"Flesh": https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CW1GSGLP/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title
This won the Booker Prize. And I was surprised. Because this is the first time I've ever read one of the winning books before it was anointed. Furthermore, I usually find the winning books close to unreadable. They titillate the committee, academics, but they are not for the proletariat.
But "Flesh"?
At first I couldn't even figure out what country they were in.
And the original plot line... I would have handled it differently from the main character.
But what ensues...
Is a life.
We're used to reading about winners and losers. Not regular people. But István both wins and loses in "Flesh," and you don't expect it.
The interaction with the two women after he gets out of the military, what happens in the bathroom... You never know what is inside another. Someone who looks stiff can be loose. Someone who appears easygoing can be judgmental. It's part of growing up. You encounter different types, have different experiences, and find out where you lie on the spectrum, who you should be wary of.
And then the way things play out in the U.K...
But that's life, you can fall into things, get lucky, and just as easily fall out of them.
So... I think the average person will be somewhat bewildered at the beginning of "Flesh." But hang in there. Because once István gets out of the military, you'll have a hard time putting the book down. You'll be enthralled by this alternative universe. It's not you, it's not people you hang out with, but you have met people like this...who are victims of circumstance, who fall into situations both good and bad.
And the reviews all laud the lack of character description, the tropes of traditional graduate school writing, but despite that I can't say that the words always flow, that it's smooth. But it's all about what happens to István, and the relationships. You're taken into another world. You're completely removed from your everyday world, and isn't that what the best fiction does? And it will have you questioning what life in Eastern Europe is really like, the opportunities and lack thereof.
And I'd contemplated writing about "Flesh" when I read it over a month ago, but I thought it was a bit too outside, not for everybody, but then it won the Booker Prize and...
If you're contemplating diving in, I recommend it.
If you're wary...you're on your own.
P.S. The book is so unclear and so staccato at first you think it's a translation, but it was written in English by David Szalay
"Heart the Lover": https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Lover-Lily-King-ebook/dp/B0F1ZBZLMS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1LNCUXY2372QA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7E-vUI4E0E9Kf5XSZtHlnSVpRPjWfO6ZXb2ChC2RPbtWbl19uBiHYzUvUuK--uaQrkbY5EQkuijJa4qr00TsrhV2jDNgKRXT6Jksmx5fnOq6GRky_WrP5Rl6Mk9B5XGQ7ebc4WlLb3ojD1X2-NBkuhDXP_0W7A4dwGO06-5Gi7x5nBlnJNIRNXrjNyw4KzA_UNGscQA14z4H0QqlYJuMtcqZbCImuYNjhwnmF4pdOqM.PdvFsJOvSbELP-SnJZFsCxHEuaPCEbfswDhxzM2Vv_w&dib_tag=se&keywords=lily+king&qid=1763244900&s=digital-text&sprefix=lily+king,digital-text,274&sr=1-1
Women love Lily King. Love, love, LOVE her and her work!
But I thought her previous books... Weren't exactly chick lit, but ultimately punted, in that they went for lowbrow predictable, satisfying the audience, as opposed to going deeper and becoming more complicated and ultimately risking alienation of the reader.
To tell you the truth, I'd about given up on her, was not going to read another one of her books. But then I read the reviews of "Heart the Lover," reserved it on Libby and decided to give it a chance.
And for the first third it was WONDERFUL, SPOT-ON!
Now the funny thing is unlike with her previous novels, I thought I was not highbrow enough for "Heart the Lover." You've got literature/writing students talking about authors and books I've never heard of, never mind read. I felt inadequate, I had to tell myself I knew a lot of records.
But despite that...
Yes, the first half of "Heart the Lover" is a campus novel, and many feel too old to return to those days, but King nails connection and love so well, SO WELL, that was I was riveted and smiling. Pretty soon you know what is going to happen, but you're still eager to see it play out, how it plays out.
Ultimately "Heart the Lover" is a treatise not only on college love, but love and life in general. The choices we make... We end up in places we didn't foresee, maybe stable and happy, but that connection from back when...we just can't break it.
And what is most important, said connection or livability, coexistence?
The last half of the book... There's a lot of good stuff there, but it devolves into typical Lily King territory. You want more depth... The feelings are there at times, but the plot is somewhat predictable and...
I felt the connection of love in the first half of this book. It resonated with me, it was exactly what I was looking for.
But unlike with a record album, where a few good tracks are enough, a novel must be solid, or close to it, the entire way through.
I've learned from feedback that many men are a lot softer than they're portrayed. For every guy who will only read business books, needs their reading to advance them, there are many others who want a book to affect them, touch their feelings. So there's a cadre of men who will like "Heart the Lover." Girls will LOVE "Heart the Lover," based on what I've read and traditional reaction to King's books. It's not a huge commitment, and I wasn't going to write about it, but since I wanted to talk about "Flesh," which affects you on a visceral level, which is hard to shake, I decided to put down my thoughts.
"Heart the Lover" is not a slam dunk. But it does get to you.
And...how many sacrifice their college ambitions? They're going to be artists, set the world on fire, and they become professionals, or work for daddy's company, sacrificing their hopes and dreams.
I'll let you contemplate that.
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Saturday, 15 November 2025
The Beast In Me
Netflix trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iNHGKcP0cM
Are you watching this?
We didn't start until finishing "Death By Lightning" first, which I do not recommend, despite all the positive reviews. The dialogue is positively stilted. Just because the action took place over a hundred years ago, that does not mean people spoke in a stiff, non-colloquial way. It's only four episodes, and we continued because we wanted to know the history, but at this point, I wish I'd just read the Wikipedia page.
"Death By Lightning" is American filmmaking at its worst. Concentrating on look as opposed to dialogue and story. Yes, "Death By Lightning" looks fantastic, takes you back to the pre-automobile days, but...
Shea Whigham as Roscoe Conklin is fun to watch, but he reminds me more of comedian Kevin Pollak than any politico I've ever encountered/witnessed.
Nick Offerman is such an oaf, the role of Chester Arthur is played so broadly, that there's no way this guy could be nominated for Vice President, NO WAY!
Matthew Macfadyen as assassin Charlie Guiteau... At times delved into Forrest Gump territory. A cartoon. Sometimes he was believable, other times not.
And Michael Shannon as Garfield himself is so retiring, so downbeat, that this guy never could have been elected president, NEVER!
So when "Death By Lightning" was over I was wary of watching another American production, so I made a deal with Felice, first we'd watch an episode of "Delhi Crime," and then one of "The Beast In Me." I needed something foreign, to clean the palate, to keep me interested.
And it was fun to see the old characters in season 3 of "Delhi Crime," although the human-trafficking plot and the constant changing of locations gave me the idea they'd run out of ideas, that maybe the series had continued too long, but it was good, and we will finish it, but then we pulled up "The Beast In Me."
Hype. You can feel it for the new Vince Gilligan show on Apple, "Pluribus." With news features about Rhea Seehorn and Gilligan himself. But in the modern era a series dripped out week by week is so antique. You think you're building buzz, but in truth you're crippling it. Because if you can binge, you get really excited about a show, there's a lot to talk about and you do!
And people will be talking about "The Beast in Me."
Then again, it's hard to take the temperature of the public in today's America. It's hard to know what is going on.
I point you to this article in today's "New York Times":
"Conservative Media Picks an Epstein Story Line and Sticks to It - Right-wing outlets have focused on a single redacted name in the 23,000 pages of correspondence related to Jeffrey Epstein that were released on Wednesday."
Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/business/media/epstein-trump-emails-conservative-media.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1U8.O3JY.nBEXq85oEne_&smid=url-share
I might be the only American who doesn't really care about Epstein. After all, he's dead. But a moralistic nation has to punish anybody attached to him and...
The release of the e-mails was all over the news on Wednesday. It dominated.
Unless you were on Fox. I scanned the website and had to scroll down, down, down for a reference, and the next day I couldn't find one at all, although maybe if I scrolled ad infinitum...
There are two different narratives here. And that's laughable, since it was the Republicans who were so interested in Epstein and the e-mails/information.
So what's a poor boy to do?
They used to play in a rock and roll band.
Now they scroll TikTok and watch streaming television.
And "The Beast in Me" is now number one on Netflix, America's, the world's, number one streaming service, and that means more people are exposed than...are even watching cable TV news.
So you should watch "The Beast In Me," I want to know your take.
Like "Death By Lightning" (and why that title?), "The Beast In Me" is impeccably shot. It captures the east coast feel, made me yearn for the area. The greenery, the change of seasons, the rain...
So we don't know exactly what is up with Claire Danes's character. And she's portraying anxiety/nervousness so well. These tics... Is Danes the new Meryl Streep or is she always like this?
I never saw "Homeland," but I did watch the Israeli show it was based upon, "Prisoners of War," which the "New York Times" said was the best foreign series of the decade, and I'm not sure I agree, but it was wrenching. All I really know about Claire Danes is she was in "My So-Called Life," a cult show before it was stripped by MTV. She was an atypical teenager, with a crush and...then Danes went to Yale and now she's 46 with three kids. How did that happen?
But Danes demonstrates an inner strength in "The Beast In Me," she's got her ideals straight in her mind, even if she's wavering on the periphery.
And then you've got Matthew Rhys...
Who somehow I didn't even recognize. He was softer in "The Americans," too soft for "Perry Mason," but he's so intense here...I guess I identified him more with the type than the underlying identity.
I know people like this. This is the modern paradigm. Men who have so much money they think things should always go their way...they believe they're right and entitled. And if you stand in their way...they've got tons of cash and lawyers to make you go away.
So to what degree do you cope with a bad neighbor?
I squirmed watching Rhys's dogs come into Danes's yard. People love their dogs, they can do no wrong, complain and you're a pariah.
Are you entitled to peace and quiet?
I kept thinking if I was Danes in this show, I'd move...because I didn't see Rhys ever bending.
But then Danes interacts with Rhys... She doesn't want to, she's squeamish, and he tries to steamroll her and she is flummoxed, but she stays true to herself, and he doesn't like it.
But you can never say no to a man like this.
He ultimately traps/convinces Danes to go to lunch and doesn't obey traditional rules of conversation. It's not exactly that he's browbeating her, but he's digging deeper and deeper and... Is this a connection?
I've only seen one episode. Don't tell me if you've watched more, and you probably have, this show is hard to turn off, but...
Where exactly is this going? Is this a traditional American production, a ramping up of hostilities, or something more nuanced, with unexpected plot twists.
Now what happens at the end of the first episode disappointed me, it was foreshadowed and predictable.
But Danes living alone, in a large dark house...
This show is creepy.
And despite not wanting Rhys's money, she needs money.
And...
Check this show out.
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Are you watching this?
We didn't start until finishing "Death By Lightning" first, which I do not recommend, despite all the positive reviews. The dialogue is positively stilted. Just because the action took place over a hundred years ago, that does not mean people spoke in a stiff, non-colloquial way. It's only four episodes, and we continued because we wanted to know the history, but at this point, I wish I'd just read the Wikipedia page.
"Death By Lightning" is American filmmaking at its worst. Concentrating on look as opposed to dialogue and story. Yes, "Death By Lightning" looks fantastic, takes you back to the pre-automobile days, but...
Shea Whigham as Roscoe Conklin is fun to watch, but he reminds me more of comedian Kevin Pollak than any politico I've ever encountered/witnessed.
Nick Offerman is such an oaf, the role of Chester Arthur is played so broadly, that there's no way this guy could be nominated for Vice President, NO WAY!
Matthew Macfadyen as assassin Charlie Guiteau... At times delved into Forrest Gump territory. A cartoon. Sometimes he was believable, other times not.
And Michael Shannon as Garfield himself is so retiring, so downbeat, that this guy never could have been elected president, NEVER!
So when "Death By Lightning" was over I was wary of watching another American production, so I made a deal with Felice, first we'd watch an episode of "Delhi Crime," and then one of "The Beast In Me." I needed something foreign, to clean the palate, to keep me interested.
And it was fun to see the old characters in season 3 of "Delhi Crime," although the human-trafficking plot and the constant changing of locations gave me the idea they'd run out of ideas, that maybe the series had continued too long, but it was good, and we will finish it, but then we pulled up "The Beast In Me."
Hype. You can feel it for the new Vince Gilligan show on Apple, "Pluribus." With news features about Rhea Seehorn and Gilligan himself. But in the modern era a series dripped out week by week is so antique. You think you're building buzz, but in truth you're crippling it. Because if you can binge, you get really excited about a show, there's a lot to talk about and you do!
And people will be talking about "The Beast in Me."
Then again, it's hard to take the temperature of the public in today's America. It's hard to know what is going on.
I point you to this article in today's "New York Times":
"Conservative Media Picks an Epstein Story Line and Sticks to It - Right-wing outlets have focused on a single redacted name in the 23,000 pages of correspondence related to Jeffrey Epstein that were released on Wednesday."
Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/business/media/epstein-trump-emails-conservative-media.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1U8.O3JY.nBEXq85oEne_&smid=url-share
I might be the only American who doesn't really care about Epstein. After all, he's dead. But a moralistic nation has to punish anybody attached to him and...
The release of the e-mails was all over the news on Wednesday. It dominated.
Unless you were on Fox. I scanned the website and had to scroll down, down, down for a reference, and the next day I couldn't find one at all, although maybe if I scrolled ad infinitum...
There are two different narratives here. And that's laughable, since it was the Republicans who were so interested in Epstein and the e-mails/information.
So what's a poor boy to do?
They used to play in a rock and roll band.
Now they scroll TikTok and watch streaming television.
And "The Beast in Me" is now number one on Netflix, America's, the world's, number one streaming service, and that means more people are exposed than...are even watching cable TV news.
So you should watch "The Beast In Me," I want to know your take.
Like "Death By Lightning" (and why that title?), "The Beast In Me" is impeccably shot. It captures the east coast feel, made me yearn for the area. The greenery, the change of seasons, the rain...
So we don't know exactly what is up with Claire Danes's character. And she's portraying anxiety/nervousness so well. These tics... Is Danes the new Meryl Streep or is she always like this?
I never saw "Homeland," but I did watch the Israeli show it was based upon, "Prisoners of War," which the "New York Times" said was the best foreign series of the decade, and I'm not sure I agree, but it was wrenching. All I really know about Claire Danes is she was in "My So-Called Life," a cult show before it was stripped by MTV. She was an atypical teenager, with a crush and...then Danes went to Yale and now she's 46 with three kids. How did that happen?
But Danes demonstrates an inner strength in "The Beast In Me," she's got her ideals straight in her mind, even if she's wavering on the periphery.
And then you've got Matthew Rhys...
Who somehow I didn't even recognize. He was softer in "The Americans," too soft for "Perry Mason," but he's so intense here...I guess I identified him more with the type than the underlying identity.
I know people like this. This is the modern paradigm. Men who have so much money they think things should always go their way...they believe they're right and entitled. And if you stand in their way...they've got tons of cash and lawyers to make you go away.
So to what degree do you cope with a bad neighbor?
I squirmed watching Rhys's dogs come into Danes's yard. People love their dogs, they can do no wrong, complain and you're a pariah.
Are you entitled to peace and quiet?
I kept thinking if I was Danes in this show, I'd move...because I didn't see Rhys ever bending.
But then Danes interacts with Rhys... She doesn't want to, she's squeamish, and he tries to steamroll her and she is flummoxed, but she stays true to herself, and he doesn't like it.
But you can never say no to a man like this.
He ultimately traps/convinces Danes to go to lunch and doesn't obey traditional rules of conversation. It's not exactly that he's browbeating her, but he's digging deeper and deeper and... Is this a connection?
I've only seen one episode. Don't tell me if you've watched more, and you probably have, this show is hard to turn off, but...
Where exactly is this going? Is this a traditional American production, a ramping up of hostilities, or something more nuanced, with unexpected plot twists.
Now what happens at the end of the first episode disappointed me, it was foreshadowed and predictable.
But Danes living alone, in a large dark house...
This show is creepy.
And despite not wanting Rhys's money, she needs money.
And...
Check this show out.
--
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Listen to the podcast:
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Friday, 14 November 2025
More Dark Songs-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in Saturday November 15th 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
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Phone #: 844-686-5863
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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The Dead
Were selling culture.
We're bombarded with stories talking about the Grateful Dead paradigm, how to be successful. Most focus on allowing fans to tape and share live recordings.
But the real story is the Dead created a culture. BY ACCIDENT!
It's hard to create a new paradigm intentionally, it usually happens by accident. As a result of you following your inner turning fork and declining to do that which doesn't feel right.
Now it's possible to have hit records and then a culture, but usually it happens in reverse. It's the little engine that could. You start from outside and you grow steadily and you may never cross over to the mainstream, but you end up with a big enterprise.
The best example of this today is BTS. They call it the BTS Army. Did they get turned on to the music via radio? Traditional marketing outlets? Was it a PR campaign? No, the internet broke BTS the same way it broke One Direction.
And BTS was ready. You might see it as fanciful KPop, dancing fools, but fans...each member of BTS has a backstory, you can have your favorite, you can become involved and invested in the act. Furthermore, you can find your tribe online. And part of being a member of the BTS Army is putting down those who are not members, who pooh-pooh the act, but the true satisfaction comes from being a member of the group, like-minded people who feel the same way who you can interact with online.
And culture is never instant. And it's hazy until it ultimately comes into focus. It looks like nothing is there and all of a sudden there's a monolith. Like KPop itself. We've been hearing it's going to cross over to the U.S. for in excess of a decade. Seemed hard to believe, but then it did, ferociously. You've got to work at it and work at it to gain critical mass. Those looking for overnight success today...good luck having traction tomorrow, fans become dedicated over time via more music and more information. You might be able to sell out arenas on your first tour but never come close to that again in the future.
So the Dead did not have a great singer and didn't play commercial music. They were the antithesis of the Airplane...and it's funny how no one talks about the Airplane anymore. The Airplane had Grace Slick and "Somebody to Love," but how many hard core fans did the band truly have?
The vocals were better in Quicksilver Messenger Service, but they did not have the live rep the Dead did.
Not only did Big Brother have Janis Joplin, its biggest success came with covers. But before she passed, Joplin's career was on a downswing. Then again, it's hard to be a woman in music, the media focuses on you, you can't stay off the radar...how you look, what you say is reported, people form an opinion on you oftentimes without even hearing your music.
It's a Beautiful Day? Good vocals and more traditional song structure.
While other bands were champing at the bit for success, the Dead were going their own way. If you believe Joe Smith, who signed the band to Warner Brothers, he finally convinced them to make something commercial, i.e. "Workingman's Dead." Although he told me this more than once, I'm not sure I believe it. However, one thing is for sure, every Dead album before that was uncommercial. The songs were long and meandering and the rap was you had to hear the band live. So they cut a live album, "Live/Dead," which got better reviews than anything previously released but was still a commercial stiff.
But if you were paying attention, and those who start a culture always are, there was a buzz about the band's live performances, primarily in California, the Dead didn't mean much in the east.
But ultimately Bill Graham threw down the gauntlet. Not only did he book the band at the Fillmore East, he promoted them in the program distributed to every attendee. The back page had a photograph of people standing at the show with the caption "2600 Happy People at the Grateful Dead." 2600 was the capacity of the Fillmore East, as for the photograph, here it is:
https://morrisonhotelgallery.com/products/grateful-dead-at-fillmore-east-january-2-1970-hm8gi5
So you saw this picture and you felt LEFT OUT!
Furthermore, the ad was for shows beginning at midnight. When traditionally there were two shows a night, at 8 and 11:30. This was something different.
So Bill Graham helped. But you can never do it alone, you always have help, people who believe want to aid you in your journey, because there's very few people you can believe in.
And then came "Workingman's Dead." Suddenly you heard "Uncle John's Band" on the radio. But, the true breakthrough did not come until the fall of 1970, with "American Beauty," that's when all those interested in album rock, not those addicted to the Top 40, took notice.
And when you took notice of an act back in the day, you went to see them live.
And the nascent rock press told you the New Riders were going to open and the show was going to be long and you went and...
It was not a typical show. It was not exciting from beginning to end. People wandered around in a haze.
But the show built and built to a finale, you'd experienced something, and one thing was for sure, you couldn't experience it anywhere else, especially as music was being consolidated, as songs were written to cross over from AM to FM. Which the Dead wanted to do, but were unsuccessful at.
And then they started their own record label. A horrible idea, but it endeared them to their fans, the band was doing it their own way, they were sticking it to the man, and they were hemorrhaging money doing it.
And this is an important point. There were very few record/publishing royalties, it was all about the money made on the road. And this was a big band with a big entourage and... Sure, they were different, but, once again, they were sustaining, they were not getting rich, nowhere near as wealthy as the FM rockers of the day.
And that's when the shows and the taping became legendary.
So there were the original Deadheads. Most of them truly dead at this point. The ones in the picture on the inside of "Live/Dead." They're pushing eighty, if the drugs and low economic status haven't gotten them already.
So really, it was about the Boomers.
But what put the Dead over the top was Gen-X, which came online during the days of MTV. The Dead were the antithesis. They were scruffy, they didn't wear spandex, AND THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY HITS! It wasn't even about the recordings...which were not released that regularly. The thunder had been stolen from Gen-X, they lived in the wake of the Boomers, and as greed took over in the eighties, the Dead pointed in another direction, they were something to believe in.
And the road goes on forever.
So the point here is there was no plan. As well as a lot of bad decisions, like the aforesaid independent record company.
And the Dead did not play by commercial rules. And were unsuccessful as a result. Their albums were never juggernauts or big sellers. Oh, they tried, making "Terrapin Station" with Keith Olsen and "Shakedown Street" with Lowell George, but it didn't work. So they kept on doing what they were doing, going on the road and improvising.
Of course eventually the Dead had an MTV hit with "Touch of Grey," but that was already 1987 and it was kind of a joke, a laugh, that this old band finally broke through.
So it was all an accident. Run on instinct and perseverance. And if you're sitting at home trying to replicate it...
Are you willing to walk into the wilderness? Are you willing to experiment? Are you willing to starve?
Most people are not. But the Dead were rooted in the hippie culture of San Francisco, and by time that evaporated, they were finally on their way. The band was a product of its time.
Making music unlike anybody else. Slogging it out on the road endlessly before it broke through.
Now you can point to modern jam bands and say it's the same thing, but it's not. Sure, there are Phishheads, but Phish doesn't penetrate the world outside its borders. You either adore Trey or have no idea who he is. And the rest of the jam bands...they may noodle, but that does not mean there's a culture.
So if you want to replicate the Dead paradigm you've got to focus on culture, you've got to grow culture.
And you've got to nurture culture. Pour too much water on the plant and you drown it. People have to feel ownership. That they came to themselves. If something is overhyped, embraced by the mainstream early, culture is eviscerated.
Once again, it's KPop that is doing the Dead better than any jam band, better than any other act out there. Because KPop focuses on the fan first. Not going on television and saying they love their fans, they owe it all to their fans, but superserving the people who care with endless information, even if no one else other than the hard core is paying attention! Even the Dead, they didn't reach out, you had to come to them. As for philosophy, Jerry was labeled "Captain Trips" and would drop philosophy in periodic interviews and the band's fans took it as guidance, because unlike seemingly everybody else, he was not caught up in the starmaker machinery behind the popular song.
You don't have to do it the Grateful Dead way. There are tons of successful acts who haven't. But if you want to emulate the Dead, don't look at the specific steps the band took, but rather focus on the end result, culture, how can you establish a culture?
You must have an identity. And share it and stay true to it. And put the fans first, not take sponsorships, endorse something just for the money. The benefit must be for the fan. And you can't complain when others leapfrog you and have success. You have to stick to your guns, playing the long game. Knowing you can't really have a plan anyway, you've just got to keep on truckin'.
Sound like an easy formula?
NO!
So stop looking to the Dead for guidance unless you're truly going to do it their way, as delineated above, playing without a net, which very few people are willing to do.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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We're bombarded with stories talking about the Grateful Dead paradigm, how to be successful. Most focus on allowing fans to tape and share live recordings.
But the real story is the Dead created a culture. BY ACCIDENT!
It's hard to create a new paradigm intentionally, it usually happens by accident. As a result of you following your inner turning fork and declining to do that which doesn't feel right.
Now it's possible to have hit records and then a culture, but usually it happens in reverse. It's the little engine that could. You start from outside and you grow steadily and you may never cross over to the mainstream, but you end up with a big enterprise.
The best example of this today is BTS. They call it the BTS Army. Did they get turned on to the music via radio? Traditional marketing outlets? Was it a PR campaign? No, the internet broke BTS the same way it broke One Direction.
And BTS was ready. You might see it as fanciful KPop, dancing fools, but fans...each member of BTS has a backstory, you can have your favorite, you can become involved and invested in the act. Furthermore, you can find your tribe online. And part of being a member of the BTS Army is putting down those who are not members, who pooh-pooh the act, but the true satisfaction comes from being a member of the group, like-minded people who feel the same way who you can interact with online.
And culture is never instant. And it's hazy until it ultimately comes into focus. It looks like nothing is there and all of a sudden there's a monolith. Like KPop itself. We've been hearing it's going to cross over to the U.S. for in excess of a decade. Seemed hard to believe, but then it did, ferociously. You've got to work at it and work at it to gain critical mass. Those looking for overnight success today...good luck having traction tomorrow, fans become dedicated over time via more music and more information. You might be able to sell out arenas on your first tour but never come close to that again in the future.
So the Dead did not have a great singer and didn't play commercial music. They were the antithesis of the Airplane...and it's funny how no one talks about the Airplane anymore. The Airplane had Grace Slick and "Somebody to Love," but how many hard core fans did the band truly have?
The vocals were better in Quicksilver Messenger Service, but they did not have the live rep the Dead did.
Not only did Big Brother have Janis Joplin, its biggest success came with covers. But before she passed, Joplin's career was on a downswing. Then again, it's hard to be a woman in music, the media focuses on you, you can't stay off the radar...how you look, what you say is reported, people form an opinion on you oftentimes without even hearing your music.
It's a Beautiful Day? Good vocals and more traditional song structure.
While other bands were champing at the bit for success, the Dead were going their own way. If you believe Joe Smith, who signed the band to Warner Brothers, he finally convinced them to make something commercial, i.e. "Workingman's Dead." Although he told me this more than once, I'm not sure I believe it. However, one thing is for sure, every Dead album before that was uncommercial. The songs were long and meandering and the rap was you had to hear the band live. So they cut a live album, "Live/Dead," which got better reviews than anything previously released but was still a commercial stiff.
But if you were paying attention, and those who start a culture always are, there was a buzz about the band's live performances, primarily in California, the Dead didn't mean much in the east.
But ultimately Bill Graham threw down the gauntlet. Not only did he book the band at the Fillmore East, he promoted them in the program distributed to every attendee. The back page had a photograph of people standing at the show with the caption "2600 Happy People at the Grateful Dead." 2600 was the capacity of the Fillmore East, as for the photograph, here it is:
https://morrisonhotelgallery.com/products/grateful-dead-at-fillmore-east-january-2-1970-hm8gi5
So you saw this picture and you felt LEFT OUT!
Furthermore, the ad was for shows beginning at midnight. When traditionally there were two shows a night, at 8 and 11:30. This was something different.
So Bill Graham helped. But you can never do it alone, you always have help, people who believe want to aid you in your journey, because there's very few people you can believe in.
And then came "Workingman's Dead." Suddenly you heard "Uncle John's Band" on the radio. But, the true breakthrough did not come until the fall of 1970, with "American Beauty," that's when all those interested in album rock, not those addicted to the Top 40, took notice.
And when you took notice of an act back in the day, you went to see them live.
And the nascent rock press told you the New Riders were going to open and the show was going to be long and you went and...
It was not a typical show. It was not exciting from beginning to end. People wandered around in a haze.
But the show built and built to a finale, you'd experienced something, and one thing was for sure, you couldn't experience it anywhere else, especially as music was being consolidated, as songs were written to cross over from AM to FM. Which the Dead wanted to do, but were unsuccessful at.
And then they started their own record label. A horrible idea, but it endeared them to their fans, the band was doing it their own way, they were sticking it to the man, and they were hemorrhaging money doing it.
And this is an important point. There were very few record/publishing royalties, it was all about the money made on the road. And this was a big band with a big entourage and... Sure, they were different, but, once again, they were sustaining, they were not getting rich, nowhere near as wealthy as the FM rockers of the day.
And that's when the shows and the taping became legendary.
So there were the original Deadheads. Most of them truly dead at this point. The ones in the picture on the inside of "Live/Dead." They're pushing eighty, if the drugs and low economic status haven't gotten them already.
So really, it was about the Boomers.
But what put the Dead over the top was Gen-X, which came online during the days of MTV. The Dead were the antithesis. They were scruffy, they didn't wear spandex, AND THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY HITS! It wasn't even about the recordings...which were not released that regularly. The thunder had been stolen from Gen-X, they lived in the wake of the Boomers, and as greed took over in the eighties, the Dead pointed in another direction, they were something to believe in.
And the road goes on forever.
So the point here is there was no plan. As well as a lot of bad decisions, like the aforesaid independent record company.
And the Dead did not play by commercial rules. And were unsuccessful as a result. Their albums were never juggernauts or big sellers. Oh, they tried, making "Terrapin Station" with Keith Olsen and "Shakedown Street" with Lowell George, but it didn't work. So they kept on doing what they were doing, going on the road and improvising.
Of course eventually the Dead had an MTV hit with "Touch of Grey," but that was already 1987 and it was kind of a joke, a laugh, that this old band finally broke through.
So it was all an accident. Run on instinct and perseverance. And if you're sitting at home trying to replicate it...
Are you willing to walk into the wilderness? Are you willing to experiment? Are you willing to starve?
Most people are not. But the Dead were rooted in the hippie culture of San Francisco, and by time that evaporated, they were finally on their way. The band was a product of its time.
Making music unlike anybody else. Slogging it out on the road endlessly before it broke through.
Now you can point to modern jam bands and say it's the same thing, but it's not. Sure, there are Phishheads, but Phish doesn't penetrate the world outside its borders. You either adore Trey or have no idea who he is. And the rest of the jam bands...they may noodle, but that does not mean there's a culture.
So if you want to replicate the Dead paradigm you've got to focus on culture, you've got to grow culture.
And you've got to nurture culture. Pour too much water on the plant and you drown it. People have to feel ownership. That they came to themselves. If something is overhyped, embraced by the mainstream early, culture is eviscerated.
Once again, it's KPop that is doing the Dead better than any jam band, better than any other act out there. Because KPop focuses on the fan first. Not going on television and saying they love their fans, they owe it all to their fans, but superserving the people who care with endless information, even if no one else other than the hard core is paying attention! Even the Dead, they didn't reach out, you had to come to them. As for philosophy, Jerry was labeled "Captain Trips" and would drop philosophy in periodic interviews and the band's fans took it as guidance, because unlike seemingly everybody else, he was not caught up in the starmaker machinery behind the popular song.
You don't have to do it the Grateful Dead way. There are tons of successful acts who haven't. But if you want to emulate the Dead, don't look at the specific steps the band took, but rather focus on the end result, culture, how can you establish a culture?
You must have an identity. And share it and stay true to it. And put the fans first, not take sponsorships, endorse something just for the money. The benefit must be for the fan. And you can't complain when others leapfrog you and have success. You have to stick to your guns, playing the long game. Knowing you can't really have a plan anyway, you've just got to keep on truckin'.
Sound like an easy formula?
NO!
So stop looking to the Dead for guidance unless you're truly going to do it their way, as delineated above, playing without a net, which very few people are willing to do.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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Thursday, 13 November 2025
Rob Katz-This Week's Podcast
Rob Katz is Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rob-katz/id1316200737?i=1000736575595
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1M1HNloVOQplD5g8u85gJb?si=G3XBMdndRA6UQKx-vW6KEw
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/rob-katz-306791748/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/c41e893c-2e4d-49c8-8c26-d0b558ebeca1/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-rob-katz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rob-katz/id1316200737?i=1000736575595
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1M1HNloVOQplD5g8u85gJb?si=G3XBMdndRA6UQKx-vW6KEw
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/rob-katz-306791748/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/c41e893c-2e4d-49c8-8c26-d0b558ebeca1/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-rob-katz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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Wednesday, 12 November 2025
RosalÃa's "Lux"
What kind of crazy f*cked up world do we live in where the most adventurous, most innovative album of the year is made by a Spanish artist singing in a multitude of foreign languages?
One in which everybody in music seems to be going in one direction, doing their best to distill their work to fit the precepts of their chosen genre, and everybody with a profile is afraid of going completely left field for fear of alienating their audience and never recovering.
Then again, how many of these people are truly artists? A lot of the rock and quiet music folks can't even sing well, that used to be a main criterion of being a professional artist. And you can buy beats, get a ton of digital help such that you create something that might appear professional, but it is lacking the innovation, the nuance, the je ne sais quoi of great art. A left turn, a great leap forward, something that makes the listener question their attitudes and beliefs.
If you pull up "Lux" I doubt you'll like it right away. You haven't even heard anything like this before.
And to tell you the truth, I wasn't going to listen, but Richard Griffiths, whom I trust implicitly when it comes to what is great, what is a hit, said:
"My big discovery this weekend has been Rosalia. Have you listened to her?
"I think she's amazing!"
To say Rosalía's is not in Richard's wheelhouse is an understatement. This is the man who brought Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine to the public as the president of Epic Records. I know Richard likes prog, and he was the co-manager of One Direction, but Rosalía?
I knew who she was. I thought I'd seen her at an awards show. But to say I'd been paying close attention, knew her music, would be completely untrue.
So I'm in the back of a car Monday night, catching up on the "Washington Post," and I come across this article:
"Rosalía made one of the year's most demanding pop albums. Listen closely. The Spanish pop auteur's sweeping new album is a test for shrinking digital attention spans."
The first paragraph says:
"Let's try to keep calm, because, for all of its ambition and grandeur, this new Rosalía album, 'Lux,' demands a sharpened mind more than a blown one. It's an opaquely themed, scrupulously produced concept record in which the Spanish pop auteur sings about a handful of saints and martyrs in more than a dozen languages, backed by the unmitigated power of the London Symphony Orchestra — a stacking of lavish gestures that Rosalía hopes might help elongate our diminished online attention spans."
Free link: https://wapo.st/4paOPU9
Now if that does not intrigue you...I guess you never lived through the seventies, which get a bad rap, but the first half of that decade was a fount of creativity and diversity. From Jethro Tull to Joni Mitchell to Led Zeppelin to David Ackles... I could go on, but my point is the acts didn't feel a need to sound like those who had hits. As a matter of fact, when there became so much money involved that acts did try to game the system, we ended up with corporate rock, which along with formulaic disco killed the record business. The public could smell a rat.
So I pull up "Lux" on my phone and...
The opening cut, "Sexo, Violencia y Llantas," sounds like an intro/overture, but definitely doesn't sound like anything else, certainly nothing in the hit parade. The second track, "Reliquia," is more easily digested, closer to conventional popular music, but it too goes off the rails as it proceeds, as if Taylor Swift suddenly dressed like Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" and started singing operatically in the mountains.
And one thing is for sure, Rosalía can sing.
And the next day I wake up to this review of "Lux" in "The New York Times":
"Rosalía's 'Lux' Is Operatic. But Is It Opera?"
The headline tells all in this case. The writer's beat is classical music and opera, the article was not written by the usual pop reviewer, because after all what is this? A pop artist bending genres, testing limits... This guy, Joshua Barone, coughs up some kudos, but ends with some caveats, after all, are we really going to put a lowbrow pop artist in the canon of those who train and take music seriously?
But Rosalía studied at the Catalonia College of Music, she's not someone who developed her chops solely by listening to Top Forty radio.
And roots go a long way, they're a springboard for innovation, the basics. In the seventies, said roots were the cornucopia of successful records, which inspired others to deliver their own opuses.
So last night hiking I decided to listen to the entirety of "Lux."
And it's different, VERY different. Reminded me of John Cale's "The Academy in Peril." Yup, I bought that one. Cale returned to traditional rock with "Paris 1919," but his first solo album, on Reprise, was instrumental and closer to classical than rock. I bought it. And played it not ad infinitum, but a number of times, to try and get it.
And I did the same thing with "Lux" last night.
Talk about a musical adventure. My head was spinning.
The second time through it started to make more sense. Will you get that far? I don't think the average person will even listen, and if they do, they'll stop pretty quickly.
Now in the seventies, an album like this would not be a major seller. But we live in the streaming era, where the barrier to entry is essentially nonexistent, meaning anybody can check out an album. And people are...
If you listen to the press. The hype over the weekend was that "Lux" became the most-streamed album by a Spanish speaking woman.
I hate this sh*t. It's now like baseball statistics. Parsing the numbers to come up with irrelevant stats. And the funny thing is ultimately they don't matter, it's just a way of stroking the ego of the artist involved. However...
Some people are listening to "Lux." "Berghain" is #18 and rising on the Spotify Global songs chart. And Rosalía is the #5 artist in the Spotify Daily Top Artists Global chart. As for the USA...of course Rosalía is not in the US Top 50 daily chart. Used to be that the USA was the market leader, in every way, the most music consumed, the most innovative acts, Europe was a backwater, when it came to international acts South America/Latin was not even kept in mind, but today... In an era where the tools of production are available to everybody and the gatekeepers are history...
Yes, state radio calcified European music. It didn't play the outré stuff so few made it. But today...
For me, "Lux" is the most exciting thing to happen in recorded music this year. Because we've got a successful artist pushing the envelope, not for the sake of outrage, to solely get attention, but in pursuit of their own personal creativity.
And Rosalía is thirty three, she's been around for a while. A break from the barely-pubescent molded by major label committee. I mean if you were unknown and came to a label with this music, the three majors would want no part of you. But with a track record, Rosalía could pursue her own path.
Now the game is different in the streaming era. It's not about the debut, the launch numbers, but longevity. How long will people continue to listen to "Lux"? I don't know.
But Rosalía has put a stake in the ground, "Lux" is a beacon for all the supposed artists repeating themselves, putting out tripe, taking baby steps as they use the producers du jour to try and game the charts.
"Lux" is what we need.
Listen to it. You may find it difficult at first. But while you're doing so, think about the person who created it. Just like with the hit music of yore, you'll ask yourself HOW DID SHE COME UP WITH THIS?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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One in which everybody in music seems to be going in one direction, doing their best to distill their work to fit the precepts of their chosen genre, and everybody with a profile is afraid of going completely left field for fear of alienating their audience and never recovering.
Then again, how many of these people are truly artists? A lot of the rock and quiet music folks can't even sing well, that used to be a main criterion of being a professional artist. And you can buy beats, get a ton of digital help such that you create something that might appear professional, but it is lacking the innovation, the nuance, the je ne sais quoi of great art. A left turn, a great leap forward, something that makes the listener question their attitudes and beliefs.
If you pull up "Lux" I doubt you'll like it right away. You haven't even heard anything like this before.
And to tell you the truth, I wasn't going to listen, but Richard Griffiths, whom I trust implicitly when it comes to what is great, what is a hit, said:
"My big discovery this weekend has been Rosalia. Have you listened to her?
"I think she's amazing!"
To say Rosalía's is not in Richard's wheelhouse is an understatement. This is the man who brought Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine to the public as the president of Epic Records. I know Richard likes prog, and he was the co-manager of One Direction, but Rosalía?
I knew who she was. I thought I'd seen her at an awards show. But to say I'd been paying close attention, knew her music, would be completely untrue.
So I'm in the back of a car Monday night, catching up on the "Washington Post," and I come across this article:
"Rosalía made one of the year's most demanding pop albums. Listen closely. The Spanish pop auteur's sweeping new album is a test for shrinking digital attention spans."
The first paragraph says:
"Let's try to keep calm, because, for all of its ambition and grandeur, this new Rosalía album, 'Lux,' demands a sharpened mind more than a blown one. It's an opaquely themed, scrupulously produced concept record in which the Spanish pop auteur sings about a handful of saints and martyrs in more than a dozen languages, backed by the unmitigated power of the London Symphony Orchestra — a stacking of lavish gestures that Rosalía hopes might help elongate our diminished online attention spans."
Free link: https://wapo.st/4paOPU9
Now if that does not intrigue you...I guess you never lived through the seventies, which get a bad rap, but the first half of that decade was a fount of creativity and diversity. From Jethro Tull to Joni Mitchell to Led Zeppelin to David Ackles... I could go on, but my point is the acts didn't feel a need to sound like those who had hits. As a matter of fact, when there became so much money involved that acts did try to game the system, we ended up with corporate rock, which along with formulaic disco killed the record business. The public could smell a rat.
So I pull up "Lux" on my phone and...
The opening cut, "Sexo, Violencia y Llantas," sounds like an intro/overture, but definitely doesn't sound like anything else, certainly nothing in the hit parade. The second track, "Reliquia," is more easily digested, closer to conventional popular music, but it too goes off the rails as it proceeds, as if Taylor Swift suddenly dressed like Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" and started singing operatically in the mountains.
And one thing is for sure, Rosalía can sing.
And the next day I wake up to this review of "Lux" in "The New York Times":
"Rosalía's 'Lux' Is Operatic. But Is It Opera?"
The headline tells all in this case. The writer's beat is classical music and opera, the article was not written by the usual pop reviewer, because after all what is this? A pop artist bending genres, testing limits... This guy, Joshua Barone, coughs up some kudos, but ends with some caveats, after all, are we really going to put a lowbrow pop artist in the canon of those who train and take music seriously?
But Rosalía studied at the Catalonia College of Music, she's not someone who developed her chops solely by listening to Top Forty radio.
And roots go a long way, they're a springboard for innovation, the basics. In the seventies, said roots were the cornucopia of successful records, which inspired others to deliver their own opuses.
So last night hiking I decided to listen to the entirety of "Lux."
And it's different, VERY different. Reminded me of John Cale's "The Academy in Peril." Yup, I bought that one. Cale returned to traditional rock with "Paris 1919," but his first solo album, on Reprise, was instrumental and closer to classical than rock. I bought it. And played it not ad infinitum, but a number of times, to try and get it.
And I did the same thing with "Lux" last night.
Talk about a musical adventure. My head was spinning.
The second time through it started to make more sense. Will you get that far? I don't think the average person will even listen, and if they do, they'll stop pretty quickly.
Now in the seventies, an album like this would not be a major seller. But we live in the streaming era, where the barrier to entry is essentially nonexistent, meaning anybody can check out an album. And people are...
If you listen to the press. The hype over the weekend was that "Lux" became the most-streamed album by a Spanish speaking woman.
I hate this sh*t. It's now like baseball statistics. Parsing the numbers to come up with irrelevant stats. And the funny thing is ultimately they don't matter, it's just a way of stroking the ego of the artist involved. However...
Some people are listening to "Lux." "Berghain" is #18 and rising on the Spotify Global songs chart. And Rosalía is the #5 artist in the Spotify Daily Top Artists Global chart. As for the USA...of course Rosalía is not in the US Top 50 daily chart. Used to be that the USA was the market leader, in every way, the most music consumed, the most innovative acts, Europe was a backwater, when it came to international acts South America/Latin was not even kept in mind, but today... In an era where the tools of production are available to everybody and the gatekeepers are history...
Yes, state radio calcified European music. It didn't play the outré stuff so few made it. But today...
For me, "Lux" is the most exciting thing to happen in recorded music this year. Because we've got a successful artist pushing the envelope, not for the sake of outrage, to solely get attention, but in pursuit of their own personal creativity.
And Rosalía is thirty three, she's been around for a while. A break from the barely-pubescent molded by major label committee. I mean if you were unknown and came to a label with this music, the three majors would want no part of you. But with a track record, Rosalía could pursue her own path.
Now the game is different in the streaming era. It's not about the debut, the launch numbers, but longevity. How long will people continue to listen to "Lux"? I don't know.
But Rosalía has put a stake in the ground, "Lux" is a beacon for all the supposed artists repeating themselves, putting out tripe, taking baby steps as they use the producers du jour to try and game the charts.
"Lux" is what we need.
Listen to it. You may find it difficult at first. But while you're doing so, think about the person who created it. Just like with the hit music of yore, you'll ask yourself HOW DID SHE COME UP WITH THIS?
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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Tuesday, 11 November 2025
The Oxygen Sensor
They said it wouldn't make any difference.
So I'm grooving up the 405 and the check engine light comes on.
Now in the old days, there was not such a thing. But as cars started to feature them, it turned out that many times it was just a matter of a loose gas cap. But I knew that was not the case, because I'm anal about these things, I screw the cap down tight... As a matter of fact, it takes all of my willpower not to overtighten things. Like the crown on my watch... Turns out that as long as it's screwed down at all, it's waterproof, but I only learned that after I stripped the threads and had to send it in for repair, thank god it was under warranty. And then there was that ski rack back in the sixties, the first one my father bought. He was the least handy man on the planet, so I installed it, very easy, but I kept tightening the nuts and...it still continued to work, but turns out the soft metal was no match for my arm strength.
But I just had the car serviced! I'd only driven a couple of hundred miles, not even that!
Now at this late date the consequences of a check engine light are up in the air. Some people say you can drive for eons with no harm, others say you're going to burn up the engine, so I decided to drive down to the Subaru dealer where I bring my Saab which is really a Subaru to have them take a look. After all, it was their fault, right?
Back when I owned BMWs... You always had to go back. By time you got the car home from service you noticed a problem. And now I'm always anxious when I pick my car up from service, will it really be fixed? Even worse, will they break something that was fine when I drove in?
And I pull up, expecting instant attention, and they say I've got to leave the car... But it gets worse... This was Thursday afternoon, they couldn't look at it until MONDAY!
Huh?
That's how successful Subaru now is. #1 in reliability in the latest ratings. However, for me, that's hard to believe, in my heart Toyota is still the best. But Subarus are selling like hotcakes and although they don't break the service volume is going up and...
I'm thinking this is ridiculous. But then I contemplate my schedule, if I don't drop it off now...
And they actually get back to me on Tuesday. Thank god I could drive Felice's car in the interim. And they tell me I need an oxygen sensor and an air filter.
Actually, the report says "Mass Air Flow Sensor," that's the technical term. And they send me pictures and everything. It's all done by text these days, very efficient. And the Mass Air Flow Sensor/oxygen sensor can be fixed for $383.75. The only problem is my car is so damn old they have to order the part. They've got the air filter, but that's only $39.95.
Of course I say yes. I'm not going to cheap out. I mean if the light came on...
And the car is now supposed to be ready on Friday, which it is, but they do a once-over and now they say two axle boots are cracked and leaking and they can be fixed for $671.82. Do I want to do it?
That's one thing about owning a Subaru instead of a German car. Subarus are cheap, so the people who own them are usually not rich, so oftentimes they turn down recommendations, either they can't afford it or they'll take the risk. And my instinct is to do the repair, and after doing a bit of Googling I find out I've got to do it, so I say yes. And they tell me the car will definitely be ready on Monday, ten days after I dropped it off.
Seems reasonable, then again...
So I'm about to do a podcast yesterday and I get a text, the car is ready. I should text them when I'm going to come down.
Which I do, when I'm done with the podcast.
And then Felice takes me down to the dealership... And at this point, I know the service writer, I can tell you about his marriage, their decision not to have kids, I don't feel like I'm being ripped-off, and he starts giving me an explanation of the repairs.
Now I don't doubt their necessity, but I am interested in what went on. I'm an expert on everything that's broken in a car, primarily because so much broke in my BMW 2002, even the steering wheel.
And although the money is already in the rearview mirror, the question is...should I cashier this car, get a new one?
My Saab 9-2x is 20 years old, last June. It's only got 125,000 miles on it, but nothing lasts forever. I don't want to buy a new car, because I drive mine so little and it sits on the street, out in the elements, but I will if I have to. I don't want to throw away good money, which I did with my BMW 325e, spending $2500 just before I realized I needed a new car. Maybe this is part of the process, maybe you have to spend before you bite the bullet, give up and buy a new car.
And at this point, with recent services, the total bill is close to 3k. Now I've lost track of what money is worth. In the old days, 3k...if that was the repair estimate you'd buy a new car! But today, car prices have gone through the roof. And I always rationalize it by the amount of a lease payment. I'm not going to lease, but if I did, how many months would it take to get my money back. And at this point even a reasonable lease is $750, so if I can drive the car for five months, I'm even. Never mind the money I save on registration and insurance. And the last time I did this, I needed to drive the car for a year to break even, and I was anxious, but the car didn't need anything but oil changes for five years, so I ended up way ahead of the game.
But now the car is twenty years old.
So what's up with the axle boots?
Turns out this car has eight.
WHAT?
I'm adding the figures up in my mind. Rubber doesn't last forever. You see very few decades-old cars on the road, this is why.
But then the advisor tells me not to worry, because these two axle boots failed because of the heat. They're on either side of the differential, right by the engine. And if I didn't fix them, then the differential would go next.
But since it's a four wheel drive car, there's another differential in the back, what about that?
Well, there's no heat back there, so I should be good.
So what else is wrong with the car? And he swears nothing, absolutely nothing, but you never know about tomorrow.
And there are people who drive cars 200 or 300,000 miles. My car is a baby by those standards. But age...just like people, cars don't last forever.
And then he tells me about the oxygen sensor. It meters the ratio of air to fuel. Makes sense, but funny that the check engine light went off now, just after the car was serviced. I'm not complaining, but... Seems odd I'd be cruising at 65 on the freeway and the light would come on.
And he explains what the oxygen sensor does, adjusts the ratio of air to fuel, and that's when I ask him whether it will affect performance.
And he chuckles and says no. But that I might get better gas mileage.
BETTER GAS MILEAGE?
This car gets HORRIFIC gas mileage. It's not a Ferrari, but in town...about 17. On the highway only you might get in the low twenties... But the bottom line is the car is paid for, to trade it in for a new one to save money on gas...that doesn't make any sense.
And after pulling off the lot, I drive away anxious. Just waiting for a light to come on, for something to be wrong.
And I'm checking the time... They give you a free car wash down the street, and I've got to get gas after that, but if there's a problem will they still be open when I return?
I'd brought the car in dirty and about as empty as it gets. I'll be honest, I don't wash my car that often. It's black and it sits outside and it's a futile effort. As for gas... I was going to fill up on the way there, but time was a-wasting and...
I believe if the car is clean and full they respect it, give better service, but that's probably OCD.
And getting behind the wheel of this twenty year old car, I immediately notice how tight the steering is, how the car is planted.
Now I'd been driving Felice's Mercedes. Her Lexus got totaled, she wanted to buy another one, but they don't make her model anymore, just SUVs, and she doesn't want one of those.
So we call my nephew Andrew, car salesman extraordinaire, then at MBZ, and ask him what's up. He knows the landscape. And the bottom line is that almost everybody leases a Mercedes and they come back after three years and only the best are certified and resold. The rest they auction off. If it's been in an accident, it's auctioned.
So the inventory keeps on rolling. And when Felice decides to take action, there's a 350 with literally every option, from the moving seats (the bolsters tighten up on the curves), to the heads-up display, to the self-parking and... Every MBZ is different. Somebody ordered one maxed-out. But you don't really pay extra for these features when buying off lease. And sure, it's a Mercedes, and they're not trouble-free and service is expensive (Felice just got an oil change for five hundred bucks), but...
Get behind the wheel of this car and you're living. It's like a bank vault. Quiet! A BMW might handle a bit better, but an MBZ is more planted, more solid. I'm behind the wheel of that car and I feel like a king. I love it.
So now I'm behind the wheel of my sh*tbox, and one thing is for sure, it's NOISY! Even after I installed Acousti-Mat in the floor so the stereo would sound better.
Now that's one difference between my car and Felice's. She's got the upgraded Burmester stereo, pretty damn good, but I've got top of the line stuff in my piece of crap. The best Focals all around, a subwoofer, a JL amplifier and a replacement Alpine head unit. That's one thing I'd miss if I purchased a new car, the stereo. No manufacturer makes one as good as I have. Furthermore, installing an aftermarket unit in a new car... They're so computerized that you can replace the speakers, maybe get an amplifier to interface, but you can't replace the head unit and it's all very expensive.
But as good as my car stereo is, my car is still noisy.
And I'm on pins and needles driving home, just waiting for something to f*ck up. It doesn't, but...
And then last night I go out to the Palisades, the trail is now open after the fire. And as you drive further and further west on Sunset there's less and less traffic and I'm doing my best not to exceed the speed limit, but as I'm going around the curves...
That's why I own this car, which is really a gussied-up Subaru WRX, with a few STI features. Four wheel drive not for the traction, but for the performance, which is amazing. But that's all that's amazing... There's no computer, none of the features you take for granted on a new car.
And today I've got to drive to Santa Monica. And I get on the 405 and the traffic is tight and I mash the accelerator and...THE CAR TAKES OFF!
Wow, it really moves!
The turbo doesn't kick in until about 3,500 RPM, but when it does, you get a jolt. But with the new oxygen sensor, there's truly a jolt, the car BLASTS OFF!
And now I'm starting to smile. Should I merge into a slower lane?
NO, because I know I can speed up instantly to get into that space down the road.
And then on my return trip, I'm on Wilshire, heading for the freeway, and you know how drivers are today, hesitant and on their phones, so...
I decide to get in the right lane, the slow lane, and I punch it and not only do I pass a bunch of cars on the left, I make the light when no one else does.
And I'm accelerating through the curves, and then I get to the circular on-ramp, and with a suspension like this you can just push it and push it and when I merge onto the freeway...I don't have to wait for all the turkeys to figure out what they're doing, I just hit the accelerator, twist the wheel and move over a lane.
And now I'm truly happy. Wondering how long this car is really going to last.
Really, I should leave it in Vail, four wheel drive Subarus are the Colorado state automobile.
But I need a ride at home, and you can't really get away with a used car for much less than forty, not one you'd want to drive that won't immediately break.
But it's twenty years old!
But I'm living in the moment. The car is driving like it's absolutely brand new. You know, Japanese cars are not like American ones, they don't loosen up as they age. I forgot how much of a kick the turbo gave in this car. I mean with the new oxygen sensor I'm only talking about five, maybe a ten percent top end boost of the turbo, but I can feel it.
And at this point I'm glad it's a stick. I went to Craig's one night and I came out and there was my car, parked right up front... I almost felt embarrassed, the paint job sucks. I asked what was up. Turns out the guy who can drive a stick already went home!
You've got to take pleasure in the little things these days.
I love it when my gear runs right. I want my skis and boots to be PERFECT! Because you can tell the difference. My boots...last year they updated the model for the first time in decades. Stunningly, they perform even better. When I go into a turn I can feel it. Bootfitters.com always says they're the gold standard, the best you can buy...but not everybody buys them... People buy a lot of crap. But oftentimes the best is no more expensive than the crap, you've just got to do a little research.
And I bought this car because of the performance. I couldn't drive a Camry, even a Lexus after owning a BMW. And it delivered, if only on that note. And now, after getting a new oxygen sensor...IT STILL DOES!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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So I'm grooving up the 405 and the check engine light comes on.
Now in the old days, there was not such a thing. But as cars started to feature them, it turned out that many times it was just a matter of a loose gas cap. But I knew that was not the case, because I'm anal about these things, I screw the cap down tight... As a matter of fact, it takes all of my willpower not to overtighten things. Like the crown on my watch... Turns out that as long as it's screwed down at all, it's waterproof, but I only learned that after I stripped the threads and had to send it in for repair, thank god it was under warranty. And then there was that ski rack back in the sixties, the first one my father bought. He was the least handy man on the planet, so I installed it, very easy, but I kept tightening the nuts and...it still continued to work, but turns out the soft metal was no match for my arm strength.
But I just had the car serviced! I'd only driven a couple of hundred miles, not even that!
Now at this late date the consequences of a check engine light are up in the air. Some people say you can drive for eons with no harm, others say you're going to burn up the engine, so I decided to drive down to the Subaru dealer where I bring my Saab which is really a Subaru to have them take a look. After all, it was their fault, right?
Back when I owned BMWs... You always had to go back. By time you got the car home from service you noticed a problem. And now I'm always anxious when I pick my car up from service, will it really be fixed? Even worse, will they break something that was fine when I drove in?
And I pull up, expecting instant attention, and they say I've got to leave the car... But it gets worse... This was Thursday afternoon, they couldn't look at it until MONDAY!
Huh?
That's how successful Subaru now is. #1 in reliability in the latest ratings. However, for me, that's hard to believe, in my heart Toyota is still the best. But Subarus are selling like hotcakes and although they don't break the service volume is going up and...
I'm thinking this is ridiculous. But then I contemplate my schedule, if I don't drop it off now...
And they actually get back to me on Tuesday. Thank god I could drive Felice's car in the interim. And they tell me I need an oxygen sensor and an air filter.
Actually, the report says "Mass Air Flow Sensor," that's the technical term. And they send me pictures and everything. It's all done by text these days, very efficient. And the Mass Air Flow Sensor/oxygen sensor can be fixed for $383.75. The only problem is my car is so damn old they have to order the part. They've got the air filter, but that's only $39.95.
Of course I say yes. I'm not going to cheap out. I mean if the light came on...
And the car is now supposed to be ready on Friday, which it is, but they do a once-over and now they say two axle boots are cracked and leaking and they can be fixed for $671.82. Do I want to do it?
That's one thing about owning a Subaru instead of a German car. Subarus are cheap, so the people who own them are usually not rich, so oftentimes they turn down recommendations, either they can't afford it or they'll take the risk. And my instinct is to do the repair, and after doing a bit of Googling I find out I've got to do it, so I say yes. And they tell me the car will definitely be ready on Monday, ten days after I dropped it off.
Seems reasonable, then again...
So I'm about to do a podcast yesterday and I get a text, the car is ready. I should text them when I'm going to come down.
Which I do, when I'm done with the podcast.
And then Felice takes me down to the dealership... And at this point, I know the service writer, I can tell you about his marriage, their decision not to have kids, I don't feel like I'm being ripped-off, and he starts giving me an explanation of the repairs.
Now I don't doubt their necessity, but I am interested in what went on. I'm an expert on everything that's broken in a car, primarily because so much broke in my BMW 2002, even the steering wheel.
And although the money is already in the rearview mirror, the question is...should I cashier this car, get a new one?
My Saab 9-2x is 20 years old, last June. It's only got 125,000 miles on it, but nothing lasts forever. I don't want to buy a new car, because I drive mine so little and it sits on the street, out in the elements, but I will if I have to. I don't want to throw away good money, which I did with my BMW 325e, spending $2500 just before I realized I needed a new car. Maybe this is part of the process, maybe you have to spend before you bite the bullet, give up and buy a new car.
And at this point, with recent services, the total bill is close to 3k. Now I've lost track of what money is worth. In the old days, 3k...if that was the repair estimate you'd buy a new car! But today, car prices have gone through the roof. And I always rationalize it by the amount of a lease payment. I'm not going to lease, but if I did, how many months would it take to get my money back. And at this point even a reasonable lease is $750, so if I can drive the car for five months, I'm even. Never mind the money I save on registration and insurance. And the last time I did this, I needed to drive the car for a year to break even, and I was anxious, but the car didn't need anything but oil changes for five years, so I ended up way ahead of the game.
But now the car is twenty years old.
So what's up with the axle boots?
Turns out this car has eight.
WHAT?
I'm adding the figures up in my mind. Rubber doesn't last forever. You see very few decades-old cars on the road, this is why.
But then the advisor tells me not to worry, because these two axle boots failed because of the heat. They're on either side of the differential, right by the engine. And if I didn't fix them, then the differential would go next.
But since it's a four wheel drive car, there's another differential in the back, what about that?
Well, there's no heat back there, so I should be good.
So what else is wrong with the car? And he swears nothing, absolutely nothing, but you never know about tomorrow.
And there are people who drive cars 200 or 300,000 miles. My car is a baby by those standards. But age...just like people, cars don't last forever.
And then he tells me about the oxygen sensor. It meters the ratio of air to fuel. Makes sense, but funny that the check engine light went off now, just after the car was serviced. I'm not complaining, but... Seems odd I'd be cruising at 65 on the freeway and the light would come on.
And he explains what the oxygen sensor does, adjusts the ratio of air to fuel, and that's when I ask him whether it will affect performance.
And he chuckles and says no. But that I might get better gas mileage.
BETTER GAS MILEAGE?
This car gets HORRIFIC gas mileage. It's not a Ferrari, but in town...about 17. On the highway only you might get in the low twenties... But the bottom line is the car is paid for, to trade it in for a new one to save money on gas...that doesn't make any sense.
And after pulling off the lot, I drive away anxious. Just waiting for a light to come on, for something to be wrong.
And I'm checking the time... They give you a free car wash down the street, and I've got to get gas after that, but if there's a problem will they still be open when I return?
I'd brought the car in dirty and about as empty as it gets. I'll be honest, I don't wash my car that often. It's black and it sits outside and it's a futile effort. As for gas... I was going to fill up on the way there, but time was a-wasting and...
I believe if the car is clean and full they respect it, give better service, but that's probably OCD.
And getting behind the wheel of this twenty year old car, I immediately notice how tight the steering is, how the car is planted.
Now I'd been driving Felice's Mercedes. Her Lexus got totaled, she wanted to buy another one, but they don't make her model anymore, just SUVs, and she doesn't want one of those.
So we call my nephew Andrew, car salesman extraordinaire, then at MBZ, and ask him what's up. He knows the landscape. And the bottom line is that almost everybody leases a Mercedes and they come back after three years and only the best are certified and resold. The rest they auction off. If it's been in an accident, it's auctioned.
So the inventory keeps on rolling. And when Felice decides to take action, there's a 350 with literally every option, from the moving seats (the bolsters tighten up on the curves), to the heads-up display, to the self-parking and... Every MBZ is different. Somebody ordered one maxed-out. But you don't really pay extra for these features when buying off lease. And sure, it's a Mercedes, and they're not trouble-free and service is expensive (Felice just got an oil change for five hundred bucks), but...
Get behind the wheel of this car and you're living. It's like a bank vault. Quiet! A BMW might handle a bit better, but an MBZ is more planted, more solid. I'm behind the wheel of that car and I feel like a king. I love it.
So now I'm behind the wheel of my sh*tbox, and one thing is for sure, it's NOISY! Even after I installed Acousti-Mat in the floor so the stereo would sound better.
Now that's one difference between my car and Felice's. She's got the upgraded Burmester stereo, pretty damn good, but I've got top of the line stuff in my piece of crap. The best Focals all around, a subwoofer, a JL amplifier and a replacement Alpine head unit. That's one thing I'd miss if I purchased a new car, the stereo. No manufacturer makes one as good as I have. Furthermore, installing an aftermarket unit in a new car... They're so computerized that you can replace the speakers, maybe get an amplifier to interface, but you can't replace the head unit and it's all very expensive.
But as good as my car stereo is, my car is still noisy.
And I'm on pins and needles driving home, just waiting for something to f*ck up. It doesn't, but...
And then last night I go out to the Palisades, the trail is now open after the fire. And as you drive further and further west on Sunset there's less and less traffic and I'm doing my best not to exceed the speed limit, but as I'm going around the curves...
That's why I own this car, which is really a gussied-up Subaru WRX, with a few STI features. Four wheel drive not for the traction, but for the performance, which is amazing. But that's all that's amazing... There's no computer, none of the features you take for granted on a new car.
And today I've got to drive to Santa Monica. And I get on the 405 and the traffic is tight and I mash the accelerator and...THE CAR TAKES OFF!
Wow, it really moves!
The turbo doesn't kick in until about 3,500 RPM, but when it does, you get a jolt. But with the new oxygen sensor, there's truly a jolt, the car BLASTS OFF!
And now I'm starting to smile. Should I merge into a slower lane?
NO, because I know I can speed up instantly to get into that space down the road.
And then on my return trip, I'm on Wilshire, heading for the freeway, and you know how drivers are today, hesitant and on their phones, so...
I decide to get in the right lane, the slow lane, and I punch it and not only do I pass a bunch of cars on the left, I make the light when no one else does.
And I'm accelerating through the curves, and then I get to the circular on-ramp, and with a suspension like this you can just push it and push it and when I merge onto the freeway...I don't have to wait for all the turkeys to figure out what they're doing, I just hit the accelerator, twist the wheel and move over a lane.
And now I'm truly happy. Wondering how long this car is really going to last.
Really, I should leave it in Vail, four wheel drive Subarus are the Colorado state automobile.
But I need a ride at home, and you can't really get away with a used car for much less than forty, not one you'd want to drive that won't immediately break.
But it's twenty years old!
But I'm living in the moment. The car is driving like it's absolutely brand new. You know, Japanese cars are not like American ones, they don't loosen up as they age. I forgot how much of a kick the turbo gave in this car. I mean with the new oxygen sensor I'm only talking about five, maybe a ten percent top end boost of the turbo, but I can feel it.
And at this point I'm glad it's a stick. I went to Craig's one night and I came out and there was my car, parked right up front... I almost felt embarrassed, the paint job sucks. I asked what was up. Turns out the guy who can drive a stick already went home!
You've got to take pleasure in the little things these days.
I love it when my gear runs right. I want my skis and boots to be PERFECT! Because you can tell the difference. My boots...last year they updated the model for the first time in decades. Stunningly, they perform even better. When I go into a turn I can feel it. Bootfitters.com always says they're the gold standard, the best you can buy...but not everybody buys them... People buy a lot of crap. But oftentimes the best is no more expensive than the crap, you've just got to do a little research.
And I bought this car because of the performance. I couldn't drive a Camry, even a Lexus after owning a BMW. And it delivered, if only on that note. And now, after getting a new oxygen sensor...IT STILL DOES!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
Sunday, 9 November 2025
The Rock Hall Ceremony
1
"I'm gonna add some bottom
So that the dancers just won't hide"
Awards shows never run on schedule. Even when they're taped for TV. There are stops and starts. After all, it's all about what the home viewer sees on their flat screen.
But that was not the case last night. The show started on time because it was simulcast on Disney+. And there were no breaks, no retakes, because not only was the show live, there were no commercials.
So we were jolted alive when the lights came up and Stevie Wonder and the assembled multitude launched into "Dance to the Music."
The power of the original cannot be denied. And the funny thing was last night IT WAS JUST AS POWERFUL! I've seen tribute covers, too often it's about going through the motions, doing your bit and getting out, another notch in the belt of celebration that is ultimately meaningless.
But not last night.
"You might like to hear my organ
I said ride, Sally ride"
How many times have you heard this on the radio? You know the flourishes by heart, the beat, the sound...and they were all replicated last night. A better performance than I've EVER seen on the Grammys. Not that they're competing. But when the Grammys created those "moments," the mashup of stars, one and one often yielded less than two.
But not last night.
So Stevie, yes, Stevie Wonder, who was eclipsed by Sly Stone at this point in time, Stevie didn't really come into his own until the seventies, when he burst into a supernova, is sitting at the keyboard like he's in a bar earning his keep for the night. There was a horn section... It was positively MESMERIZING!
And it was clear that it was Flea in the back, playing his bass, noodling around as he does with the Chili Peppers. And you know it's coming, you wonder how it's going to go down, but then Michael Balzary runs up to the microphone and utters the words atop this screed and then plays those fat, distorted notes on his bass and it was positively transcendent.
We live in an era where the script has flipped. When it's all about live as opposed to recordings. It's about the experience, feeling it. And I'm a jaded f*ck sitting right down front marveling that Lenny Waronker is at my table and I'm positively jolted, my legs spring me up to attention, the power was unbelievable. And from "Dance to the Music" it went into "Everyday People" and then "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin"," finishing with Stevie and Jennifer Hudson imploring us to take it HIGHER!
The sixties flashed through my brain. Not only the energy, the music, but the spirit, the optimism, the hope. Music was lighting the fuse that blasted the younger generation into the stratosphere. Sly Stone melded rock and soul and who knows what to create this amalgam of sound you couldn't get anywhere else. He and the Family Stone were totally original. For a few minutes last night time stopped, nothing else mattered other than being there in the moment, AND WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR?
2
I know, I know, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame gets a ton of sh*t. And I don't want to defend it, I've got my own complaints. Then again, the fact that Bad Company was finally inducted...an honor way overdue to the point where even though alive, Paul Rodgerrs is too compromised to come out and sing and teach the audience a lesson, show them what true pipes, what true singing ability and nuance are all about. But, but, BUT...Simon Kirke was pounding the drums, and Joe Perry, in all his splendor, was throwing off those Mick Ralphs riffs...
"Feel like makin' LOVE"
I can't write the sound of the machine gun fire that echoes that line, but you could feel it in the building last night. A power...the power of rock and roll.
And then Chris Robinson came out and sang the breakthrough hit, "Can't Get Enough," illustrating he's a better rock frontman than seemingly anybody plying the boards today.
And... You knew that everybody on stage had lived through it, had driven in their car with these Bad Company songs pounding out of the dashboard. This was like making your bones in the garage, turning it up and letting it wail, believing you're on the road to stardom.
Not that every performance was as good, but there was only one bad one, and it was Chris Cornell's daughter. There, I said it.
But what I'm really saying here is the show was amazing in that no one was phoning it in, everybody was delivering and there were no down moments when you got up and spoke with your neighbor...I didn't even want to get up and go to the bathroom, I didn't want to miss anything. That's for home, when you pause the show and take a break, but live you're in the moment, and it's only the moment that counts.
The big surprise, two of the other great performances of the night, were by acts you might question being in the Hall.
Salt-N-Pepa... Nineties MTV flashed in front of my eyes. And that's what that era was about, hip-hop... Sure, it started with grunge, but then rap dominated. And these women had something to prove, three decades ago and last night. They spit out the lyrics, it was beyond a victory lap, it was a demand for attention, and they got it.
And then came OutKast...
Who doesn't like OutKast?
They'll come out and do their hit numbers and...
They did eventually, but...
Big Boi strode up to the stage in a big fur coat and shorts...talk about the rock and roll ethos. And then he and André 3000 started to take over the entire building. Shouting out to their friends and family in the audience, then demanding they come up on stage! There are about a dozen people up there, even a kid in a tux who couldn't have even been six. And André 3000 is talking about the village that allowed them to create this music, how they were a product of their environment, how everybody helped... And we white guys are now sitting there as outsiders, it's no longer our Hall, our ceremony, it's been totally hijacked. It was palpable. It was both jarring and impressive. How did they do this? How did they make the show their own? And they did it without being overly dramatic or rehearsed and then...
The assembled multitude started to play the hits and...
If you've ever doubted that hip-hop could work live, if you were there you were proved wrong.
I'm standing there wondering how this looks on TV. The screen flattens. Removes the energy. You're removed, but in the presence of the performance... This was rock and roll, this was the only place you could get it, not on YouTube, nowhere else, you had to BE THERE!
And funny it was in the Peacock Theater, a barn with an echo, made me yearn for the Universal Amphitheatre of old, but when music is played outside...it's a different experience, you don't feel it. But when the notes bounce off the walls...you're all in the pressure cooker, caught up in the sound, you cannot remove yourself, you're involved, and you love it!
3
Jack White gave a heartfelt speech... It seemed like he was fighting back tears. He exuded a normalness, the guy next door who made it big, he had the outfit but none of the airs, it was endearing.
But he, never mind Meg, a no-show, didn't play. And as good as the tributes to him were, his act is unique, only he can really do it.
Ditto with Warren Zevon. The Killers and Waddy gave it their all, but the real star of Warren's segment was David Letterman. This guy just couldn't help being funny. It made you miss him. He's in another league from today's late night hosts. He's quick and self-deprecating and above it all at the same time. And you could tell he loved Warren. And they played the famous clip where Zevon said to enjoy every sandwich.
Listen, the performances, other than the aforementioned clunker, were all good. It was a treat to see Derek Trucks sting the leads on the Joe Cocker songs. But there were two other highlights, HIGHLIGHTS!
4
The first one was Cyndi Lauper...
Now Cyndi has just come off a long tour, so she decided to perform herself. And she held the audience in her hands.
She starts with "True Colours" and then two-thirds of the way through, she gets to the line...
SO DON'T BE AFRAID!
And she stopped, cold, and thrust her arm in the air. This was a moment of protest, of meaning, that is absent from not only the new generation, but the public in general. This is the power of music. Wow. Goosebumps.
And the band...
Everybody was so well-rehearsed, every act, there were no clunkers. I've never seen performances this seamless at an awards show... But they were all firing at 10, they weren't just going through the motions, they felt it.
Even that rhythmic drum coda at the end of "True Colours," that was there...
And Cyndi's speech was good too, but the other highlight of the night for me...
5
Brian Wilson... You just can't say enough. If you lived through it... It's why I live in California. I just had to get CLOSER!
And I was not the only one.
So the lights come up to Elton in front of his keyboard and Reg is telling a story. And Reg has been everywhere and done everything. So he saw no need to amp it up. He spoke about going up the hill to meet Brian when he first came to L.A.
And then he started playing "God Only Knows."
Only this wasn't the version we all know. It was slowed down. So that the words had added meaning.
And Elton is singing...
No one can sing like Carl Wilson. And even Elton doesn't sound like he used to. But he gave the performance I'd say of a lifetime, but he's given so many of them. But let's just say this one...Elton was as good, if not better than he's been all century. He's making the song his own. And ultimately the key line resonated:
"God only knows what I'd be without you"
Not only Elton, but me and so many more. It was a different era. The youth started to take over the narrative when the establishment was unaware. What the hell was going on on the west coast? The girls and the beach and the fun, yet Brian could sing about being in his room with the gravitas of the most dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker on a rainy day.
Now the funny thing is so much time has passed that...
A lot of the people, or members of bands they're honoring, are dead. You only wish they were alive to see it, to experience it.
But they're not the only ones.
And the acts up on stage are thanking record executives those in the audience have never heard of, but were players around town back in the day. Soundgarden thanked Jim Guerinot, as they should have, Jim turned me on to the band, but Jim was not in attendance. The business has shifted, evolved, there were some record execs there, some other heavyweights, but this was not the clusterf*ck of yore. I'd say the only ones who'd survived intact, who still meant anything, were the musicians, the acts themselves. But really, it comes down to the music. The music survives.
Will today's music survive?
We can debate that all day long, but one thing is for sure...
They created the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to honor an era, an unforeseen era. No one knew rock and roll was going to take over the world, become the dominant sound. And it was more than that, it was a cultural movement. This wasn't the music business of yore. The acts now wrote their own songs, straight from the heart, and ultimately played their own instruments, and they were all about pushing the envelope...you dropped the needle on a new record wondering where you'd be taken, the musicians were leaders.
And they were musicians. Sure, a lot were stars, but they were not brands. They sold t-shirts, but the music came first.
And the funny thing is despite the image...you'd be surprised, a lot of these people who cut these legendary tracks are broke, or close to it. They've got to work for a living. Or did before they died. You need to put food on the table. The execs end up comfortable, the musicians not necessarily so.
But the sound, the power.
It remains.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
"I'm gonna add some bottom
So that the dancers just won't hide"
Awards shows never run on schedule. Even when they're taped for TV. There are stops and starts. After all, it's all about what the home viewer sees on their flat screen.
But that was not the case last night. The show started on time because it was simulcast on Disney+. And there were no breaks, no retakes, because not only was the show live, there were no commercials.
So we were jolted alive when the lights came up and Stevie Wonder and the assembled multitude launched into "Dance to the Music."
The power of the original cannot be denied. And the funny thing was last night IT WAS JUST AS POWERFUL! I've seen tribute covers, too often it's about going through the motions, doing your bit and getting out, another notch in the belt of celebration that is ultimately meaningless.
But not last night.
"You might like to hear my organ
I said ride, Sally ride"
How many times have you heard this on the radio? You know the flourishes by heart, the beat, the sound...and they were all replicated last night. A better performance than I've EVER seen on the Grammys. Not that they're competing. But when the Grammys created those "moments," the mashup of stars, one and one often yielded less than two.
But not last night.
So Stevie, yes, Stevie Wonder, who was eclipsed by Sly Stone at this point in time, Stevie didn't really come into his own until the seventies, when he burst into a supernova, is sitting at the keyboard like he's in a bar earning his keep for the night. There was a horn section... It was positively MESMERIZING!
And it was clear that it was Flea in the back, playing his bass, noodling around as he does with the Chili Peppers. And you know it's coming, you wonder how it's going to go down, but then Michael Balzary runs up to the microphone and utters the words atop this screed and then plays those fat, distorted notes on his bass and it was positively transcendent.
We live in an era where the script has flipped. When it's all about live as opposed to recordings. It's about the experience, feeling it. And I'm a jaded f*ck sitting right down front marveling that Lenny Waronker is at my table and I'm positively jolted, my legs spring me up to attention, the power was unbelievable. And from "Dance to the Music" it went into "Everyday People" and then "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin"," finishing with Stevie and Jennifer Hudson imploring us to take it HIGHER!
The sixties flashed through my brain. Not only the energy, the music, but the spirit, the optimism, the hope. Music was lighting the fuse that blasted the younger generation into the stratosphere. Sly Stone melded rock and soul and who knows what to create this amalgam of sound you couldn't get anywhere else. He and the Family Stone were totally original. For a few minutes last night time stopped, nothing else mattered other than being there in the moment, AND WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR?
2
I know, I know, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame gets a ton of sh*t. And I don't want to defend it, I've got my own complaints. Then again, the fact that Bad Company was finally inducted...an honor way overdue to the point where even though alive, Paul Rodgerrs is too compromised to come out and sing and teach the audience a lesson, show them what true pipes, what true singing ability and nuance are all about. But, but, BUT...Simon Kirke was pounding the drums, and Joe Perry, in all his splendor, was throwing off those Mick Ralphs riffs...
"Feel like makin' LOVE"
I can't write the sound of the machine gun fire that echoes that line, but you could feel it in the building last night. A power...the power of rock and roll.
And then Chris Robinson came out and sang the breakthrough hit, "Can't Get Enough," illustrating he's a better rock frontman than seemingly anybody plying the boards today.
And... You knew that everybody on stage had lived through it, had driven in their car with these Bad Company songs pounding out of the dashboard. This was like making your bones in the garage, turning it up and letting it wail, believing you're on the road to stardom.
Not that every performance was as good, but there was only one bad one, and it was Chris Cornell's daughter. There, I said it.
But what I'm really saying here is the show was amazing in that no one was phoning it in, everybody was delivering and there were no down moments when you got up and spoke with your neighbor...I didn't even want to get up and go to the bathroom, I didn't want to miss anything. That's for home, when you pause the show and take a break, but live you're in the moment, and it's only the moment that counts.
The big surprise, two of the other great performances of the night, were by acts you might question being in the Hall.
Salt-N-Pepa... Nineties MTV flashed in front of my eyes. And that's what that era was about, hip-hop... Sure, it started with grunge, but then rap dominated. And these women had something to prove, three decades ago and last night. They spit out the lyrics, it was beyond a victory lap, it was a demand for attention, and they got it.
And then came OutKast...
Who doesn't like OutKast?
They'll come out and do their hit numbers and...
They did eventually, but...
Big Boi strode up to the stage in a big fur coat and shorts...talk about the rock and roll ethos. And then he and André 3000 started to take over the entire building. Shouting out to their friends and family in the audience, then demanding they come up on stage! There are about a dozen people up there, even a kid in a tux who couldn't have even been six. And André 3000 is talking about the village that allowed them to create this music, how they were a product of their environment, how everybody helped... And we white guys are now sitting there as outsiders, it's no longer our Hall, our ceremony, it's been totally hijacked. It was palpable. It was both jarring and impressive. How did they do this? How did they make the show their own? And they did it without being overly dramatic or rehearsed and then...
The assembled multitude started to play the hits and...
If you've ever doubted that hip-hop could work live, if you were there you were proved wrong.
I'm standing there wondering how this looks on TV. The screen flattens. Removes the energy. You're removed, but in the presence of the performance... This was rock and roll, this was the only place you could get it, not on YouTube, nowhere else, you had to BE THERE!
And funny it was in the Peacock Theater, a barn with an echo, made me yearn for the Universal Amphitheatre of old, but when music is played outside...it's a different experience, you don't feel it. But when the notes bounce off the walls...you're all in the pressure cooker, caught up in the sound, you cannot remove yourself, you're involved, and you love it!
3
Jack White gave a heartfelt speech... It seemed like he was fighting back tears. He exuded a normalness, the guy next door who made it big, he had the outfit but none of the airs, it was endearing.
But he, never mind Meg, a no-show, didn't play. And as good as the tributes to him were, his act is unique, only he can really do it.
Ditto with Warren Zevon. The Killers and Waddy gave it their all, but the real star of Warren's segment was David Letterman. This guy just couldn't help being funny. It made you miss him. He's in another league from today's late night hosts. He's quick and self-deprecating and above it all at the same time. And you could tell he loved Warren. And they played the famous clip where Zevon said to enjoy every sandwich.
Listen, the performances, other than the aforementioned clunker, were all good. It was a treat to see Derek Trucks sting the leads on the Joe Cocker songs. But there were two other highlights, HIGHLIGHTS!
4
The first one was Cyndi Lauper...
Now Cyndi has just come off a long tour, so she decided to perform herself. And she held the audience in her hands.
She starts with "True Colours" and then two-thirds of the way through, she gets to the line...
SO DON'T BE AFRAID!
And she stopped, cold, and thrust her arm in the air. This was a moment of protest, of meaning, that is absent from not only the new generation, but the public in general. This is the power of music. Wow. Goosebumps.
And the band...
Everybody was so well-rehearsed, every act, there were no clunkers. I've never seen performances this seamless at an awards show... But they were all firing at 10, they weren't just going through the motions, they felt it.
Even that rhythmic drum coda at the end of "True Colours," that was there...
And Cyndi's speech was good too, but the other highlight of the night for me...
5
Brian Wilson... You just can't say enough. If you lived through it... It's why I live in California. I just had to get CLOSER!
And I was not the only one.
So the lights come up to Elton in front of his keyboard and Reg is telling a story. And Reg has been everywhere and done everything. So he saw no need to amp it up. He spoke about going up the hill to meet Brian when he first came to L.A.
And then he started playing "God Only Knows."
Only this wasn't the version we all know. It was slowed down. So that the words had added meaning.
And Elton is singing...
No one can sing like Carl Wilson. And even Elton doesn't sound like he used to. But he gave the performance I'd say of a lifetime, but he's given so many of them. But let's just say this one...Elton was as good, if not better than he's been all century. He's making the song his own. And ultimately the key line resonated:
"God only knows what I'd be without you"
Not only Elton, but me and so many more. It was a different era. The youth started to take over the narrative when the establishment was unaware. What the hell was going on on the west coast? The girls and the beach and the fun, yet Brian could sing about being in his room with the gravitas of the most dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker on a rainy day.
Now the funny thing is so much time has passed that...
A lot of the people, or members of bands they're honoring, are dead. You only wish they were alive to see it, to experience it.
But they're not the only ones.
And the acts up on stage are thanking record executives those in the audience have never heard of, but were players around town back in the day. Soundgarden thanked Jim Guerinot, as they should have, Jim turned me on to the band, but Jim was not in attendance. The business has shifted, evolved, there were some record execs there, some other heavyweights, but this was not the clusterf*ck of yore. I'd say the only ones who'd survived intact, who still meant anything, were the musicians, the acts themselves. But really, it comes down to the music. The music survives.
Will today's music survive?
We can debate that all day long, but one thing is for sure...
They created the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to honor an era, an unforeseen era. No one knew rock and roll was going to take over the world, become the dominant sound. And it was more than that, it was a cultural movement. This wasn't the music business of yore. The acts now wrote their own songs, straight from the heart, and ultimately played their own instruments, and they were all about pushing the envelope...you dropped the needle on a new record wondering where you'd be taken, the musicians were leaders.
And they were musicians. Sure, a lot were stars, but they were not brands. They sold t-shirts, but the music came first.
And the funny thing is despite the image...you'd be surprised, a lot of these people who cut these legendary tracks are broke, or close to it. They've got to work for a living. Or did before they died. You need to put food on the table. The execs end up comfortable, the musicians not necessarily so.
But the sound, the power.
It remains.
--
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
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