties, but their compatriots in the field?
Because days later you get this:
"Finally, everyone can say bad things about Taylor Swift"
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/entertainment/being-mean-to-taylor-swift
Once again, Swift is review-proof. The legs of the album will depend upon hit singles. There's no middle ground in the Swift camp, you're either in or you're out, and it doesn't matter what anybody has to say about her and her work. But the casual listener/fan can be exposed to a hit track and listen some more.
Then again, we're talking here about pop music, hit music, Spotify Top 50 music. That's what the business cares about, that's what you read about on hitsdailydouble.com
Then again, Zach Bryan is signed to Warner, and has had arguably two hits, but that doesn't mean you sell the most tickets ever to a gig, 112,408 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
Are the hoi polloi aware of this date?
I'd say many more are aware of Taylor Swift's new album, but...where is the heart of today's music world, is it pop or...
Or to quote Don Henley, "we haven't had that spirit here since 1969." But if Zach Bryan throws it all down, not some ancient classic rocker, does that signify a renaissance, a changing of the guard from the pop dross of the past decades?
And Zach Bryan isn't easily claimed by one political tribe or the other, after all, he served in the Marines. But here, he's definitely taking a swing at ICE... Which has more press than any act, it's number one with a bullet in the news right now. If you heard Governor Pritzker's speech today...
But this is just a snippet, that's all. But Zach's audience is hungry for everything he does.
But isn't he worried about BACKLASH?
God, you can't get a musician with traction to stand up to Trump. Tons of nobodies, but they're just doing it for attention, and when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.
Are Trumpsters going to burn Zach Bryan records like they did with the Beatles?
Well, there are no records. Sure, there are some physical souvenirs, but everything is available to everyone online, it's just a click away.
So we've got ICE...
And the phone... You can be informed and broadcast right from your palm.
And the reference to Springsteen and maybe rock being dead, who knows, lyrics are up to the eye of the beholder.
But one thing is for sure, Zach Bryan is disillusioned with America.
And one other thing... We're never going to have an overarching protest song like we had in the sixties. That's not how it works anymore. Everything is niche, including Zach Bryan and Taylor Swift.
But this kerfuffle, and it is one online, was all started by just a clip, Zach Bryan and his guitar. There were no co-writers, no remixers, none of the b.s. dominating the Spotify Top 50. Zach didn't need Max Martin to gain the public's attention, he could do it all by his lonesome, which hearkens back to those "Hotel California" days.
Does the entire song come out and become a national discussion point? Or is it released to a thud and instantly forgotten.
One never knows anymore.
But those who take chances end up the victors. Those evidencing unrestrained humanity, their voice to our ears with no intermediaries, are the winners.
More like this please!
--
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
Sunday, 5 October 2025
Bad Bunny At The Super Bowl
First we had the Swifties, convinced via Taylor's endless Easter eggs that she was going to play the Super Bowl. You don't need to be too sophisticated to know that she's off-cycle, and that would never happen. To start from nothing, create a whole new show, rehearse it...exactly why? She's got nothing to promote!
And that's what the Super Bowl is all about, promotion. It's capitalism at heart. You do your show, and the next day you put your tickets on sale.
Then again, Dr. Dre and Snoop, et al, had nothing to sell. They did it for the victory lap, to illustrate the power of hip-hop, how it dominated. A finger in the eye to the endless classic rock acts who preceded them, along with the popsters. Furthermore, they delivered what could not be bought elsewhere, which is very rare in today's society. It was one and done, it was special. And there wasn't even a movie thereafter, like with Beyoncé and "Homecoming." Then again, how many people watched the Coachella livestream?
But "Homecoming" was a Taylor Swift moment, with the fierceness sans the need to settle scores. It delivered Beyoncé gravitas, which she used to great effect with "Cowboy Carter"... Good luck saying something negative about Beyoncé, it's kind of like Charlie Kirk. Don't go against the tide. Don't even ponder if "Texas Hold 'Em" was country music...all you're going to hear in response is that country is derived from Black music, and you don't want to double-down and debate that.
As for Kendrick Lamar? His rap beef with Drake was not the all-encompassing cultural event his fans believed it to be, but this appearance was also a victory lap, with a poke in the eye of Drake and a racist society, but the only thing is if you weren't a fan of Lamar's music to begin with, you missed it completely. Then again, if you said anything against the performance, you were a pariah.
Which brings us to 2026. Who's it going to be?
This is kind of like the Song of the Summer, a fake construct that is irrelevant, kind of like another awards show, never mind that our society is so now so fractured and it's so difficult to reach anybody that no track rose above.
You can only live in the past for so long. Which is why the NFL hired Roc Nation to book the Super Bowl. The players are Black, the owners are white, it's a bad look, and the NFL is always worried about its image. Pushing anything that contradicts it under the rug, like CTE.
So Roc Nation is thinking about who will play the Super Bowl and...
First thing you have to know is a whole slew of people don't want to do it, for a multitude of reasons. They don't want to spend all that money only to be compared to Prince, unfavorably. They don't want to risk failing in front of over 125 million viewers. Maroon 5 still hasn't recovered from its appearance.
So, after you narrow it down to who is willing, which is a relatively small pie, since the acts pay the expenses and almost no one is going to do it if they've got nothing to promote...
Bad Bunny is a PHENOMENAL CHOICE!
Huh?
Friday night, at the end of Bill Maher's "Overtime," Thomas Friedman said:
"I've actually never looked at Twitter, never looked at Facebook, never looked at Instagram, never looked at TikTok, and never smoked a cigarette. And my plan is to die saying all five."
And Tom did not say this sheepishly, but self-satisfiedly.
Thomas Friedman may be one of the most derided opinion columnists out there, the naysayers declare that he's out of touch. THIS PROVES IT!
All that anti-tech b.s. in the "Times"... If I read one more article about the perils of the internet and social media...
Let's get this straight... The internet is NEVER going away. Nor is social media, although the platforms may change.
If you grew up in the fifties and sixties, TV was the devil. Did that make kids watch less? Their parents wanted them to turn off the box and read, like they did. Did it work? NO! And at this point, the highest art form, the most popular art form in America, is streaming television. TAKE THAT!
If you don't know about that which you speak of...
This is the problem with those on the right deriding the choice of Bad Bunny. They see him as a left-wing, Trump-hating Puerto Rican who does not deserve amplification. HOWEVER, Bad Bunny is one of the three biggest acts in the world, if not the BIGGEST! But they don't know that.
The three biggest acts in the world are Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Bad Bunny.
However, as broad as Taylor Swift's audience is, her music does not reach everybody, females are overrepresented in her audience.
As for Morgan Wallen... As big as he is in the U.S., and he's GIGANTIC!, country music doesn't play that well overseas.
But Bad Bunny? Good time music works for EVERYBODY!
It was hard for many to appreciate Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl appearance without knowing the music beforehand, which was the case for most viewers, ubiquity is history, everything is niche.
But you don't have to know Bad Bunny's music to like it. You've just got to hear it, and you're in. It's usually upbeat with a groove you cannot deny, it's nearly impossible to keep your body still, the fact that he sings in Spanish is irrelevant. As if most people can even quote the lyrics of their favorite songs...the words may be important, but they come LAST!
So, all those Republicans didn't just dip their toe, they jumped right into the pool and opined about that which they knew little about.
More people in the world know Bad Bunny and his music than were even aware of Charlie Kirk, never mind his message. THAT'S the power of music. When done right, its reach is phenomenal. Write your screed in the paper, online, even be a talking head weighing in on TV news...you're no competition for Bad Bunny.
Fox News averages 2.5 million viewers in prime time, 1.6 million viewers during the day. Bad Bunny? He's got a song with TWO BILLION streams on Spotify. Others with in excess of one billion. His reach is far beyond Laura Ingraham, never mind Corey Lewandowski and Danica Patrick.
This is a fight the right cannot win.
But let's play it out...
They lean on the NFL... Well, the NFL has plausible deniability, it can easily say music is so far out of their purview that they hired an outsider to make the choice, i.e. Roc Nation. As for final approval...their expertise is football, can you really blame them?
And the NFL does not want to cave, because Democrats watch football too...they don't want a Jimmy Kimmel situation.
As for Roc Nation... You don't want to pick a fight with Jay Z, he may not be an elected official, but he's a titan in America, a billionaire just like Trump, with an army of fans he's built over decades. He came from nothing and built an empire. Whose side is the public going to be on?
And Roc Nation are never backing down...never ever. Bitch all you want about DEI, the bottom line is being Black in America is still hard, and Jay Z knows it, he's never going to kowtow to the oppressor, the whites who have enjoyed the fruits of his labor and have kept his people down for centuries.
So the right wing talking heads are bitching about Bad Bunny...
And no one listening. They don't have the leverage. And like Thomas Friedman above, it's just illustrating how out of touch they are.
Never mind that Bad Bunny hosted SNL last night. Cancel Bad Bunny and good luck getting ANY performer who is not a dyed-in-the-wool Trumper to ever play the Super Bowl again. Isn't this what Disney learned, that it wasn't about Kimmel, per se, but their entire entertainment production, no one would work with them if they didn't stand up for Jimmy!
And even Nexstar and Sinclair caved.
So this is a bridge too far.
But having said that... One thing we have learned is you can never predict the future. Dr. Dre, et al, did the Super Bowl with nothing to promote. There was no tour, unlike with even Kendrick Lamar.
What I'm saying here is the NFL COULD blink. Nothing is set in stone anymore, everything is up for grabs.
You've got to understand that these are people making these decisions. And seemingly NO ONE has a hold on the culture, even though uninformed, head-in-the-sand doofuses believe they do.
Isn't that what the internet has taught us over these last three decades? That the newspapers and other media don't cover every story, and oftentimes they don't get it right? It's citizen journalists, the same decried by those who ruled in the past, who are surfacing stories/truth today.
Which is one of the reasons the NFL hired Roc Nation in the first place. Sure, they wanted to avoid responsibility, the plausible deniability referenced above, but in truth THEY JUST DON'T KNOW!
I'm stunned how many puffed-up people bloviate, not knowing what the landscape holds.
And if you're never wrong...
Hell, I've been wrong, I hate it, but it happens. That's the nature of being a human being. But these talking heads who never apologize, they've got feet of clay, they're depending on their fans to never see the truth.
This is what happened to movie stars. They used to be exalted. But once all their foibles, their personalities, their identities were revealed online, they were seen mostly as two-dimensional and not worthy of adulation.
The internet did that. And the internet made Bad Bunny a STAR!
The starmaking machinery?
That's so last century.
Like I said above, it's nearly impossible to reach anybody. TV appearances don't yield success...active listeners, those who sway markets, create hits and heroes, wouldn't be caught dead listening to terrestrial radio.
It all exists, FOR FREE, online. Pull up a Bad Bunny video on YouTube right now. MTV is never coming back...waiting for a video, are you kidding me?
My point is it's harder than ever to be big, and respect those who are. And Bad Bunny is big, REALLY big, and it is his audience that grew him, not the machine...he's really not obligated to anybody but himself.
Could Bad Bunny go gonzo on Trump in the months before the Super Bowl and lose the gig? Definitely, like I said, the future is unpredictable. But he's a smart guy and he doesn't want to, he wants that Super Bowl appearance now more than ever, to stick it to the man, those who believe he doesn't deserve a chance.
But Kristi Noem's talking about ICE at the Super Bowl... Have you seen the price of tickets? Do you think this is an event that draws a plethora of undocumented citizens? What next, looking inside the Jonathan Club or the Bohemian Grove for illegals?
And sure, maybe the vendors, the workers are not here legally. But doesn't that kind of prove the point, that these people are needed to make the whole thing work, our country?
Just like the shut down...
The news media is down in the weeds. Even health care is not the issue. The Democrats wanted their elected officials to take a stand, to say no mas, the details are IRRELEVANT!
And unfortunately, Trump and the Republicans can't see this.
Or, to use a cliché, you can win the battle and lose the war.
That's the question in Gaza right now.
That's the question with Trump.
That's what the Kimmel fracas demonstrated... Everything is intertwined, no domino is isolated, topple one and even if you war game it out a zillion times there will be unexpected effects.
So if you don't know what you're talking about, STFU!
--
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
And that's what the Super Bowl is all about, promotion. It's capitalism at heart. You do your show, and the next day you put your tickets on sale.
Then again, Dr. Dre and Snoop, et al, had nothing to sell. They did it for the victory lap, to illustrate the power of hip-hop, how it dominated. A finger in the eye to the endless classic rock acts who preceded them, along with the popsters. Furthermore, they delivered what could not be bought elsewhere, which is very rare in today's society. It was one and done, it was special. And there wasn't even a movie thereafter, like with Beyoncé and "Homecoming." Then again, how many people watched the Coachella livestream?
But "Homecoming" was a Taylor Swift moment, with the fierceness sans the need to settle scores. It delivered Beyoncé gravitas, which she used to great effect with "Cowboy Carter"... Good luck saying something negative about Beyoncé, it's kind of like Charlie Kirk. Don't go against the tide. Don't even ponder if "Texas Hold 'Em" was country music...all you're going to hear in response is that country is derived from Black music, and you don't want to double-down and debate that.
As for Kendrick Lamar? His rap beef with Drake was not the all-encompassing cultural event his fans believed it to be, but this appearance was also a victory lap, with a poke in the eye of Drake and a racist society, but the only thing is if you weren't a fan of Lamar's music to begin with, you missed it completely. Then again, if you said anything against the performance, you were a pariah.
Which brings us to 2026. Who's it going to be?
This is kind of like the Song of the Summer, a fake construct that is irrelevant, kind of like another awards show, never mind that our society is so now so fractured and it's so difficult to reach anybody that no track rose above.
You can only live in the past for so long. Which is why the NFL hired Roc Nation to book the Super Bowl. The players are Black, the owners are white, it's a bad look, and the NFL is always worried about its image. Pushing anything that contradicts it under the rug, like CTE.
So Roc Nation is thinking about who will play the Super Bowl and...
First thing you have to know is a whole slew of people don't want to do it, for a multitude of reasons. They don't want to spend all that money only to be compared to Prince, unfavorably. They don't want to risk failing in front of over 125 million viewers. Maroon 5 still hasn't recovered from its appearance.
So, after you narrow it down to who is willing, which is a relatively small pie, since the acts pay the expenses and almost no one is going to do it if they've got nothing to promote...
Bad Bunny is a PHENOMENAL CHOICE!
Huh?
Friday night, at the end of Bill Maher's "Overtime," Thomas Friedman said:
"I've actually never looked at Twitter, never looked at Facebook, never looked at Instagram, never looked at TikTok, and never smoked a cigarette. And my plan is to die saying all five."
And Tom did not say this sheepishly, but self-satisfiedly.
Thomas Friedman may be one of the most derided opinion columnists out there, the naysayers declare that he's out of touch. THIS PROVES IT!
All that anti-tech b.s. in the "Times"... If I read one more article about the perils of the internet and social media...
Let's get this straight... The internet is NEVER going away. Nor is social media, although the platforms may change.
If you grew up in the fifties and sixties, TV was the devil. Did that make kids watch less? Their parents wanted them to turn off the box and read, like they did. Did it work? NO! And at this point, the highest art form, the most popular art form in America, is streaming television. TAKE THAT!
If you don't know about that which you speak of...
This is the problem with those on the right deriding the choice of Bad Bunny. They see him as a left-wing, Trump-hating Puerto Rican who does not deserve amplification. HOWEVER, Bad Bunny is one of the three biggest acts in the world, if not the BIGGEST! But they don't know that.
The three biggest acts in the world are Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Bad Bunny.
However, as broad as Taylor Swift's audience is, her music does not reach everybody, females are overrepresented in her audience.
As for Morgan Wallen... As big as he is in the U.S., and he's GIGANTIC!, country music doesn't play that well overseas.
But Bad Bunny? Good time music works for EVERYBODY!
It was hard for many to appreciate Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl appearance without knowing the music beforehand, which was the case for most viewers, ubiquity is history, everything is niche.
But you don't have to know Bad Bunny's music to like it. You've just got to hear it, and you're in. It's usually upbeat with a groove you cannot deny, it's nearly impossible to keep your body still, the fact that he sings in Spanish is irrelevant. As if most people can even quote the lyrics of their favorite songs...the words may be important, but they come LAST!
So, all those Republicans didn't just dip their toe, they jumped right into the pool and opined about that which they knew little about.
More people in the world know Bad Bunny and his music than were even aware of Charlie Kirk, never mind his message. THAT'S the power of music. When done right, its reach is phenomenal. Write your screed in the paper, online, even be a talking head weighing in on TV news...you're no competition for Bad Bunny.
Fox News averages 2.5 million viewers in prime time, 1.6 million viewers during the day. Bad Bunny? He's got a song with TWO BILLION streams on Spotify. Others with in excess of one billion. His reach is far beyond Laura Ingraham, never mind Corey Lewandowski and Danica Patrick.
This is a fight the right cannot win.
But let's play it out...
They lean on the NFL... Well, the NFL has plausible deniability, it can easily say music is so far out of their purview that they hired an outsider to make the choice, i.e. Roc Nation. As for final approval...their expertise is football, can you really blame them?
And the NFL does not want to cave, because Democrats watch football too...they don't want a Jimmy Kimmel situation.
As for Roc Nation... You don't want to pick a fight with Jay Z, he may not be an elected official, but he's a titan in America, a billionaire just like Trump, with an army of fans he's built over decades. He came from nothing and built an empire. Whose side is the public going to be on?
And Roc Nation are never backing down...never ever. Bitch all you want about DEI, the bottom line is being Black in America is still hard, and Jay Z knows it, he's never going to kowtow to the oppressor, the whites who have enjoyed the fruits of his labor and have kept his people down for centuries.
So the right wing talking heads are bitching about Bad Bunny...
And no one listening. They don't have the leverage. And like Thomas Friedman above, it's just illustrating how out of touch they are.
Never mind that Bad Bunny hosted SNL last night. Cancel Bad Bunny and good luck getting ANY performer who is not a dyed-in-the-wool Trumper to ever play the Super Bowl again. Isn't this what Disney learned, that it wasn't about Kimmel, per se, but their entire entertainment production, no one would work with them if they didn't stand up for Jimmy!
And even Nexstar and Sinclair caved.
So this is a bridge too far.
But having said that... One thing we have learned is you can never predict the future. Dr. Dre, et al, did the Super Bowl with nothing to promote. There was no tour, unlike with even Kendrick Lamar.
What I'm saying here is the NFL COULD blink. Nothing is set in stone anymore, everything is up for grabs.
You've got to understand that these are people making these decisions. And seemingly NO ONE has a hold on the culture, even though uninformed, head-in-the-sand doofuses believe they do.
Isn't that what the internet has taught us over these last three decades? That the newspapers and other media don't cover every story, and oftentimes they don't get it right? It's citizen journalists, the same decried by those who ruled in the past, who are surfacing stories/truth today.
Which is one of the reasons the NFL hired Roc Nation in the first place. Sure, they wanted to avoid responsibility, the plausible deniability referenced above, but in truth THEY JUST DON'T KNOW!
I'm stunned how many puffed-up people bloviate, not knowing what the landscape holds.
And if you're never wrong...
Hell, I've been wrong, I hate it, but it happens. That's the nature of being a human being. But these talking heads who never apologize, they've got feet of clay, they're depending on their fans to never see the truth.
This is what happened to movie stars. They used to be exalted. But once all their foibles, their personalities, their identities were revealed online, they were seen mostly as two-dimensional and not worthy of adulation.
The internet did that. And the internet made Bad Bunny a STAR!
The starmaking machinery?
That's so last century.
Like I said above, it's nearly impossible to reach anybody. TV appearances don't yield success...active listeners, those who sway markets, create hits and heroes, wouldn't be caught dead listening to terrestrial radio.
It all exists, FOR FREE, online. Pull up a Bad Bunny video on YouTube right now. MTV is never coming back...waiting for a video, are you kidding me?
My point is it's harder than ever to be big, and respect those who are. And Bad Bunny is big, REALLY big, and it is his audience that grew him, not the machine...he's really not obligated to anybody but himself.
Could Bad Bunny go gonzo on Trump in the months before the Super Bowl and lose the gig? Definitely, like I said, the future is unpredictable. But he's a smart guy and he doesn't want to, he wants that Super Bowl appearance now more than ever, to stick it to the man, those who believe he doesn't deserve a chance.
But Kristi Noem's talking about ICE at the Super Bowl... Have you seen the price of tickets? Do you think this is an event that draws a plethora of undocumented citizens? What next, looking inside the Jonathan Club or the Bohemian Grove for illegals?
And sure, maybe the vendors, the workers are not here legally. But doesn't that kind of prove the point, that these people are needed to make the whole thing work, our country?
Just like the shut down...
The news media is down in the weeds. Even health care is not the issue. The Democrats wanted their elected officials to take a stand, to say no mas, the details are IRRELEVANT!
And unfortunately, Trump and the Republicans can't see this.
Or, to use a cliché, you can win the battle and lose the war.
That's the question in Gaza right now.
That's the question with Trump.
That's what the Kimmel fracas demonstrated... Everything is intertwined, no domino is isolated, topple one and even if you war game it out a zillion times there will be unexpected effects.
So if you don't know what you're talking about, STFU!
--
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
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)