Bob Lefsetz is down, but not out.

I'm frustrated, overwhelmed, and might I even say a tad bit depressed. So let me just say we're all in the same boat. We all want to be rich, we all want a plethora of friends. But we realize what we've been sold is a bill of goods. Facebook didn't make us any happier, didn't make us feel we belonged, certainly not after a couple of years of posting. And Twitter gave us the illusion of being heard, but then we found out no one was listening. And musicians decrying the evisceration of their business model didn't realize the true problem was not monetization, but the inability to pierce the public consciousness, to break through all the marketing messages.

And I could tell you where it's going, but I'm not exactly sure, other than it's going to get worse, winners and losers in all walks of life. First it was the CEOs versus the workers. Then the bankers versus the workers. Then the techies versus the workers. One group got rich, and was venerated in the press, and the other group was pushed down and forgotten, given social media as a way to make them feel empowered when the truth was nothing of the sort.

And now I'm rambling.

But am I the only one confused?

The only one who believed in the possibility of the Internet but is now frustrated that I'm left even further behind, and that the winners are the usual suspects and the hucksters and a thin layer of innovators?

I'm stuck in the middle with you.

And we have power.

But mostly, I just want to communicate.

I love great art no matter the medium

Funeral for the album by Bob Lefsetz

The album is dying in front of our very eyes.

In other words, what kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where Katy Perry's new album "Prism" only sells 287,000 copies in its debut?

One in which everybody's interested in the single, and no one's got time to sit and hear your hour plus statement.

This is not emotion, this is statistics. The shelf life of news is shorter than ever. The shelf life of art... You blink and it's done.

I'm fine with you preaching to the choir, making an album for your fans. You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whomever...

But if your plan is to increase your audience, spread the word and make money, suddenly the album just isn't working. The youngsters are streaming singles and the oldsters are staying home. How do I know? Elton's album isn't even in the Top Fifty and McCartney's album barely broke 20,000 this week, and there wasn't a better oldster hype than for these two projects. People just don't want 'em.

So what's the industry to do?

Have a rethink.

In other words, hype doesn't work.

No one had more hype than Miley Cyrus, but "Bangerz" didn't even sell 45,000 copies this week. She can go on SNL, tweet her life away, but it's not moving the needle. Lorde is selling as much as her without the benefit of scorched earth, proving that quality music is as good as hype, but...she's not burning up the chart either.

We've turned into a nation of grazers. And the artist's job is to constantly be at the smorgasbord. Not to deliver one big meal that is picked at and thrown away, but a constant presence in the public's face.

Media cannot be limited to the album release date. It must be a 24/7, 365 day a year effort. Same with creativity. If your track gets traction, more power to you. If it doesn't, go back in the studio and make more.

In other words, if you're sitting at home bitching that you're not making any money because the Internet stole your business you're RIGHT! There are so many diversions that no one's got time for mediocre anymore. They just want superior. As for piracy... If you think "Prism"'s sales are low then you believe people are leaving AT&T Wireless because of Skype.

Yes, AT&T's subscriber numbers are declining. Oh, they've got some new iPad accounts, but contract subscribers are moving on to the cheaper T-Mobile and the better Verizon. Castigate me all you want, but the statistics don't lie.

Just like these album numbers.

If you've got a concept album, go ahead and record it. If you're only interested in selling a little, be my guest. But if you want to penetrate the consciousness of a large group of people and grow the pie, an album isn't working. Hell, it's not even working as a revenue model!

Labels are no longer in the record business, they're in the star business. How to maximize the revenue of an individual or band in as many media as possible, in as many ways as possible. Yes, while you were bitching about piracy your whole business model disappeared.

If music were the government it'd need a new hit. What I mean is the debt ceiling debate is history, the government needs a new hit single to stay in the public eye. But if it was run by musicians, they'd keep imploring people to read about the debt ceiling debate and the government shutdown. But the public has moved on.

You put out these albums and in almost every case, the public moves on in a matter of WEEKS! A few bought it, they heard it, and they're satisfied, and left waiting for years until you grace them with a new release. The rest of the public is just waiting for a hit single to burble, and if it does, they'll tap their toes and snap their fingers and ask WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOT?

And what you've got had better be just as good as the hit.

No one wants album tracks anymore. Not unless they're every bit as satisfying as the hit.

So it's not only classic rock acts who are no longer putting out albums, soon no one will do it. Oh, it won't be soon, because artists think making albums is part of their DNA, going into the studio and making a ten track "statement."

But that's like saying typewriters have to be an office fixture. And you can't post online unless you write in multiple paragraphs. And texting must be abandoned because it's not in depth enough.

The goal of a musician is to be AHEAD of the audience.

Right now everybody's behind.

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I love great art no matter the medium

Inside Lou Reed (a bit)

Subject: Lou Reed

I worked with Lou for four years on tour in the mid eighties and continues a distant but friendly relationship with him for the rest of his life. Lou had very high expectations from everyone around him from performance to punctuality, but those expectations were placed upon himself as much or more then anyone else. He taught me a lot about myself and what I could accomplish if I was focused and persistent and demanded more of myself. He appreciated a job well done, with a curt thank you.

Lou and I bonded on tour late night playing pinball in hotel children's game rooms to the point that I carried $50 in quarters where ever we went. I was mandated to book hotels that had pinball machines. He was a master of the slanted table and each players turn could take 10 or 15 minutes while the other remained a spectator and we chatted about life. Lou introduced me to Laurie Anderson as the man who saved his life, as I was the rescuer at Torrance Hospital that came to pick up the pieces following a late night car accident, with Lou as one of four passengers on the 405. He had been asleep, woke up to a car careening across the road, twisting his ankle under the seat, slamming his chest and head into the front seat in spite of a seat belt. He was and in physical pain and an emotional wreck seeing the injuries to the other passengers as well. The next day he recorded his vocal duet with Sam Moore on "Soulman" for a movie soundtrack followed by a video shoot the following day for the movie song video. That afternoon we caught the Peoples Express flight back to Laguardia and I dropped Lou at his apartment on the upper westside. As I helped him out of the car, he said in his patented drone, "Thank You, I cannot believe the past 48 hours are over", as he shut the door and sauntered with a limp into the building as if nothing had happened."

Lou was a student of sound and had a huge collection of guitars, amps, and effects pedals. He was forever pulling out new pieces on tour in search of that sound, which when he found it within days was not what he was looking for completely and the hunt would continue. His "No Money Down" albums theme was that each song sounded sonically different as each used a different guitar amp pedal combination but the player, Lou Reed remained the same.

I continued to run into Lou over the years, NYC restaurants, and an occasional show I would attend, SIR on 25th St. Sometimes he was warm and embracing others cold and distant. We last spoke in the bathroom at SIR, he smiled as we exchange greetings and as he went out the door said, "See Ya on the Streets."

Many fans cite different songs of Lou's as their favorites , Sweet Jane, Waiting for the Man,I Love you Susan, Vicious, Street Hassle, Coney Island Baby among them.

To me Satellite of Love was the one, the arrangement and tempo kept changing, but the grit, power and the lyrics did it all for me, it describes Lou a satellite in space spewing out his love as he sees fit. My heart goes out to Laurie Anderson, in her Lou found an artistic soulmate that allowed each of them to follow their muse with support and on their own.

A true loss of an acerbic wit, social commentator, curmudgeon, who was proud of the title "godfather of punk" although loath to admit. I can still hear that piercing laugh and see the occasional smile from beneath the scowl. A very complex person to say the least, one of kind.

See ya on the streets Lou, maybe at the pinball arcade.

Bert Holman - Allman Brothers Band

Bad buzz

Bad Buzz for Bees 

A quarter of everything we eat depends on pollination, but beekeepers from around the world are reporting a pandemic of the worst bee-population collapses ever recorded. Chemical giant Bayer is known for aspirin, but its toxic agricultural pesticides are linked to this unprecedented bee die-off. The EPA has the power to protect our bees and our food by banning the pesticides, but so far the agency has bowed to pressure from Bayer.

Over 1 million people have stood up for the health of our bees and our food. Will you join them? Tell the EPA to ban toxic pesticides and save our bees and our crops. 

I love great art no matter the medium

A Dog's Tale: Death Row disappearance!

SALEM, Mo. — It might have played out like an ordinary story of a family dog accused of biting someone else’s child, until a mysterious man wearing a baseball cap and a fake beard showed up at the home of Patrick and Amber Sanders, talking about secret codes and safe houses. 

At that point, the complicated tale of Phineas, the yellow Labrador retriever on death row, grew well beyond ordinary. 

Under quarantine since last June, he had “disappeared” at times — once when the city hid him in the basement of a firehouse. There was talk of a plot to have someone kidnap him. And there were accusations of intimidation and official corruption. In this Ozark town of 5,000, where excitement can be as sporadic as a deer walking past a hunting blind, Phineas became a running soap opera.  

Then two weeks ago he vanished, and the town was left wondering.  

Enter the lanky man with the fake beard, who appeared at the home of Phineas’s owners two Fridays ago, claiming to have the answer. 

“My heart,” Mr. Sanders, 29, recalled, “was just a chugga-lugga-lugging.” 

But that’s getting ahead of the story. 

Phineas had been a part of the Sanders family since 2010, a gift from a friend. They named the dog after a character from the cartoon “Phineas and Ferb.”  

His journey to becoming a household name began on a sunny Friday afternoon in late June 2012. Lexie Sanders, 7 at the time, was eating a Popsicle in her backyard with two friends. 

As the girls were leaving, Lexie clutched the 25-foot rubber-coated cable that tethered Phineas to a chain-link fence, but she tripped. The next thing she knew, she said, her friend, Kendall Woolman, 7 at the time, had fallen and rolled beneath the high-sprung Chevy pickup truck in the driveway. Kendall screamed and cried. 

Lexie said she did not see Phineas bite Kendall, but the other friend, also 7, told the police that she saw him bite her left rib cage and drag her about four feet. 

Later that evening, Jarred Brown, the town’s code officer, took Phineas for what was supposed to be a 10-day quarantine while the case was investigated. But the four-year-old Labrador never returned. 

After accusations arose of two previous unreported biting episodes, the Salem mayor, Gary Brown, deemed Phineas a vicious dog under town ordinance, and ordered him euthanized. The dog’s execution was delayed by a court appeal — and there was a brief, unexplained disappearance last fall — but then reinstated in March by Judge Scott Bernstein. City officials quickly moved Phineas to a secret location — it turned out to be the basement garage bay at the fire station — so he would not be snatched before his execution. 

Running out of options, Phineas supporters got in touch with the Lexus Project, a dog rescue operation based in New York State. The group set up a “Save Phineas” Facebook page that quickly drew tens of thousands of “likes” (now up to nearly 180,000) and was the catalyst behind a rally and “Save Phineas” billboards along an interstate highway. 

Kendall Woolman’s family said they received threats. Joseph P. Simon, a lawyer for the Sanders family, accused a relative of the Woolmans of calling Salem “his sandbox” and threatening to exert his influence on city officials to make sure Phineas died. 

The story caught the attention of David Backes, the captain of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, who offered to fly to Salem to rescue the dog and take it to a no-kill shelter.  

Approaching his execution date in late April, Phineas got another stay when Mr. Simon appealed for a new trial.  

With the case pending, Jackie Overby, a Salem resident, said she asked the city administrator, Clayton Lucas, if he could give her the dog so she could usher him away to safety. A few days later, she said, Mr. Lucas showed up at her job and said, “We want the dog gone,” and told her that they could make arrangements for her to secretly take him. 

Mr. Lucas denied ever making such an arrangement. (Mr. Brown, the mayor, conceded to joking with Mr. Lucas about letting someone kidnap Phineas.) 

In late May, city officials moved Phineas into Dr. J. J. Tune’s veterinary office near downtown, but the doctor said he feared that the dog would be stolen because of all the attention and because his clinic was not well secured.  

Sure enough, when Meridith Michaels opened the clinic about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, Phineas was nowhere to be found. No sign of forced entry, no clues.  

“My heart sank to the bottom of the ground,” she said. 

The Sanderses feared the worst — that someone had either taken him for ransom or killed him. Ms. Sanders, 28, searched the woods. 

Concern and doubt festered for days, until a rainy night, the day after the latest court hearing to decide Phineas’s fate. As the Sanderses cleaned up from dinner with their four children, the man appeared at their door, asking for them by name. 

“I just want to tell you,” he said, “that Phineas is doing just fine.” 

“Well, that’s good,” Mr. Sanders said, exhaling.  

The man explained that he had seen a Phineas billboard and read about the case on Facebook. Sympathetic, he snatched Phineas and took him to a safe place where he was playing with another dog, the man told them, his fake mustache slipping down his face. 

He asked them to set up a safe house, they said, where he could bring Phineas for them to play with. But he did not trust cellphones. So he asked them to activate a landline, and when they had the safe house ready, they were to post the sentence, “I saw a dog today that reminded me of Phineas,” on the Facebook page. That would be his signal to call and arrange a meeting. 

Ms. Sanders posted the message last Monday, and the man called on Wednesday night from a disposable cellphone. He arranged to return Phineas to them on Saturday morning. With the judge’s decision still pending, they were not taking any chances: They planned to ship Phineas to an undisclosed location. 

Yet in a final twist, Judge Bernstein essentially said Friday that the drama should never have happened. He ruled that Phineas did not even bite the girl and overturned the death sentence. 

Still worried that people might want to harm Phineas, the Sanderses kept the Saturday reunion secret. The man, wearing his fake beard, arrived at the drop point in a rural patch surrounded by dirt roads before the Sanderses arrived, and when an intermediary told him they were still on their way, he left Phineas and said, “Well, I’ve got to go.” 

Minutes later, Salem’s most popular dog was bounding into his owners’ arms.


I love great art no matter the medium

One of Bob Lefsetz best essays

Spotify: http://spoti.fi/17j8oBG

YouTube: http://bit.ly/18TNsiN

Sometimes you only have to hear a song once.

We were making movies, back when that was exotic, back before you could buy a cam for a thousand bucks and everybody started making a documentary. As a result, there was not a door that would not open, everybody wants their song in a flick.

So we ended up on the second floor of a building on Sunset Boulevard meeting with Lionel Conway of Island publishing. And after b.s.'ing for about thirty minutes, he said he wanted to play us something...

"Sometimes I'd like to quit you and find somebody who
Don't know me quite as well"

We've all been through this. When life gets too tough. When the newness of love is gone. We ponder...what would it be like with somebody else?

"Yeah, like a gypsy, she would be my jewel
Spend my days in a lovin' spell"

Classic rock and roll imagery, I can't think of gypsies without thinking of "Love Potion No. 9," MADAME RUE!

"But baby I fit you, like a worn out glove
You know I ain't goin' nowhere"

That's what's funny about couples. Live together long enough and you start looking alike, the one who doesn't wear jeans suddenly does, and Nikes too, even the hairstyles, two people blend into one, they just can't help it. That's what you don't realize about jumping the track, that you're starting all over, and it's so HARD! There are so many false starts, meanwhile, sand keeps running through the hourglass.

"There ain't nothin' we can't rise above
We still got a lifetime to share"

Optimism. Without it a relationship dies. It's just a matter of time until someone punts. And the funny thing is it doesn't always take two, one is enough, one person can make a difference...sometimes.

"Isn't it enough that I still love you
Isn't it enough to make you stay
Don't make me suffer, baby
Don't throw it all away"

That must've been '83 we had that meeting on Sunset. But "The Boyfriend," the album from which "Isn't It Enough" is the opening track, didn't come out until '86. 

We were housesitting on Bristol, behind a wall, ensconced in the upper class lifestyle we dreamed of but were only experiencing for a month. We were in the master bedroom, with the Proton TV suspended from the wall, and one night on MTV, we were addicted back then, they played this video.

Oh, eventually Patty Smyth & Scandal had a semi-hit with "Isn't It Enough," but it was absent the buzzsaw guitar and the exuberance. That's the thing about rock and roll, it can't be studied, it has to sound like you're about to come. You know that feeling, when nothing can hold you back, you can see the destination, and your only goal is to get there.

That's what we were doing on a regular basis.

But after we got married she moved out.

And that's when "Isn't It Enough" took on new meaning.

"Now I know you're tired
And feelin' all alone
I know what you're goin' through
I'll satisfy your fire
But I'm not made of stone
Tell me what more can I do"

That's what you do when they leave, TRY! It's like being George Costanza, you're suddenly doing the opposite of what you did when you were together. Listening instead of talking. Changing your look. You do everything to win them back. But it never works. If they're ever gonna return, it's gonna be their decision, and they rarely do.

"Now can you look in my eyes
And tell me there's nothin' there"

That's what we're looking for, a chance. But we blew it when we weren't even paying attention. They were making their decision to go when we believed everything was hunky-dory.

"You know I've compromised enough to show I care"

And then we stop. We're just short of begging. And this is never attractive. It's after this we regain our dignity, when we finally accept it's over. Not that we're totally convinced.

"Yeah, sometimes I'd like to quit you
And find somebody who don't know me quite the same
But it took so long just to get this far
I'll be damned if I'll do it again"

He's invested. And that's what relationships are, an investment, which pay dividends. They're also sharks, like Woody Allen said, if they don't keep moving they die. So pay attention, keep swimming.

But it's not really about the lyrics, they're just the icing on the cake. It's the aforementioned buzzsaw guitar. And the way the drums punch in between. And the other guitar dancing around. It's a cornucopia of sound.

With a heartfelt vocal delivery.

And even a bridge.

And the rest of "The Boyfriend" is almost as good.

Which landed Danny Wilde a deal with Geffen which paid no dividends. After which he retreated to his garage with his old buddy Phil Solem and became the Rembrandts.

And even though the "Friends" theme will have a long lifespan, most people have already forgotten "Isn't It Enough." But not me.

Because I love its pure sound. And honesty. And the fact that this is a guy who's willing to put it all on the line to convince her to stay.

This is rock and roll.

I love great art no matter the medium