Tickets Not Streams

All the focus is on streaming numbers when it should be on how many tickets you can sell. Pop music is a highly-promoted arena based on a single song, which may stream prodigiously, but that does not mean the act has any fans. Fans are made live. That's where the bond is sealed. For nearly two decades acts have been complaining that they have to go on the road to make their bread, as if this is a bad thing. The paradigm has shifted completely, if you're not willing to work live, the odds of you having a lengthy career are not good. Furthermore, what works on the road is oftentimes completely different from what's in the Spotify Top 50. See streaming as promotion. In truth, many artists are making a fortune as a result of streaming. But then there are the artists complaining that despite even six digits of plays, they're not making any real money. Now the dirty little secret is very few of the acts in the so-called golden years ever got royalties. You may have heard them on the radio, and money was generated by airplay and sales, but this cash was eaten up by expenses and bad deals. The label would charge everything to your account, from limos to videos. It was very hard to get ahead unless you had a slew of hits/success and you had a manager who renegotiated. So, this fantasy that you're being screwed by streaming is a falsehood. And the sooner you accept this, the sooner you can focus on building your career. Streaming is the best thing that ever happened to you. Whether it be the DSPs like Spotify or social media. Your music is exposed. In the pre-internet era, very little music got exposure. But now, if people want to hear your music, it's just a click away. The audience doesn't have to buy it to hear it. Then again, there's a plethora of material in the food chain and it's harder than ever to gain attention. So don't focus on boosting your streams, focus on building your audience, which starts live and is goosed utilizing social media. See your recordings as an afterthought. Look at Billy Strings... He plays arenas, seen as one of the biggest breakthroughs of the last five years, with tons of media attention, never mind fans. But his streaming numbers? Positively anemic for an act of this caliber. Not a single track of his breaks a hundred million streams. Sure, he's got stuff in the low eight figures, 18 or 22 million, but only two cuts even break 50 million. Now these numbers are nothing to sneeze at, but compared to the acts in the Spotify Top 50, they're a joke. And it's not like there's a hit that's waiting to go stratospheric. The material is secondary with Billy Strings. It's about his playing ability and the music made live. Yes, you can check in with the cuts on a DSP, but you're probably more interested in a live video on YouTube or recordings from Nugs.net or the Internet Archive. Sure, you can call this Grateful Dead model, but don't take that too far. Yes, the recordings were a secondary revenue source for the Dead, but they were progenitors, from a different era. Jam band music survives on the fumes of the Dead, and its live business is nothing to sneer at, but that's not the only kind of music that works live. But one thing that doesn't work live on the way up is production. The Spotify Top 50 play big buildings and charge a lot for tickets and therefore believe they have to provide a ton of production, oftentimes with a lot of the music on hard drive. That's more like a Broadway show than music. And interestingly, what works live is oftentimes not in the genres featured in the Spotify Top 50. If you're a starting pop singer, who doesn't write, or only gets credits in collaboration, good luck. No, live, first and foremost you must have the chops, you must have the ability to play and sing. Writing is important too, but not as critical as it is with the Spotify Top 50. Rather you're selling more than music, you're selling a performance, an experience. A live, human experience in a computerized/mechanized world. Audiences are not looking for perfection, they're looking to feel connected, to be moved. And once you make a fan live, usually they're a fan forever, if for no other reason than they paid for the ticket, they're invested, it's a sunk cost! Guitars? They rule live, even though they may be hard to find in the Spotify Top 50. Rock is not dead live, it's fully alive! So if you're an up and comer, focus on gigs, whether they pay or not. Get yourself in front of people, learn the ropes, hone your act. If you've got it, people will respond. And this does not mean you can never have a hit. And you never know when the Spotify Top 50 might flip, to career artists who are individuals who have something to say. Also, live, bands rule. On recordings... It's easier to focus on a single person, and no one wants to share the wealth, and managers don't want to have to deal with four or five people or more. All this focus on streams is skewing perception. The media constantly publicizes the record charts, but ticket sales and grosses might as well be locked up in a black box. Then again, everybody lies about ticket sales on the way up, it's part of the hype. It's amorphous as opposed to clear-cut. This is why the label groups are in trouble. They're in the wrong business. The focus now is on live. There's a much broader audience for live. Talk to people...it seems that everybody is going to multiple shows, acts don't only play the metropolis anymore, people are hungry for live music. Provide it. -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Do You Play A Musical Instrument?-SiriusXM This Week

Tune in August 22nd to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. Phone #: 844-686-5863  If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Think Small

Don't sign with a major label. Unless you make broad-based pop or mainstream hip-hop (country is a world unto itself, with its own rules). That's all they're interested in. They're equivalent to NASA. They plot endlessly for rare moonshots, they're not interested in suborbital journeys, they want to bet it all, play for keeps. And isn't it interesting that rocketry has been taken over by outsiders like SpaceX. Amazing what one man with a vision and a checkbook can achieve (got to give Elon props here). If you don't make music in the designated genres, the majors probably don't want you anyway. But if they do...what exactly are they going to do for you? The majors are about money and business relationships, and those mean less than ever before. The majors' relationships are with gatekeepers: radio, TV, DSPs. They curry favor. But everybody knows that other than SNL and CBS "Sunday Morning," TV doesn't move the needle at all. It's the modern equivalent of seeing your name in the paper. Cool, but meaningless. As for terrestrial radio... The active demo, which skews young, doesn't listen. They grew up in an on demand world, they don't want to be told what to consume, never mind wait for it. And then there's press... If you think youngsters are getting their info from traditional outlets, you're wrong. They don't trust them. The writers have no credibility in their world, they only listen to their friends. BINGO! Did you read the story about Angie Nixon's victory in Florida? Leave the politics out, that's not the point... Other than the fact that what she was selling, a progressive viewpoint, was not served by the mainstream. This is anathema to insiders, they want to exert control over the process, but the bottom line is the public is alienated, doesn't feel it's being listened to. And it's the same case with music. We're in a Lou Pearlman moment. You remember Lou, right? Who had an idea which ultimately turned into a juggernaut. He formed Backstreet Boys and NSYNC when boy bands were seen as a novelty/joke, took them to Europe to break and hooked them up with Max Martin, a hungry Swede, to make these two acts the biggest in the world. And he did this right under the majors' noses. The people who worked at the major labels were too hip for the room, they not only weren't interested, they didn't want their images tarred by association. However, by signing both of these artists, Clive Calder ended up with a multi-billion dollar buyout, the largest of its kind, ever. The money always comes from thinking outside the box. Now let's be clear, Nixon was not a nincompoop with no history. She had experience, a record, she was seen as a legitimate candidate, by the people, if not the establishment. But rather than listen to the words of the high-priced consultants, Nixon employed word of mouth, direct contact with the public to ensure success. More than ever, everyone is an individual these days. They want to be seen as such, not taken for granted, not spoken down to, and if you close them...THEY'LL SPREAD THE WORD TO EVERYBODY! You're selling passion. And no one is more passionate than a fan of an act on the way up, they feel that they own them, as long as the act hasn't been forced down their throat. Nixon's opponent Alex Vindman raised $16.3 million dollars. Nixon raised $975,000. Nixon couldn't even afford one television ad. But she won by twelve percentage points. Now let me be clear, not everybody can win. Not everybody has the talent. Dunning someone to pay attention when the music is not worth it will never work. But instead of banging your head against the major labels' door, bang on the door of your ultimate customers. They are the definitive test. If they don't want to spread the word, change what you're doing or make peace with your obscurity. You need to start off the radar screen. You need no PR. And you must superserve your audience. Fans want more. They don't care if it's covers on YouTube...forget official releases. Everyone in social media knows that sans frequency, you've got nothing. You've got to release clips, you've got to make people feel that you care about them...not some radio programmer or some other gatekeeper. It's one on one. That's how you build it. Via direct connection, one by one. And if you're thinking about that big break, that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, stop before you start. The process is incredibly slow. You may be on the verge of giving up multiple times. But if you stick with it... Once again, it's 10,000 hours of HARD WORK! That's the science, left out of Malcolm Gladwell's book but in the definitive work "The Talent Code." If you're not challenging yourself constantly, it doesn't matter how many hours you put in. It's not about writing three songs and then spamming them across the internet. It's about writing hundreds of songs, so it becomes reflex. Learning how to play the guitar or piano at a professional level. You pay your dues so when the spotlight is upon you, it's natural. And speaking of natural, that's what sells. Humanity. Honesty. People may go to see the dancing fools in arenas, performing to hard drive, there is a business in that, but not as much as someone who connects directly. The majors could employ this strategy, but then they'd be in the artist development business, which they left behind decades ago. The majors are just hoping they can sign you if you're successful. But the truth is there's a good chance your music might never stream in prodigious numbers. So what exactly can the label do for you? As for signing with an indie... If you're not willing to do the work yourself, don't even start. There's no black box, no magic, and no shortcuts. It's you that have to be dedicated, you that have to work to make the connection, which all starts ONLINE! If you're not willing to live online, you're living in the last century and have almost no chance of success. Young people know all this. But not all young people are infatuated with music. They are looking for something different, something honest, and when they find it, they tell everybody they know about it. Look at Noah Kahan. He had one hit, "Stick Season," which was a cult favorite, spread by word of mouth, before it broke bigger. Sure, Kahan is signed to a major, but you can't point to another act in his genre having the same success on a major. If you break it, people will be beating down your door to get in business with you. It's these axioms no one wants to hear, because it might be a reflection on the quality and marketability of their work. The truth is Hollywood, the media-industrial complex, is peopled by sharks looking for prey 24/7, and there's very little stuff worth biting. But if you create it... -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Ketch Secor-This Week's Podcast

Mr. Old Crow Medicine Show. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ketch-secor/id1316200737?i=1000784556039 https://open.spotify.com/episode/7M4ztOAGKifvOZ8XuAmS74?si=RT6UpSZHT7yq5I3OaUajuA https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/ketch-secor-341773222 https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/9bcdc303-3f23-406f-8b02-a53d831acf3d/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-ketch-secor -- 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

Dark Star

https://open.spotify.com/album/63AF6wD9Mt1vQgKPNZaAXx?si=bVedbm7EQMeopKG8fTOMDQ 1 This was not the best song on the album, but it's the one that hit the radio first. This was unexpected. We never thought we'd get another Crosby, Stills & Nash album. And here it was. In June 1977. 1977... The late seventies were about hedonism. Not as bad as the eighties, when greed was legitimized by Ronald Reagan, but Nixon was finally gone, Jimmy Carter was in office and the Vietnam war was over, a conflict that hung especially heavy over the heads of boomers, who were always looking over their shoulders to see if Uncle Sam was going to call for them. Now if you read history, you'll see that the late seventies were also the disco era. Funny how the acts blinked. Not only did the Beach Boys go disco, but Rod Stewart and the Stones too. People went with the flow. Credibility was out the window. It was about cocaine and partying, having a good time, finally relieved of the burdens of the past. And then comes "CSN." Interestingly, it was 1977 that portended great changes in the landscape. The Ramones might have released their first album a year earlier, but what was then called "New Wave" broke with the release of Elvis Costello's "My Aim Is True." But that didn't come out in the U.S. until November 1st. It was also the year of Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express." We thought that "Autobahn" was a curio, that they were a one hit wonder. Little did we know their influence... But this was also the year of Billy Joel's true breakthrough, "The Stranger," with "Just the Way You Are." And James Taylor's "JT." Mostly, it was more of the same. Which was fine by us. This was the aftermath of Woodstock. The festival hipped the rest of the world to the music's power, how it drove the younger generation, the seventies were just a victory lap. So what do you do in an era where everything is up front and center, imbued with sunniness, and the biggest band from the turn of the decade returns with a new album, an evolution of the old, but still introspective? Well, radio went on it immediately. It was like they never left. Then again, we never expected them to return. 2 Now, as was the case with the debut, there was a radio hit written by Graham Nash. In this instance, it was "Just a Song Before I Go." Good, not revolutionary, but it has sustained. You hear this and "Southern Cross" on SiriusXM's the Bridge, they're in regular rotation. But not the rest of "CSN," because there was a darkness. Not the darkness of a long-haired, tattooed metal band, but an introspection. That was another feature of the late seventies, although forgotten today, EST was a household word back then. Now staying with Nash, who'd proved his chops on his exquisite solo debut "Songs for Beginners," his "Cathedral" closed the first side. This was not a poppy hit, but more of an emotional cry, intimate...rarely heard on the radio, it was a standout on your turntable. But as usual, the most popular tracks were written by Stephen Stills. Neil Young is sui generis, he carves his own path outside the mainstream. But the thing about Stills...he evidences his roots, he just lifts the bar that much higher, with his writing, singing and playing. The final song on the LP, "I Give You Give Blind" was a tear. An evolution from his work on the Manassas double album, enhanced by the background vocals by Crosby and Nash. And "I Give You Give Blind" got radio play, but not as much as "Fair Game." This was all over the radio. But the best song on the album is Stills's "See the Changes," which comes right after the opening awakening, Crosby/Doerge "Shadow Captain," which was proof the act was back, with the three part harmonies. Furthermore, it was energetic. A very good opener, if not in the league of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Carry On," but what could be. And then the album got quiet. On "Déjà Vu" Stills reflected about where he'd been and what he'd seen in "4+20." "He was tired of being poor And he wasn't into selling door to door And he worked like the devil to be more" It took hard work. There was no established path. The Beatles illustrated the possibilities, the Byrds opened the door for American acts, but still...you needed the chops, you needed to know how to sing, write and play. Otherwise the odds of success were low. "Why am I so alone Where is my woman, can I bring her home Have I driven her away Is she gone" Self-reflection, this is what is absent in today's world. Everyone's a winner, 24/7, you don't want to show any weakness, any chinks in the armor. And this is exactly why we were drawn to our musical heroes. They spoke our truth, they were leaders. There had started to be t-shirts, but really your career was all about the music, what you had to say, what you stood for. "I embrace the many-colored beast I grow weary of the torment Can there be no peace And I find myself just wishing That my life would simply cease" It's hard to convey to a youngster the power of this song and these words to teenagers across America, lying on their beds, listening to this song on the record player. Alienation was a feature of society. The music spoke to those who felt they didn't fit in, who had more questions than answers, it was a relief to find someone on your own page, especially someone who'd been there and done that. Learning that we were all on our own journeys, encountering the same hurdles, roadblocks, and even acclaim and monetary success didn't necessarily solve all your problems. And the first two albums ushered in an era of introspective singer-songwriters, but by time we hit the late seventies, Cat Stevens seemed to have gone pop, James Taylor was singing covers, but Stephen Stills... "She has seen me changing It ain't easy rearranging And it gets harder as you get older Farther away as you get closer" The boomers were out of school, in the work world, having their first serious relationships. The old friends faded away, replaced by new ones from different backgrounds, with different viewpoints. In your early twenties you thought you knew everything, now you're not quite so sure. "Ten years singing right out loud I never looked, was anybody listening Then I fell out of cloud I hit the ground and noticed something missing" Our priorities were being rewritten by our heroes. What made life work... Career success was not enough, you needed something more, people, relationships. "Now I have someone" That's all you've got to know, she's seen him changing, but she's still standing by him. Evolution, acceptance, keys to a relationship. The only instrumentation is Stills's guitar. From an era when we were still infatuated by skill. We'd all bought our guitars, tried to play these songs. As for the three of them singing together, it was angelic, from the heavens above. We knew we couldn't do this, but we were thrilled it existed and we could be exposed to it. 3 Now through the magic of the internet, it's easily learned that "Dark Star" is about Stills's relationship with Joan Baez, back in 1967, something no one knew until Graham Nash's biography "Wild Tales" was published in 2013. Today we know everything about our heroes, there's no mystery, but we fought for crumbs back in the pre-internet era, built fantasies on very little information. The musicians were truly our heroes, they lived in a rarefied air, mostly in Los Angeles or London, which caused so many to move to these locations. Something was happening there, it wasn't exactly clear, but we definitely wanted to be there. And at this point, FM radio was everything, the heartbeat of America. If you didn't listen I wouldn't quite say you were a pariah, just that you were out of the loop, irrelevant. You went to someone's house and checked out their albums, you quoted lyrics to each other, there was a royal class living above us, focused on self-expression, we were exposed to their wisdom on wax and we went to the show to revel in the connection. "I met you several years ago The times they were so strange, but I had a feeling You looked into my eyes just once An instant flashing by that we were stealing" That's all it takes, just one look. But we were no longer wet behind the ears, we were adults, not children. We were learning about life, society, the power of connection between two people. It was rarely obvious, oftentimes it was a stolen moment. "We touched, we did, you know we did No more teasing now" He's beyond smitten, he's hooked. To the point where he can't hold his emotions back, he expresses them in words. Is she going to play or not, send a message, a clear message, do you want to do this? "Dark star, let the memory of the evening Be the first thing that you think of When you open up your smile and see me, dark star" Isn't this what we all want? Then again, how many times have we been frustrated. So what song is radio gonna play? Not something too dirgey, not something too dark... This was no longer the free-format days, radio was a business, a very lucrative one, and you couldn't risk someone pushing the button. So if something was driving, something you could get in the groove and nod your head to while in your car, that was the number the radio played. And played. "Dark Star" was a constant. It was no longer 1970, never mind 1969, every hamlet had an FM rock station. And the business was burgeoning, there were more acts in more styles featured than ever before. There was even cynical corporate rock, made for commerce. And then an act returns subtly to prominence once again. Crosby, Stills & Nash were not banging you over the head, were not begging for attention. The album was not in your face, anything but. It was dark and although appealing, you had to penetrate it to truly understand it. But this sound. The guitars, the sweet, three-part harmony... It was like a lost art. Only in this case it returned. 4 Crosby, Stills & Nash never reached this peak again. More albums were made, they even reunited with Young. There was one more radio track, the aforementioned "Southern Cross," but the band wasn't quite spent so much as lost. The decades turned and the eighties were the era of flash, the exact opposite of the intimacy the band specialized in. Then again, once you've been to the mountaintop, and returned... Outsiders don't understand the emotions. This is your job, this is your life, this is how you gain attention, earn your living, but what does it all mean? Will one more hit make a difference? What's the motivation? You're not ready to retire, but you're no longer hungry. Meanwhile, the game keeps changing and you're labeled a has-been even though you're no different. As for the audience... It understands none of this. As much as people think they know you, they don't. They think the music tells everything, but it doesn't. Can you even risk messing with your image? You're more alone than ever. But your music, it still keeps your fans warm at night, connected. Those songs are set in amber, they are not ditties, but life lessons, to be learned and reminded of forever. Which is why people keep coming to see you perform. But are you a jukebox or an artist? What does it all mean? That is still the question. -- 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

Acting With Impunity

And I thought no one was supposed to be above the law. That's how society works. Cross the line and you might get fined, assuming you're caught and someone has enough money, power and wherewithal to hold you to account. But what if you act in plain sight? Thumb your nose at the system, believe you're untouchable? That's what we're confronted with today. Did Meta, et al, target tweens? That's being debated in court as I write this. Does Donald Trump have the right to tear down the East Wing and build a ballroom? Well, he doesn't seem to care what anybody thinks. Irrelevant of starting a "brief" war sans approval that appears to be endless with no good exit, the U.S. being lucky to walk away with its tail between its legs, worse off than it started. We can debate welfare. We can debate health care. You might have an opinion on either side of the issue. But we were never asked our opinion on the ballroom, or the arch. They weren't even on our radar screen. Rather, we woke up one day and the White House was being torn apart and a hole was being dug... Sure, presidents have changed the interior of the building, but the exterior? What next? A lengthening of the Washington Monument? A closing down of Arlington National Cemetery? Now I know that in tech you act first and ask for permission later. However, in many cases this is done off the radar screen and the system is not equipped to address these breakthroughs. Actually, that's a big problem in Congress. How can you ask people to legislate about that which they have no knowledge? This is why we need a digitally-savvy body, to meet the problems of the twenty first century head-on. But when Trump acts with impunity, doing whatever he wants, what the hell am I supposed to do? I don't drive a hundred miles an hour and then rip up the ticket after being cited by police. I don't refuse to show up to court. And if I do, I don't blame the police person. And, if the judge renders a verdict, I obey it. Otherwise the penalties are too heinous. But the Supreme Court decided that Trump is not liable for any crimes while in office. So, what's to stop him? Once again, this isn't about left and right, this is about a changing of the rules. Imagine if one team had to gain ten yards for a first down, but the other never had to move the ball an inch in order to garner four more plays. How would that work? How could the other team win? Sure, people bend the rules in sports, and even in business. But at least there are rules, and they always do it surreptitiously, they hide their actions, hoping not to be found out. But Trump? He rubs the dirt in our eye. So what do we know... No one is going to stop him from building his ballroom. If for no other reason than he's got teams working 20 hours a day and... "Trump’s Ballroom Is Rising at Breakneck Speed: 20 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week - Although the fate of the ballroom is tied up in court, the Trump administration argues that the project is too far along to be stopped now." Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/us/politics/trump-ballroom-construction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6lA.hjeC.9lmaMbE2jKp_&smid=url-share That's the nature of life. Getting started is the hardest part. And once you have, you're rarely impeded. Especially when you've got a rubber-stamp Congress. That's right, we're going to spend nearly a billion dollars on the ballroom and then tear it down? Not gonna happen. Now when a kid gets caught red-handed he lies, but the parent knows the cookies didn't disappear all by themselves, and the child is punished. Trump lies and is not punished. And in some cases, lives are at stake. Once again, this is not a Republican/Democrat issue. There are not two sides. There is only the law. We have to obey it, why doesn't he? And if you blindly pay fealty to Trump, support everything he does... Is it the substance or the fact that he's the leader of your team? Americans are uninformed. This is what you learn on TikTok. Political questions are asked and true believers come up with such cockamamie stuff. But the ballroom. This is binary, black and white, built or not. You can see it with your own two eyes. Now the interesting thing is that all those protesting in the street, the No Kings people, have crawled back into the holes they came from and are now silent. In truth, many are waiting for the results of the midterm elections. We'll see how that goes down. Then again, you've got Trump saying mail-in voting must go, yet he just used it in Florida. Talk about cognitive dissonance. "Trump Votes by Mail Again in Florida - The president also voted by mail in 2020 and in a Florida special election in March, even as he has railed against the practice and equated it to cheating." Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/us/politics/trump-mail-vote-florida-election.html But the No Kings protesters... They see that their efforts made no difference. Trump ignored them or doubled-down. As for elected officials on the left, wimps you'd never bring to a bar fight. Honestly, I feel powerless, and I'm not the only one. But this is unlike anything I've seen in my lifetime. We hated Nixon, but he ultimately paid the price, he had to resign. There have been a lot of politicians' whose policies I've disagreed with. But dem's the breaks. They were duly elected. But this? Trump acting willy-nilly, doing whatever he wants, even ignoring legal rulings? This is new. This is demoralizing. This is indefensible. But this is what happening. There's a moral rot in America, and the nation stinks from the top. And until we rein in Trump, we're barely different from Venezuela, all these nations whose governments we want to change. If we're not a democracy, how do we expect those outside our borders to take our efforts seriously? They don't. Just know that you are not alone in your frustration. And the next time you see a member of society breaking the rules, ask yourself why they should obey them, when the President doesn't. Morning in America? The sun sank long ago. -- 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

Eve Myles

Have you watched "Keeping Faith"? I'll watch anything with Eve Myles in it. She's not a movie star, she's an ACTRESS! That's the change we've been experiencing in the modern era. You hear about all these movie stars dipping into TV... It's really about those who've been working on both the small and big screens, even on stage, for years, building a résumé. Movie stars pass on scripts, work infrequently, actors work on a regular basis, knowing that image is subsidiary to the performance. But that does not mean these new talented actors are unknown. We just finished watching "Gone" on BritBox. It's got a 100/68 rating on RottenTomatoes. You probably know David Morrissey from "Sherwood," which has a 96/63 RT rating (but I always take the audience rating with a grain of salt). In "Gone" he plays a different role, he's completely internalized, he's anything but warm and huggable. And if you're a regular viewer of the small screen, which isn't so small, you'll know others from the cast, this is especially true in English projects, actors tend to appear regularly. But what put me over the top, what sealed the deal, made me pick up the remote and watch "Gone," was Eve Myles. First and foremost, she's not an ingénue... The media keeps telling us to pay attention to wet behind the ears actors based on their physicality. Skills, chops, are irrelevant. A pretty face is key. Never mind most of these youngsters end up fading away anyway. Eve Myles is not unattractive, but she's not stop you in your tracks beautiful. And she's got that space between her teeth... What is appealing is not her looks, but her personality in these roles. The way she encompasses so many characteristics and moods. In "Gone" she plays Detective Annie Cassidy. She isn't in charge, but she'd like to be. She's constantly bumping up against authority. And she's dipping her toe into reconnection with her husband, who left Annie for a younger woman. All her friends tell her not to go back, but the force keeps pulling her in. We live in a world of billions of people, but the attraction to ones we've been involved with is almost unbreakable, it's hard to resist. But Annie can be manipulative. She wants to do her job, succeed, solve the crime. But she doesn't always know what is going on. Eve as Annie does not always react in the same way, she employs different facial expressions, you marvel at her ability to do so, but it's not like Meryl Streep, she doesn't supersede the role and draw attention to her skill...no, it all seems natural. To tell you the truth, I ultimately found "Gone" a little disappointing, the buildup was fantastic, the tension was palpable, but the ending just didn't live up to what came before. But Eve Myles? She was a 10! -- 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

Correction-Movie Grosses

Those are Domestic numbers, not Worldwide grosses. You can see Domestic grosses here: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/date/?ref_=bo_nb_ydw_tab And Worldwide grosses here: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/?ref_=bo_nb_di_tab But the song remains the same. -- 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

Movie Grosses

If I read one more story that the movies are back... You might be surprised to discover that "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" has grossed 50% more than "The Odyssey," the supposed talk of the summer. That's right, "Spider-Man" has a world-wide gross of $785,831,670 compared to "The Odyssey"'s $504,680,370, and "Spider-Man" has been in release two weeks less! Furthermore, "The Odyssey" gross has been boosted by IMAX screenings/attendance, which cost 20-60% more per ticket and represent 30% of the film's overall gross. So why are we subjected to endless reams of hype celebrating the success of "The Odyssey" and at this point barely hear crickets re "Spider-Man"? Because the press likes the story. Another "Spider-Man?" Meh. But some big, new extravaganza from one of the few directors who can sell a picture by name alone? Based on a Greek classic that the great unwashed have never read? What is sold as mass is not. And what have we learned from the above two successes? That movies have become an event business, a land of a couple of successful moonshots, this is not evidence of a healthy business, this is representative of a business that has lost its soul and has no time for that which is not a mega-success, if for no other reason than marketing for the cheap movie costs as much as that for the expensive film. Looking at the year-to-date chart... There are only 18 films that exceed $100 million in worldwide gross. And only eight of those flicks are originals. And in the top ten, besides "The Odyssey," one of the originals is "Michael," which grossed far more than expected, but still was akin to a sequel, the studio was not starting from scratch with an unknown quantity. As for the other originals in the top ten... You've got "Obsession" and "Backrooms," which are definitely hits, but from outsiders. This is where a renaissance in the health of the business could grow from. But other than horror, no one wants to distribute a low budget movie. Hell, film festival sales are down. In order for the movie business to recover, people have to get into the habit of going to the theatre on a regular basis, knowing that something good will be playing every weekend. But this is not the case, we've got a few hits and a bunch of dreck. But the somnambulant movie press refuses to address the fact that its cheese has been moved, that the audience has moved online, to streaming, and that the theatrical business is moribund with less of a future than ever. Yes, the film business depends on new product, out of the box, risky stuff that titillates the audience. Despite the success of "Spider-Man," superhero sequels are no longer doing boffo at the b.o.... As for something new and different... Streaming is where you get it. Netflix is derided because it doesn't release almost any of its movies in theatres, but Netflix makes 25-50 films a year, and viewership is through the roof, because friction is nearly nonexistent. You've already paid, you don't have to pay attention to press, you just log on and see the new product that appeals to you on the homepage. But this isn't sexy enough for the so-called auteurs, who believe that every film must be seen in a theatre. But the truth is the number one platform is YouTube. Because it's cutting edge and innovative. Meanwhile, Hollywood has its knickers in a twist, fearful that the Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery will result in fewer productions. Theatrical business is like Vegas. There are no DVD sales to prop up grosses, never mind video stores. A film either opens big or does not, almost nothing grows. And the marketing cycle is all off. Windows make no sense to the audience in an on demand world where if you're aware of it now, you want to consume it now. You mean I've got to wait weeks for VOD and then months for it to trickle down to a service I pay for? By that time, with the tsunami of product, I no longer remember the movies of even a few months ago. But, but, BUT! If Netflix drops a movie or a complete series... It's out of cycle with the press. The press likes something dripped out week by week so they can write about it. Otherwise, it's one and done. But the press is out of touch with the public. The public doesn't care about the endless stories, the updates in the paper, they want it all now, they binge it and move on to something new. You don't try to artificially slow down the cycle... Meanwhile, Netflix is adding games and podcasts trying to catch up with YouTube and Hollywood is arguing over how many films Ellison is going to make when people have gotten out of the habit of going to the movies on a regular basis. You can't stop progress. Then again, if I read one more fakokta article about the return of physical product in the music business... How about those inane articles about cassettes coming back? Bottom line, the true bottom line, is that streaming accounts for 84% of revenue. And, physical sales are usually accounted for on a retail basis, whereas streaming is inherently wholesale. And people buy vinyl who don't even have turntables. Buy all the discs you want, but if you think physical is coming back, you've probably still got a CD player in the dashboard of your car, never mind a cassette deck! So until we can agree on a narrative, we cannot march forward. Then again, disruptors have eaten the lunch of the establishment over and over again. Netflix succeeded in plain sight. Meanwhile, we keep hearing that more films need to be made for theatrical release. Why not release the album exclusively on vinyl first? And make it so it doesn't hit streaming services for month. Those records would be dead on arrival, because access is everything. The audience will show up for an event picture. But they will not show up for more pictures on a regular basis and they are never going to again. But all the talk is about the Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger and the theatrical business. The general public doesn't care. Even Zaslav wants out, so he can get his big paycheck before the entire enterprise sinks. But don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. -- 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

Potpourri-SiriusXM This Week

Movie Syncs/Best Opening Track/Best Song Not The Single Tune in August 15th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Erick the Architect-This Week's Podcast

Songwriter, performer, producer Erick the Architect created the track featured in the Apple WWDC presentation in June. We go deep into that process as well as Erick's career in the Flatbush Zombies and... https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erick-the-architect/id1316200737?i=1000783119847 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5011lQz0FZlsWnMgPK0tAR?si=IWt2ESLORfu07CIaGeNa7g https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/erick-the-architect-341045941 https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/1b883105-a7fc-41fe-9490-2a96eab3b088/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-erick-the-architect -- 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

Ritchie Blackmore Returns

https://x.com/MrGameHunter/status/2087737677885866359 Now that made me smile. I've been reading about this all day, how Ritchie Blackmore was going to return to Deep Purple for one night only, FOR ONE SONG ONLY! It's been 33 years. Then again, this means that Ritchie played with Purple in the nineties. It's hard to keep Purple history straight. After all, this was a band that made it on Bill Cosby's Tetragrammaton label in the sixties with "Hush" and then emerged in the seventies as a heavy band, what we used to call metal, what would be called hard rock today, and although "In Rock" got very good reviews, assuming you saw one, it wasn't until the summer of '73 when a live track from "Made in Japan" emerged on FM (and then even the AM airwaves!) opening with what became the most iconic riff in rock. Well, is it? What, are we going to go with "Stairway to Heaven"? Well, that's not really a riff. Even "Whole Lotta Love," a ubiquitous hit single, you don't find guitar newbies whipping that one off. Nor "Taxman" or another Beatles song. No, when you've got a rudimentary knowledge of the instrument and you want to play a song... Once upon a time it was "Gloria." And for a little while before that it was "Louie Louie"... So how excited do I want to get about this? I saw today's Deep Purple, or at least the 21st century Deep Purple, perform all of "Machine Head" at the Wiltern about twenty years back, with the guitarist from Kansas, you know, the one who became an airline pilot... And that was excellent, because Ian Gillan was back in the band. And it's always about the vocalist, didn't Alice Cooper prove that, that he didn't need the band? As for Blackmore, he left Purple after the band lost its mojo with David Coverdale, who needed to slide it in to Tawny Kitaen and make his own bombastic music with Whitesnake to break through, but... Blackmore did bring Ronnie James Dio to the forefront, who'd been plying the boards forever. "Man on the Silver Mountain" was ubiquitous on FM, but I must say I prefer Dio's "The Last in Line" to anything he did with Ritchie or Black Sabbath, but... Subsequent to that, neither Purple nor Blackmore had any real hits. But, Blackmore is a legend in anybody's book and... I'm getting ready to brush my teeth, and I'm surfing the dreaded social media, whereupon I stumble on a video of tonight's reunion performance. I wasn't expecting much. Too much time has passed. And it's always audience videos and...you had to be there, and I wasn't. So Ritchie walks on stage like the 81 year old he is. As in hesitantly and a bit unsteady and... The roadie hands him his cord... Ritchie Blackmore don't need no stinkin' wireless, and... Once his Stratocaster is powered up, he tests it, as we are all wont to do to check the amplification. And what comes out of the speaker? It's indelible, he just hits a chord, that's it, just one strum, just a warm-up, but it's unmistakable, this is the sound of SMOKE ON THE WATER! You know, when they all went down to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline. Frank Zappa and the Mothers were performing, as for Funky Claude, he was a real guy, an impresario, did you see his obit? They did a good job when he died a bit over a decade ago. And now I'm primed. Really, are they going to play it? Well, why else would he have that sound... And as many people have played it...when you hear Blackmore play it, it's in the pocket, it's exactly like the record, not a facsimile, but the real thing. And Blackmore crosses the stage to say hi and connect with Gillan, who looks like he just came from Margaritaville... From a distance, you might mistake him for Dean Torrence. Gillan's hair has been short for a while now, all the rock airs, he's discarded them...there's no image. And then... And THEN!!! Blackmore goes right into it... THE MOST FAMOUS RIFF IN ROCK HISTORY! Everybody knows it, everybody can play it, but not like Ritchie Blackmore... The sound, the cadence... And I'm sitting there thinking how this is the musical highlight of the year. Completely unexpected. Nothing lives up to the hype. We've got oldsters refusing to retire running on fumes, a mere shadow of themselves, in some cases ruining their legacy, and Richie Blackmore shows up at a gig in Jones Beach AND SHOWS US ALL HOW IT'S DONE! Oh, forget Olivia Rodrigo. Kelly Clarkson. Even Taylor Swift, never mind Morgan Wallen, not a single one of them or anybody else in the Spotify Top 50 has a track this famous, that reached EVERYBODY, that is known by heart by an entire generation. Smoke on the water... And fire in the sky. This is the power of rock and roll... Not really different from Little Richard, you can't help but move your body, the sound infects you, squeezes the rest of the world right out of you and you're happy and when you see it live... It's everything you ever wanted. It's unstoppable, like a freight train. And they're halfway through the number and Ritchie is soloing like it's the seventies, blowing all the amateurs off the stage, the ones begging for attention on the internet...effortless for him, but everything to us. It doesn't get any better than 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 -- 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

Re-Long Hair & Tattoos

Original article: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2026/08/10/long-hair-tattoos/ The original e-mail that inspired my screed: Bob.... Long time reader and have enjoyed your postings so much but what is your thing against long hair on guys? I just played a big outdoor festival up here in Alaska this weekend and there were tons of guys with long hair and tattoos, many of them in their 20s and 30s. I see the same thing in Seattle when I go to shows. Also, many of the younger musicians who come into the guitar shop / music store I manage up here have long hair and tatts.  David Resch Fairbanks,Alaska __________________________________ __________________________________ I was the singer in a band that was managed by Jimmy Iovine, A&R’d by John Kalodner and Produced by Bob Rock on Geffen in 1990. I was the most heavily tattoed rocker out there with full sleeves and a solid back piece. Bryn Bridenthal and the label staff had to fight to get our pic out there 'cause we looked so scary and the other half of the time was making up stories about how we were the biggest “bada*ses” on Earth….which we weren’t. When we did the Arsenio Hall show I did the rehearsal wearing a jacket as the studio was cold and when we taped it, I went out there bare chested as that’s how I always performed and Arsenio and his Producer had a meltdown over it.  I was heavily tattooed by the mid 80’s. Mothers used to grab their kids and go the other side of the street when they saw me coming. I loved the expression, the rebellion, the horror I would illicit. I still love all my tattoo work. The youngsters think I’m “OG”. Soccer Mom’s want to compare ink in the fruit section and folks want to know if I am a chef or aging barista. I am actually grateful my tattoo artist friends in Hollywood did all that work on all those celebrities bringing it onto the pages of People magazine. It helped me ease into my older years without looking like a freak. But if I were to do it all over seeing what all these folks are doing with tattoed eyeballs (literally a thing), I’d be the rebel and stay uncolored as a true non conformist.  Ron Young (Little Caesar) __________________________________ I loved this take because you knocked down the posers and wannabes.  Art is all about authentically pushing boundaries in a way that excites people, and in that vein. Bret Colson __________________________________ Great take on this.  It is easier to be interesting on the outside than it is to be interesting on the inside.  This applies to pretty much everything, not just tattoos. Gary Yacoubian __________________________________ Good god what a redundant boomer-a*s take Bob. Sure, getting tattoos and having long hair is no longer an act of rebellion. But let’s not pretend that everyone back in the 70’s wasn’t trying to belong to a club, because they were. Hell, my dad was part of the rockers and mods feud (firmly on the rockers side) and every single damn person was trying to indicate which gang they belonged to, and it’s been like that the entire time. There’s a reason The Warriors was so of its time. Only these days long hair and tattoos doesn’t signify a specific club, it could mean anything. The rules have changed. It isn’t about whether you have tattoos, it’s about what specifically you chose to get inked. Design, style, references if any. Same with hair. Colour, length, undercut, all of it can signify any number of things within numerous subcultures. And most of all they’re not some bold statement of which club you belong to, they’re a statement of self-expression, of what you like and what represents you specifically. We’ve long moved past surface bullsh*t: monsters and heroes can come in any guise these days, and how they choose to represent themselves straight up does not matter. If you’re looking for a rebel, sure they might show up with colourful long hair and tattoos. Or they might show up in a suit and tie. We don’t give a sh*t and neither should you. Al Worth __________________________________ You've done it. Being long haired with tattoo sleeves you've got me triggered like the little snowflake I am. ;-) Your views on both long hair and tattoos seem a bit outdated. Sure, like you say, tattoos used to be dangerous. In the days of yore, if you had tattoos you've either spend time in prison, were a sailor or part of a biker club. With all three of them being equally notorious. But a lot of folks, like me, don't have any other motivation for tattoos and long hair other then that they just like it. Long hair looks better than short hair. Nothing more to it. Tattoos make a boring body more interesting. That's it. Nothing more. Sure, a lot of people have tattoos and maybe long hair for all the wrong reasons. But the same goes for earrings, baggy trousers, toupees and plastic boobies. The fact that something is permanent doesn't make it bad. In my opinion it could make something awesome. And you said that there is a lot of money being made with tattoo removal. So it's like tattoos are permanent for a limited time. If you want them to be. Keep the letters coming Bob! Always a good read. And stop laughing at me. Best regards, Gerrit Mesker __________________________________ Bob, funny you mentioned the heavy metal image.  For YEARS I've been wondering why no metal bands have the guts or inspiration to dress like western cowboys or wear bermuda shorts or...?  They ALL look the same.  And by the same token I've never seen a country band dress like metal or wear bermuda shorts or...? You are correct, no one wore long hair until the Beatles, (it was all crew cuts and flattops).  In 1964, I was a junior in a high school of 3000 kids in Arlington, VA, and I was one of only three boys who tried to grow our hair like the Beatles.  (I had to stick it behind my ears and hoped it wouldn't fall out or the school would make me cut it).  But soon the Stones arrived and I liked them more because they were more "rebellious and dangerous".  Some boys would chase me with scissors and threaten to cut my hair if they caught me - that's how it was in 1964.  In 1965 I graduated and moved to Glendale and went to Glendale Junior College, and once again there were only three guys in the entire school with long hair.  I remember once being in a school bathroom and a guy said "Are you sure you're in the correct bathroom?"  And then, within two years, almost EVERY guy had long hair. Sterling Howard, founder/owner  https://www.MusiciansContact.com __________________________________ Absolutely agree on every point. It’s cosplay. Kathleen Stagg __________________________________ “How demented can you be?” Really, Bob? In 21st century America tattooing is a respected art form. People pay hundreds of dollars an hour to sought after artists with long waiting lists to get a one-of-a-kind work of art permanently inked their skin so they can proudly wear for the rest of their lives.  It’s not about “rebellion” or being “dangerous” or “taboo.” It’s about expression. It’s about adornment. It’s about having some agency over what the meat bags, which are formed by genes that we did not choose, look like.  I have to assume you see the irony in writing “I don’t want to sound like an oldster” and immediately following that by telling metal musicians to “slow it down and stop screaming”  Should they turn down the volume and to get off your lawn while they’re at it? Okay, boomer. Zac :Lasher __________________________________ You say:  "This is why the sixties and seventies were a golden era. You never knew what would come next, you'd drop the needle and be wowed. People were taking chances." I say:  This is why the sixties and seventies were a golden era. You never knew what would come next, you'd drop the needle and be wowed. People were taking chances…and the people with money and vision invested in them. That is most definitely missing from today.  Ostin, Warnaker, Norman, Bowen, Smith, Alpert, Kalodner, Moss, Brown, Sigerson, Fogelsong, Geffen.  Who is doing that now ? Borchetta ? Who else ? I am not making a statement. I am asking.   Susan Levy Rash  __________________________________ You know...I remember thinking in the early 2000's that a tattoo removal business would be an awesome idea in ten-years' time. I mean, surely these skater boys and girls would regret their body art as their skin started sagging and pulling away from their bones.  Seeing how prevalent tattoos are now, I'm glad I stuck with music! -Christopher Maloney __________________________________ Re: tattoos? Amen, brother. So ugly. Same goes for piercing but at least those metal spikes can be pulled out. — Greg Dennis __________________________________ Michael McCarty said it on your podcast a few years ago: fewer kids are learning to play an instrument. Rick Beato just did a piece on the lack of guitars in the park. It makes me think that because music is hard to do, fewer people are playing instruments today. It may even be that few people are listening to music, which is almost unfathomable to me. But go back a century and the same was true for poetry. Poetry died off. We still have Poet Laureates, but they are placed in such high esteem - rarified and separated from the rest of us.  In 1915, "In Flanders Fields" was written and affected the culture of the entire Western world. We were supposed to memorize it in school, but I could never get the whole thing. It takes effort to parse out a poem. Neil Young’s "OHIO" was more my speed. It was easier to catch the theme when Neil belted out the chorus over and over. Like Michael and Rick said, few are going to play it in the park anymore, fewer will sing it, and while someone might cue it up on an iPhone, even that is unlikely. It’s the comedians who are carrying that mantle now - reducing our culture to a delicious one-liner like Julia Child's Sauce Bordelaise. Kind regards,  Rob Whittaker __________________________________ Bob - If I'm not mistaken, Edgar and Jonny Winter are from Port Arthur, TX, too.  I beleve they knew each other back in their Texas days Wiki has Johnny listed as born in Beaumont, but Port Arthur is an exurb of that city. My wife and I drove out to the Museum of the Gulf Coast  https://www.museumofthegulfcoast.org/ when we lived in Houston. If you click under music, Clay Walker and Larry Graham, among a host of others, are listed from Beaumont. But in that part of Texas it's spittin' distance between Port Arthur and Beaumont. Robert Vellani __________________________________ It's funny you would ask this:  is anybody else from Port Arthur even well-known, never mind in music? I saw a Robert Rauschenberg exhibit at the Guggenheim last year, and it noted he was from Port Arthur, Texas. And I thought, wait, like Janis Joplin?? Yep. Also several professional athletes and hip hop duo UGK... Barbara Barna Abel / Abel Intermedia LLC __________________________________ Long time reader, first time message. I'm sure many people have told you this by now, but just in case, Super Bowl winning football coach Jimmy Johnson went to high school with Janis Joplin in Port Arthur. Best, Mike Chase __________________________________ AW, IT'S ALWAYS ... ... the BALD guys talkin'. Dave Wallace, Jr. -- 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

The Sunset Marquis Movie

"If These Walls Could Rock": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ishdiLEz4tg If you want to feel left out... Unless, of course, you were there. So what did I learn... Doc McGhee is a sharp guy with a lot of insight, as are the most successful people in rock and roll. They may not have a CV, but they've got brains, and they know how to use them. Doc shoots it straight, only so many people have the talent to make it, there are plenty of gigs as cocktail waitresses, as support in this industry, you can be in it, but the odds of you being on stage... And then there's Phil Collen... Who says he's got to be drunk to go on stage as his avatar. They all are just regular people. But when done right, rock stars are larger than life. And they're in this movie. It's not like the Sunset Marquis is an unknown quantity. God, I had dinner there with Jack Casady on his birthday a few months back. Talk about an OG, he's got stories from before the eighties, the era when the Sunset Marquis truly flourished, when it was the destination of the outrageous. Jack's agent was staying in the hotel, that's his regular haunt. As it is for so many managers and others from out of town. And if you hang around long enough, show up, you too will be privy to memorable insider moments, that's why you live in L.A., come here, because even though you can make a record in your bedroom, people need to interact, and most of them do it in L.A. Not New York. That's a different vibe. The down and dirty seventies? Those musicians can't even live in Brooklyn anymore. And Times Square has been cleaned up. Manhattan is where money talks, and the bread that speaks is made by people with a lot more cash than musicians. But back in the eighties... A musician could be as rich and powerful as anybody in America. No longer, which is why the acts sell out to the man and have brand extensions. But once upon a time... And that time is gone. History. Never coming back. Life is all about evolution, even though most can't do it. They're stuck in time. Like an aged rock star with long hair and tattoos and a lifted face plying the boards every summer to fans who look decades older. And the Sunset Marquis evolved. Went upscale you can say. From not quite a dump, to a respectable outlet. They expanded, put in that restaurant, installed the studio. Kudos. If only the music and those who make it would take note. Now you could do it and get away with it back then, in the last century, before cellphone cameras. You were free and easy, with plausible deniability. That's why you became a rock star. AC/DC had it right...getting robbed, getting stoned, getting beat up, broken boned... It's harder than it looks. And despite "Cribs" and the rest of the image-making machinery of the MTV years, a lot of the famous players were not rich. They had bad deals, there were too many hands in the pot, but they were on stage, they were in the videos, they were famous, their mugs opened doors. And this movie is all about the stuff the rock stars did behind closed doors. Some so outrageous, nasty, that no one will even talk about them in this film. The Beastie Boys in the hot tub... Then again, code of the road. We all know stories we cannot tell, we cannot break that bond, otherwise we'd be out. There's no contract, no deal, just a look in the eye. And if you're not on this side of the velvet rope, you think you're missing out. And for a long time you were. But not anymore. Oh, there are still charts, but there's more innovation in tech, everyone talks about AI...and isn't it funny how so many musicians are against it, the same people who knew no limits way back when. What we've got is a caricature of what once was. It needs to be reinvented. It's not about tattoos and long hair... Tom Verlaine had no tattoos, and I'm pretty sure none of the Talking Heads do either. They all looked like people you went to high school with, but they were built different, twisted. Then again, that's the east coast intellectualism. Even the Ramones were intellectuals, otherwise how do you come up with the concept, never mind execute it. But as the eighties rolled on, we got image and bombast. So... Unless you were a participant, this movie will make you feel like you missed out, that something was happening there and whatever it was, you had no access. And it's not like the Sunset Marquis is a private club, anyone can book a room there, it's not even that expensive. But getting behind closed doors, becoming members of the club, it don't really happen that way at all anymore. And the man who sang those words, Roger Daltrey, said he never participated, he was in a band with three alcoholics. And Ian Anderson told me he went back to his hotel room after the gig, sans groupies and substances. No, the people in this movie...they're different. They want to be a part of the action, they want to mix with people, they want to use these relationships to their advantage. Is that you? Probably not. Musicians are a special breed... Are you willing to hang it all out there on a dream? As Doc McGhee says, he doesn't want to be involved with anybody who has a Plan B. So what we've got here is a family story, George Rosenthal, who builds the Marquis and his son Mark, who it is named for, who ultimately takes it over. Rosenthal was as big a rock star as the famous people who stayed at his hotel. An entrepreneur who wheedled his way into Hugh Hefner's orbit and was inspired to build the Sunset Marquis right down the road and then went on a real estate spree, all based on borrowed cash. Are you willing to take this risk? So we've got the two Rosenthals, and a slew of rock stars. Genuine rock stars. No one said no to this film. They reminisce about their time at the hotel. Seemingly only Joe Elliott is humble. The rest...they're luxuriating in their image, this is what they do, create music and become larger than life. But the era has changed. We can see behind the curtain. Music, like it was before the Beatles, is first and foremost a business, the names come and go, sure you can sell tickets today, but are you changing the world? When these people were stars, you did. Your image was displayed all over the world on MTV. There was basically one outlet and people were mesmerized by it. Now MTV is just a pawn, if even that, in the Paramount/WarnerDiscovery merger. So if you're a fan, if you're the kind of person who lives to go to shows, to see your old heroes go through the motions... You've gotta see this movie, you're gonna love it. If you've got a brain, unlike too many stars today, who are built and promoted by committee, and you want to make an impact in music today, you should see this movie too... Not to salivate and imitate, but to slurp up history and use it as a jumping off point, to do something different. We've seen this paradigm. Of the larger than life. Whether the underlying people deserved it or not, were truly outrageous or not. But today, no one sits above... All the celebrities going to Rande Gerber's Whiskey Bar in the Marquis... Most two dimensional...actors can no longer open a movie, their opportunities are mostly on television. However, there are nobodies from nowhere employing the new digital tools to change the world. And despite the carping from the oldsters' whose cheese was moved, there's a lot of humanity in it. It's just different. Truly different from what came before. But if you want to know the way it was... This film is a good starting point. -- 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

Well All Right

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3p0dqXyYn3ZpJmPiUpisCl?si=2da6aa1df0014a91 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj5u3Yf28LE This is the song I woke up with in my head this morning. Actually, it was the tail end of "Can’t Find My Way Home," which segued into "Well All Right." And as I sat up in bed, I thought how that was the sequence on the album. No one ever talks about "Had to Cry Today" anymore. No one even talks about Blind Faith. It's passed into history as an anomaly, a curio, except for "Can't Find My Way Home," party to Simon & Garfunkel's "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" as two of the most beautiful songs ever written. In the streaming era "Can't Find My Way Home" is no longer uncommon, then again, it's no longer special to me. I still like it, but my innards don't resonate like they used to when I hear it. As for "Had to Cry Today"... It's really about the guitar work that begins at 6:40, with the axes flying in the air like a halo of flies, with that "Itchykoo Park" effect to boot. This is when the track goes over the top, when it enters the stratosphere. I mean you've got Winwood and the riff, but when Clapton cuts loose...it exits the intellectual and becomes pure emotion. Now I think what kills the one and only Blind Faith album, denies it legendary status, is the fifteen plus minute "Do What You Like" on the second side. Every other track is a winner, "Do What You Like" is marginally better than "Toad." And speaking of Cream, we were stunned they broke up. Don't forget this was before the Beatles did so. Acts expired, but they didn't call it quits at their peak. We found it hard to fathom, for we were invested, we believed...in the music more than the penumbra, unlike members of the BTS Army today. The music stood alone, and the people who made it were gods. As for Winwood... This was still when Traffic was for insiders, the act didn't reach mainstream consciousness until after the band broke up and reunited, with "John Barleycorn" and "Low Spark." Now the thing about "Barleycorn" is it started out as a Winwood solo album. But even though the sound of the second Traffic album was full-bodied, we were not ready for this, the "Barleycorn" album is rich. And despite the deserved success of the title cut, the peak of that album for me was always "Empty Pages," which started with a flourish, and then broke down into a lilting ditty, in your mind you could see the spark in Winwood's step as the track played. And, of course, it was the seventies when Eric Clapton went solo. Had his peak with Duane Allman and the rest of the Dominos with "Layla," but the interesting thing about both Winwood and Clapton is they had another peak in the eighties, Winwood's career defining "Back in the High Life," Clapton...Russ Titelman worked his magic with him too. But this was '69. Back before every act felt it deserved to produce itself. Which is another way to say that the man in control of the Blind Faith project was Jimmy Miller, a footnote today, but a monster before producers became stars outright. It was Miller who was in control when the Stones executed their legendary four album run, from "Beggars Banquet" to "Exile on Main Street." The Stones went on to have success without him, but the sound changed. The latter day albums, especially the most recent, are noisier, more trebly, they don't kick you in the gut the same way. The latter-day stuff tries to overpower you into submission, whereas the Miller stuff got into your gut and stayed there. Just think of the sound of "You Can't Always Get What You Want"...you haven't heard that full-bodied richness since Miller's been gone. Ditto on the ethereal quality of "Gimmie Shelter." When you listen to the Miller albums on a full-blown stereo it's an experience, it squeezes out the rest of the life, it's life itself. And you find a similar quality on the Miller produced second Traffic album, the best one they ever made, with "Forty Thousand Headmen" and "Cryin' to be Heard," and the world-weary Dave Mason vocal on the original "Feelin' Alright?"...Joe Cocker made the song legendary, but it was this 1968 version that truly conveyed the feeling, of a man after a breakup, who wasn't feelin' so good himself. Now you definitely feel that presence, that musical totality, that richness in the first side closer of the one and only Blind Faith album, "Presence of the Lord." Miller took Clapton's pipes beyond Cream, the range and emotion were wider, you could hear a three-dimensional person in the music. As for "Well All Right," those older than me knew it was originally a Buddy Holly song. I mean at this point, I knew a bunch of Holly's hits, but what was originally titled "Well...All Right" was the b-side to the 1958 track "Heartbeat," which only made it to #82 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. And many of us baby boomers...we really started with the Beatles. We knew the earlier hits, but the Beatles had wiped the slate clean, our eyes pointed forward. But the Brits had always looked back, and played our history back to us. Which the Beatle generation ultimately got hooked on with the advent of Cream and the rest of the FM bands in the second half of the sixties. Which is all to say when I first heard "Well All Right" as done by Blind Faith, I was not comparing it to the original. Now it's all there in the original, but it's more of a blueprint than a final version for Blind Faith. Blind Faith lays down an undeniable, subtle groove that gets your head nodding, and keeps it moving. Also, there's that pregnant intro to the vocal, unlike Holly's take, this track is not a two minute romp. We know something is coming, and we know it's not going to be downbeat and downtrodden, and when Winwood starts singing, it's not. "Well all right so I've been foolish Well all right let people know" Once again, this is not the fifties, this version of the song is positively rooted in the sixties, when the music was no longer a sideshow, but the main show. There's no subtlety involved, just pure joy, you hear it in Winwood's vocal, even though the words themselves might not be that positive. But the song... Once again, Jimmy Miller creates a full-bodied sound, there's treble, but it doesn't overwhelm the middle and the bottom. Furthermore, you're not being overpowered, this track is not made to appeal to an ignorant Top 40 audience, this recording is for people in the know, those who purchased those Cream and Traffic albums, who had respect for the music. And just like in "Had to Cry Today," it's the guitar work that separates this remake from the original. Actually, it all starts at 2:50 with the keyboard, and then the guitar, and then the interplay for the rest of the number. This was the breakthrough of FM rock, the stretching out of songs. But this was neither the Dead nor the latter-day jam bands, at least on records, the instrumental section, in this case fading out at the end of the song, was not indulgent, not overblown, rather it was relatively concise, while being delectable at the same time. The Buddy Holly version of "Well...All Right" is 2:14. And the Blind Faith take contains all of that, but goes on for two plus minutes more, which makes all the difference, Blind Faith makes the song its own. And think about it... You've got Winwood on vocals (and more!), and Clapton on guitars, never mind Ginger Banker holding down the beat. This was the promise of Blind Faith. Which turned out to be a better idea on paper than in real life. It was the tour that killed the band. Because it was more of an idea than a true group. And billed as the first supergroup, Clapton grew tired of the overwhelming attention and retreated into Delaney & Bonnie and it was one and done. But that does not mean that great work was not delivered. Winwood and Clapton did push each other, the songs on the Blind Faith album are superior to so much of the stuff filling out the albums of the two thereafter. Then again, this was album rock. Traffic's only hit was in the U.K., the Dave Mason penned "Hole in My Shoe," which the rest of the band disowned. As great as "Dear Mr. Fantasy" was, only musos knew it, the live version by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield two years later spread the word to more, when FM rock started to truly burgeon across America. Traffic had the goods, just look at the covers, especially Three Dog Night's "Heaven Is in Your Mind" and Al Kooper's "Coloured Rain," never mind Blood, Sweat & Tears' "Smiling Phases," but sans AM hits at the time...the band was not a household name. And it was the same with Cream until the summer of 1968, when "Sunshine of Your Love" crossed over, which is one of the reasons Clapton didn't want to continue, he wasn't in it for the hits. Anyway, as time marches on, fewer and fewer albums and songs are remembered. And the focus devolves into chart hits. But that's not what it was about in the late sixties and seventies. Then again, when it comes to classic rock oldies, radio does play "Can't Find Your Way Home" a bit, but the rest of the Blind Faith album may as well not even exist. As big as it was in the summer of Woodstock, when the whole nation was becoming aware of the power of rock and roll. So ask a youngster who knows the Doors and the Dead about the tracks on the Blind Faith album and they're going to be flummoxed. Blind Faith has been excised from the canon. Seen mostly as a footnote of excess. But there was a lot more than that, a lot more. Just listen to "Well All Right." -- 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

Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll- Too Young to Die-SiriusXM This Week

Could this be the last time? Tune in August 7th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. Phone #: 844-686-5863  If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Alison Ellwood-This Week's Podcast

Documentary filmmaker Alison Ellwood's most recent project is "Boy George & Culture Club." Prior to that she directed "History of the Eagles," "The Go-Go's," "Laurel Canyon"... https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alison-ellwood/id1316200737?i=1000780220185 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5udw7oJPYX15JVKkF44UM0?si=CzKN0xABQXCtfmcF-LX4ZQ https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/alison-ellwood-340433331 https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/ad996cc3-b639-465a-a15b-ceabb09aa515/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-alison-ellwood -- 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

David Beard-This Week's Podcast

David Beard is the author of the revealing new book "All Summer Long: Conversations with The Beach Boys from Surfin' to SMiLE." https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-beard/id1316200737?i=1000779088456 https://open.spotify.com/episode/3vGMRiZV3D5aTT682GKXS5?si=xUmqwxypTXevMiBv01CMXw https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/david-beard-339912091 https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/42fe606a-3986-480f-8c35-ecfeeb3605ee/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-david-beard -- 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

Democratic Socialism

Used to be if you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you'd listen to a record. But we haven't had that spirit here since 1969. Why? It's cracking me up watching Washington, D.C. and the Democratic establishment and long in the tooth commentators flip out about democratic socialism. It's like parents reacting to Alice Cooper in the early seventies. Instead of seeing the lyrics and stage antics as a way to spark conversation, question precepts, they took the words literally. Dead babies can take care of themselves? Why are you singing about dead babies, do you want to kill children, do you want to eviscerate the next generation? What a laugh. It's like the establishment had never encountered Dadaism, any art movement of the twentieth century, which was about questioning the past as opposed to going blindly into the future. By declaring a urinal art, Duchamp raised the question what art was. Assuming you know who Marcel Duchamp is to begin with. Now it all comes down to the baby boomers, a bulge in the population that had not existed previously. First they embraced rock and roll, anathema to the fans of the big bands and crooners who came before. And then came the folk movement. Which was all about questioning and protest. And then came the Beatles, who were so different from what existed previously that they wiped all the old acts off the charts. And then the boys from Liverpool started questioning every precept in the book, both socially and politically. And this attitude burgeoned in the seventies until disco and corporate rock caused the music business to collapse under its own weight and then along came MTV to rescue it. Now if you thought the rock stars of the sixties and seventies were rich... They couldn't hold a candle to the MTV stars, who were exposed internationally. It wasn't long before it became about the money more than the music and then... Rap and Kurt Cobain came along to recenter the world. Hip-hop questioned conventions, yes, it was N.W.A. who sang "Fu*k tha Police" and Ice-T sang about being a "Cop Killer" and then the L.A. riots of 1992 showed that everything these guys were rapping about was true. And hip-hop became the voice of a nation. Funny how you could question the validity of the police thirty five years ago and it ruffled the feathers of the establishment but when you talk about abolishing the police today, the new oldsters truly believe that that is what those saying this want! Ice-T didn't want to kill all the cops, but he did want to illuminate their bad behavior. But now the boomers are the oldsters and they've lost their sense of humor. They don't want to be eclipsed in power. Did you read "The New York Times" about the chapter that was left out of the DNC autopsy? "The chapter raised pointed questions that were notably absent from the draft that the party put out, both about President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s ill-fated decision to run for re-election and the sway of an operative class that had become 'generationally wealthy off politics' while steering Democratic strategy." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/us/politics/democrats-autopsy-2024-election-dnc.html The older generation is completely out of touch with the street, what youngsters truly think, and therefore they appear like Grandpa Simpson, berating the youth and telling them to get off their lawn. Never have the young been so disillusioned since the sixties. But this disillusionment is not addressed, the focus is on some of the out there statements by the democratic socialists and it's funny to see the establishment squirm. Now Kurt Cobain was ensconced in a musical genre that the Ramones brought to the forefront in the seventies, but was never commercial, certainly not in the United States, until "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Punk was a reaction to overblown rock, and were we really supposed to believe Joey was serious when he sang about beating the brat with a baseball bat? Yes, democratic socialism is punk, a reaction. To take it all seriously is to miss the point. Then again, it used to be that music was the bleeding edge, now it is mired in commerciality. Everybody wants to become a brand. And the record companies are complicit. Democratic socialists will take a stand against Trump, but the corporations of America are afraid of taking a hit to their bottom line, they're playing it safe. So if you want to know which way the wind blows... Music is about money, pure and simple. All the talk of Taylor Swift, it's about grosses more than message. As for her influence on women, she's all about living the Cinderella fantasy, with marriage to a jock and a wedding at Madison Square Garden. She is the establishment, with her multiple private jets. She won the game of music, demonstrating how empty it is. She sang about the angst of life in country and then she went Top 40 for mass success and devolved into a cartoon, just the way the establishment likes it. Imagine if she harnessed her art and power to react... But that would threaten her bank account. In the sixties, young people rebelled against the football team, now it's about marrying the captain. Frank Zappa sang about losing status at the high school, now it's all about status, it's vapid. Then again, how would you expect the purveyors of this drivel to know any better? Swift made it as a teen. You learn about life, question authority in school, that's what an education is for, to learn how to parse the issues, analyze the facts. But today we venerate child television stars. The big issue is Ariana Grande's weight, not her viewpoint on the world. In other words, the musicians don't have the roots, the skills. As for the educated classes, they see music as déclassé, they're all about selling out to the bank or making bank in tech. Art? It's too risky. In a world of income inequality you don't want to end up poor, and the scions of prep schools and liberal arts colleges that teach critical thinking know this better than anyone. As for the great unwashed masses claiming that they're speaking truth to power and not gaining the recognition they deserve, well... In the heyday, you had to be able to sing and play and you had to write a great song. When was the last time I encountered this trifecta amongst the plethora of underdogs? I can't remember. Only a very few are skilled enough to gain attention and triumph. But somehow today everybody believes that since they have access, they should gain attention and power. And in truth, those employing the new tools in a new way are the ones who are front and center today. The innovators on TikTok, on YouTube... The most remarkable film of the summer was the product of an unknown who honed his skills online. Sure, "The Odyssey" is a visual and financial triumph, but Curry Barker's "Obsession," made for $750,000, has more cultural impact. It's not like everybody's going to go back and read Greek tragedies. "The Odyssey" is a spectacle, a $250 million spectacle, that is fun to watch but is not inspiring young people to test the limits themselves, "The Odyssey" is not that different from "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments" from prior eras. Neither of which changed the underlying culture. So in order to solve a problem, first you have to acknowledge it exists. Something establishment Democrats have continued to refuse to do. They do use modern technology, i.e. texts, to ding us for money, but if you think youngsters want to give...you haven't checked the numbers, which are anemic. Younger Democrats have detached themselves completely from the DNC, and rather than acknowledge this and adjust, the DNC keeps throwing cash at dying candidates and it would be funny if not for the fact that the future of society hangs in the balance. Assuming the system holds, which I'm not so sure will be the case. The young revolted against Modi in India last month and he blinked. Not that I'd expect the capitalist tools gracing the stages in America today to even know this. Change is like a volcano, it rumbles until it overflows. Is America ready for the volcano to erupt? One thing is for sure, this story is not being tracked by either those now in political power or the media. The media is all about the horse race, they're enraptured by access to politicians the way fans are enraptured by musical stars. It's no different. Everybody wants to know somebody famous and hope that they can garner some perks as a result. So the truth is the bleeding edge is where all the action is, in what is now called democratic socialism. And if you dive too deep into the issues, you're missing the point. It's about attitude, frustration with the status quo, being histrionic to gain attention, no different from the rock stars of half a century ago. Whereas today's "rock stars"... They're too busy putting out multiple iterations of vinyl albums to top the charts, that's what they're focused on. In truth, it was only a brief moment when music had an insane amount of cultural capital. But those who were around back then still remember. As far as younger generations go, they want to be Mariah Carey, they want to compete on "American Idol," those are their roots, why would you expect them to be leaders, especially when they don't have the basic knowledge to do so? And then there are the promoted teen phenoms... We don't have these in politics, in tech, only in a backwater like music can we believe that a wet behind the ears kid has any wisdom to display at all. Usually, the offspring of someone wealthy to boot! With the combo of Chaotic Good and Stella Lefty if you ain't got money and connections you've got to feel pretty defeated in the music game. Better to gain attention and spread your word elsewhere, online and in politics. Isn't it funny that what the democratic socialists embody is just what the D.C. establishment abhors? Questioning authority and doing it online? Mamdani triumphed by playing by the new, internet rules. Knowing that emotional contact pays far greater dividends than throwing endless capital at TV ads. But that's how they used to do it. Young people don't vote. All the canards of the past are bedrock in D.C., nothing is questioned, change is anathema. But change has happened. And what kind of crazy f*cked up world do we live in where Zohran Mamdani is a bigger rock star than anybody making music, with more ink and more mindshare and more power... If you think it's about whether democratic socialists win in November you're missing the point. This is a cultural schism, a movement, that cannot be contained via ancient thinking. So will the system hold if youngsters continue to be denied? I doubt it. But if you want to know what is going to happen, you're better off reading the newspaper than listening to anyone in the Spotify Top 50. Hell, "The New York Times" grossed $2.82 billion last year, with a net income of $344 million. There are individual musicians who do almost as well, but what the "Times" has that they're lacking is power. The musicians are all concerned with money, but everybody knows the real wealth is in power, speaking truth, effecting change... The priorities are all screwed up. But to get your head screwed on straight you have to be educated, with the ability to parse the truth. And if you think that's prevalent in the music business... Then you've purchased too many t-shirts and perfume. -- 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