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