But will it work?

Apple presentations are not the must see TV they were in the Steve Jobs era, if for no other reason than the lack of…one more thing…

But those presentations were live, ever since Covid, Apple prerecords, which eliminates mistakes, but sucks the life out of the presentation. It’s kind of like music. You can fix it in the studio, but in the process do you eliminate all the energy, everything that makes it appealing? People are imperfect, and that’s how they like their art, that allows them to relate, whereas they expect their products to work out of the box, seamlessly.

Unlike the original Siri that was launched with the iPhone 4s, back in 2011. It was a novelty, if you’re still using it, you’re one of the few.

Now the buzzword today is AI, i.e. artificial intelligence, and conventional wisdom is Apple is behind the 8-ball, that it missed the window. But historically Apple doesn’t create totally new products, it refines what’s out there in a way that engenders mass appeal via usability, never mind filling a desired function.

So, owning the AI platform, is that where the money lies, or..?

We can debate all day long whether these AI platforms can make money in the short term, or whether their burn rate will cause them to go out of business or be sold to another company. Then again, there are enterprises like Meta, which is doing quite well despite the billions lost on virtual reality. In other words, if Meta’s AI dreams don’t pan out, the company can survive. But AI-only companies like Open AI and Anthropic? It’s unclear.

Never mind the AI backlash. It’s NIMBYISM on steroids. No one wants a data farm in their neighborhood, never mind the incredible electricity drain. Ireland just passed a law that new AI data centers must provide their own electricity, after the existing farms ate up one third of the nation’s power.

And then there’s the end of the world scenario. The University of Toronto just revealed the possibility of the easy creation of AI worms, that could penetrate existing systems… Maybe these same AI agents can get rid of spam e-mail while they’re at it, which has clogged our inboxes for thirty years now.

And for these thirty years when the mainstream public has been computing, conversing on the internet, the primary means of communication has been text. To the point where if you call someone from the younger generation…they probably won’t pick up and they won’t even let you leave a message, and if you’re allowed to do so, they won’t check it.

This burgeoning use of text has been overlooked by those who lament the past focus on reading and books. But just like the younger generations now know more news as a result of the internet, they’re writing and reading more too.

But will this survive?

YouTube now eclipses Netflix usage. In other words, the lunatics have taken over the asylum, individual content creation rules. But what I want to focus on here is the power of the moving image. For all the talk of Substack monetization, that’s for Luddites, the real money for creators is on YouTube.

And this creeping emphasis on video has changed the podcast landscape. Now it’s about blockbusters with a concurrent video stream, which costs more money to do well. In other words, it’s just like in music, everybody can make a video podcast, but very few can make money doing so, there are very few winners.

So as video eats text, will AI come along to supersede the conventional computing platforms, from the smartphone to the tablet to the computer?

That’s the concept behind AI. Can you just talk to your device to get answers, to get your work done. According to today’s WWDC presentation, Apple says you can.

Now if everything Apple promises is delivered, the company will have triumphed. Because it’s Apple that has the relationship with the ultimate customer. Google may dominate search, but it pays billions to be the preferred engine on the iPhone. (Once again, distribution is everything.) Will AI companies have to pay to play on Apple devices? Right now with all the mania on the AI development companies, this is not the case, but in the future?

That’s the history of the personal computer, what once was a standalone product with its own revenue stream becomes a feature. Once spellcheck was a separate app, today it’s built into your word processor, has been for a very long time. The consolidators triumph.

So the key here is usability. Is Apple’s new Siri going to drive usage?

We live in a very different world today. There are no instruction manuals, no lessons, you just dive in and figure it out. This is how people interact with video games. But if the lift is too heavy, the product fails.

So not only does Siri AI have to work, it has to be easy to use.

But if it does work and it is as easy to use as demonstrated in today’s presentation we are at the beginning of a giant revolution.

After AOL got everybody on the internet, the next triumphs were hardware-based, the iPod, the iPhone… Everybody keeps looking for new hardware, like the inane AI pin devices, as if we’re going to go back to individual items when a product that consolidates all these uses, like the smartphone, triumphs.

And then there are smart glasses. They have been percolating for years, but adoption has still been minimal. But if Apple gets into the field as rumored…

But is the future just talking to your device?

That is what Apple previewed today.

Screw all those apps, all that cross-referencing, all that selection, AI will do it for you. Choose what photos to send to your friends. Plan events and alert invitees. Sure, all your data has to be on the device to begin with to collate, but that data can now be sourced from your questions and actions.

And then there’s the data from Google’s Gemini.

Despite all the complaints about AI search results, the bottom line is most people don’t go beyond them. Remember all those search optimization efforts? Doesn’t seem to matter where you appear in the results, because no one looks, they just trust the AI result, despite the present hallucination rate.

Siri AI will eliminate steps. It will get the information for you sans typing, sans going from app to app and exploring. And you will save time.

Assuming it works.

1

Klaus Meine is intelligent and articulate.

So if you listen to the “Wind of Change” podcast, and I recommend that you do, they eventually confront Klaus Meine regarding the CIA’s theoretical participation in the creation of the Scorpions song.

Now living through the eighties, the only “metal” band that really got respect was Guns N’ Roses, whose credibility has been eviscerated by Axl Rose’s facelift and the squandering of the band’s recording impact through delay and…

As for the rest of the acts…

It ended up being a formula.

Now some, like Van Halen, had success before MTV. But do we consider Van Halen metal anyway?

I wouldn’t.

But if you look at the acts that played the Moscow Music Peace Festival…

Skid Row may still be on the road, but sans Sebastian Bach, they’ve lost what made them rise above to begin with. Then again, despite having model good looks, Bach was a hothead and the whole enterprise looked like adolescence on steroids. (However, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I love “I Remember You.”)

Mötley Crüe? The band may have had commercial success, but it never got respect. One could actually say their travails were equivalent to a “Real Housewives” franchise. As for a standout track… You don’t hear their music played by anybody but fans these days.

Ozzy? Somewhere along the line, Ozzy became a legend. Let’s leave it at that.

And Bon Jovi made that one phenomenal album with Bruce Fairbairn, “Slippery When Wet,” who died before they could reunite in the studio, and the band never quite reached that height again, but it sustained, and now “Wanted Dead or Alive” is a veritable standard (helped along by “The Deadliest Catch,” although the song was already embedded in the public consciousness). Never underestimate Jon Bon Jovi’s good looks, and in addition, the band represented a younger generation, taking over the airwaves from the rockers who’d triumphed in the sixties and seventies.

And the Scorpions? They were GERMAN!

All I am saying is when you look back at eighties hard rock, you don’t think credibility, you think excess and entertainment, good times.

However, these acts had light years more impact upon society than any of today’s musical stars. That’s what I realized listening to this podcast.

2

There are ultimately two issues in the “Wind of Change” podcast, and neither of them involve the question of the CIA’s involvement in the Scorpions song.

a. How America has turned into Russia

b. The techniques and credibility of the CIA.

Let me try to nail this… The Russian government trades in conspiracy theories, its goal is to keep its public from knowing, never mind investigating, the truth. It is constantly spreading falsehoods…starting by allowing Putin to escape accountability for the Second Chechen War at the advent of his tenure.

When confronted with the concept of the CIA being involved in the creation of the Scorpions’ “Wind of Change,” a Russian woman who was associated with the band’s gigs in the U.S.S.R. doesn’t believe it’s true for even a second, but does think that the CIA could have spread the rumor.

And when this woman continues and the story is played out…

Let me get your knickers in a twist. Conventional wisdom is that Covid started from a Chinese lab leak. But this is untrue. No one knows for sure, but the experts still believe it came from a wet market. Yet as soon as Trump got back into office, he had an edict issued declaring the lab leak theory true. And you’ve got the right wing propaganda machine reinforcing this falsehood.

Hell, we saw the president spewing untruths on NBC yesterday, with seeming impunity.

America is now the land of conspiracy theories.

It is said in this podcast that the Russians hoped that their country would turn into the U.S., they couldn’t foresee the U.S. turning into Russia. Which is what has happened.

As for the CIA… Untrustworthy and double-dealing, it’s a fount of misdirection and misinformation.

And you learn all this in the “Wind of Change” podcast, which is not only very informative, but easy to listen to.

3

So, like I stated above, the MTV acts who appeared at the Moscow Music Peace Festival would mainly be considered entertainment. However, listening to this podcast, you can see they had influence.

People in Russia trading illegal Scorpions tapes…

I ask you, is anybody in an oppressed nation trading Dua Lipa tapes? BTS? Taylor Swift?

There’s nothing there. Entertainment for acolytes that exists in a walled garden. Those who don’t care don’t want to care and there’s no reason for them to care. Because there’s no underlying meaning. It’s mostly entertainment for the brain dead. Mindless.

Now of course it was different in the sixties. Music moved the culture. But listening to this podcast I was stunned to realize how powerful MTV was. We think of its ability to make musical acts international successes, we tend not to look at its cultural power. It was a youth marketing platform. And even though the acts wanted to get rich, they were all anti-establishment, at least to a degree. They didn’t, they wouldn’t, comport with cultural norms. Selling out to corporations? Who’d want to be involved with these people?

These acts didn’t have brand extensions, it was them and their music and that was it. Sure, they sold t-shirts, but they were emblematic of fans’ belief in them. It wasn’t a rip-off enterprise. And if it wasn’t related to music, they didn’t do it, they didn’t even think of doing it, because they wanted to live the rock and roll lifestyle, before the smartphone camera, when sex and drugs and alcohol…that’s why you did it!

These were renegades. As soft as they appeared back then, compared to today’s acts the gulf is laughable.

As for the Scorpions… Klaus Meine speaks English with more thought and analysis than seemingly all in today’s Spotify Top 50, AND IT’S HIS SECOND LANGUAGE!

We used to hang on the words of our musical heroes. Now we pay attention to their antics, but why would we listen to these commercial nincompoops?

4

So the monoculture is history. MTV took the power of rock and roll and supercharged it. And then mostly abandoned music when it was discovered that half hour programs got much better ratings than endless music videos. You might switch the channel if you saw a video that didn’t appeal to you, but that was far less likely if you were watching “Remote Control” or “Cribs” or the rest of the lifestyle product featured. One could actually argue that MTV was a harbinger of today’s fame for nothing culture. Then again, MTV did change cultural mores… MTV did more for racial integration/harmony than any book or movie or… It was nearly as positive as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Black people were featured right along whites, and they were stars and… There were gay people too, like Pedro Zamora, the “Real World” cast member who died of AIDS.

And then it all devolved into the internet era. A Balkanization of power and ideas. All those angry that they could not triumph previously decried intelligence and expertise and planted their own flags and ultimately made the landscape incomprehensible. You can’t break an act. Then again, are the acts worth breaking, is the issue that more people are not listening to certain songs or that they don’t want to?

I’d posit the latter.

Which begs the question of whether we’re at the tipping point of a renaissance, because the mercenary music business is so far from the ideals and power of songs, it has followed commerce into if not irrelevance, meaninglessness.

5

As for the CIA’s involvement in the Scorpions’ “Wind of Change,” I leave you with this:

Bob,

I’m asking that my name be withheld because I don’t need the “hate mail” that will inevitable follow.

I was in the room when Klaus came up with the idea for “Wind of Change”. In fact, I was a fly-on-the wall, from its inception to its completion, and I was one of the first two or three people to hear the song.

Furthermore, I played keyboards on the demo … and also on the final album version, recorded at Keith Olsen’s Sound City Studios in California.

This “CIA” thing is preposterous!  Ridiculous!  Anyone who claims otherwise wasn’t there!

There’s a great story about a fan once approaching George Harrison, and saying:  “I have a rare bootleg recording of The Beatles rehearsing.  Would you like me to make you a copy?”.  And George replied (try to imagine his laconic Liverpool accent), “I don’t need to hear it … I was THERE!”.

Well … I was there when “Wind of Change” was written and demo’d … in my home studio!

I can say, with certainty — I do not recall any CIA agents being present!

Tune in June 6th 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

1

So I’m listening to this podcast episode about Doc McGhee’s 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival and I’m getting extremely frustrated. Because the narrator was leaving out the most salient point, that Doc was doing this as a give back to the government for not going to jail on smuggling charges. He’s going on and on and I’m getting more and more frustrated and then…

The podcast I’m listening to is “Wind of Change,” you know, the 2020 show that investigates whether the CIA wrote the Scorpions hit of the same name. I was fully aware of its release, but I ignored it. Because it seemed like click-bait to me, that there was no chance this had occurred.

And then in response to my post on “London Falling,” Alex Skolnick e-mailed me:

“I’m familiar with Patrick Radden Keefe from the fascinating Podcast series he did, Wind of Change, about the CIA and Scorpions (yes, those Scorpions, as in Rock You Like a Hurricane):  https://crooked.com/podcast-series/wind-of-change/ ”

 No way!

In case you haven’t dived in, the response I’m getting about “London Falling” is universally positive…more than that, people can’t stop talking about it.

Now my shrink told me the author, Patrick Radden Keefe, had written the book about the Sacklers, “Empire of Pain.” I’d had no desire to read that, because I’m more of a fiction guy and I followed the OxyContin story very closely, was it really worth spending all that time to learn only a few new things?

But after our session, I immediately went to Libby and reserved the Sackler book. (Which I just got by the way, but I’m working my way through a couple of books before I get to it.)

And then I get Alex Skolnick’s e-mail.

Now part of me still winced, believing the premise to be over the top, but if it was Patrick Radden Keefe and Skolnick had recommended it, I was going to check it out.

Now “Wind of Change” is one of those podcasts where you can see the dollar signs while you listen. This isn’t homemade stuff, there are a lot of moving parts: travel, people, research… In other words, it’s produced.

In truth, this type of podcast is falling out of favor, if for no reason other than these true crime shows ultimately become monochromatic and are all alike. Kind of like the streaming documentaries. At first, the facts had impact, the story was fascinating, the paragon of the genre actually being the 2003 film “Capturing the Friedmans.” But now, streamers are amplifying the smallest stories in sensationalist ways, with faux gravitas, to the point where they all run together and I’ve mostly stopped watching.

But I dove in and listened to this professional story that I believed was inane.

Now in truth, I was going to wait to finish the show before I wrote about it, and I still plan to do so, but I was so intrigued, positively shocked regarding the episode about Doc McGhee, that I had to hip you to it.

2

Now most people who write about the music business don’t get it, because it’s not their regular beat, they don’t know the history and in addition they look down upon the industry, one reason being it’s peopled with figures like Doc McGhee.

The mainstream press likes their subjects to be pedigreed. To have graduated from college, maybe have a storied background. Whereas music is laden with those sans education, but even worse, it’s run by hustlers.

That’s what those outside the industry don’t get, how it’s run. For some reason they think they know, but it would be like me writing about medicine… I could zero in on some momentary event, but I don’t know the history, never mind not having the expertise.

And we see this with the Live Nation/Ticketmaster trial… We can debate all day long whether Live Nation is a monopoly, but one thing is for sure, whatever happens, ticket prices will not go down. But parading politicians and the media keep believing there’s some nefarious plot that if uncovered will allow everybody to go to the show for fifty bucks. How could they get it so wrong? Even after the trial most people still get it wrong.

Which is why the music business does its best not to intersect with the legal system, the judges won’t understand it, and if you lift the rug you will find a lot of behavior that many will be uncomfortable with. The phrase is “sex, drugs and rock and roll,” and that didn’t come out of nowhere.

So when Patrick Radden Keefe goes on for nearly an hour about the Moscow Music Peace Festival without mentioning Doc McGhee’s brush with the law, I figured this was just another case of outsiders not knowing what was going on. I mean the fact that it was part of a government deal was all over the news back in 1989…but that’s nearly forty years ago. Like the CIA agent who doesn’t know the song “Wind of Change,” who says she doesn’t even consider music to be a fulfilling pursuit, who is keeping the record here? People like you and me. Who lived for this stuff, who sacrificed our lives for rock and roll. The ones who are pissed that it has devolved into a pop world.

Anyway, at the end of “I Follow the Moska,” episode 5 (of 8), Keefe interviews Deb Wilker, who talks about the story not adding up back in ’89. I mean if the government wanted to promote peace, why would they send this ragtag bunch of metal bands to Russia.

Voila!

Okay, finally, the subject was broached, Doc’s history in the drug trade. I was satisfied.

But then Keefe said in the next episode they were going to do a deep dive into Doc and his story.

WHAT???

3

Live Nation may be a public company, streaming counts are public information, but when it comes to the music business at large, it’s one of bullying, obfuscation and intimidation, with a bit of sexism thrown into the mix… After all, isn’t that in many cases what these bands were singing about?

And if you’re inside, with access, you’re privy to amazing stories. You’d be surprised who scalped their own tickets. Who bootlegged merch. But if you speak this truth, you’re excommunicated. It’s the code of the road, everybody knows and nobody speaks.

Which is one reason why this CIA/”Wind of Change” story could be true, but I’m saving analysis of this.

In other words, there is no deep dissection of the players.

Oh, Clive Davis has been on a mythmaking campaign for decades. But the truth is “Mr. Music” lives in his own little backwater. He had hits, undeniable hits, but most of these acts did not have careers. It was all about Top Forty, and the modern music business was built on albums and the acts that made them.

And how did these acts become successful?

How do you think these records get exposure, to this day? Do you really think there’s someone out there picking the best? Don’t make me laugh.

Dollars are changed, horses are traded, there’s an understanding that if you don’t come through for me now, forget me delivering in the future…

And most people have no idea that this is going on.

Despite all the press, most people don’t know the history of Michael Rapino and Irving Azoff… There’s been a lot of ink spread about David Geffen, but no one seems to have actually dealt with him on a business level, to see how he operates.

And that’s it. Maybe Lucian Grainge gets a little press.

But the rest of the players in the music business, they’re essentially faceless to the public. And if you scratch the surface…

4

So Doc McGhee… He managed Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe and Skid Row and even Kiss for over 25 years. How does this happen?

It’s not like you’ve got a problem and you call up your lawyer.

Either there’s a garage manager, your buddy who helps you grow, or there are interviews with players before a decision is made.

So who are these people?

If Q Prime gets a new act, if John Silva gets a new act, it’s understandable, but Doc McGhee had no portfolio, how did THIS guy sign all these bands, especially when he was starting out?

Call it charisma, call it storytelling, call it the ability to come right up to the line and then cross it…a special kind of person becomes a manager.

One who can’t work anywhere else.

So I’m listening to this podcast and they’re delineating all the details of the drug deals McGhee was involved in. How he introduced growers to dealers. There are stories of jail. Manuel Noriega…who uses a drug dealer’s Lear Jet to fly to D.C. for meetings with the government.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

They are not dumb. You cannot win if you’re dumb. These are extremely intelligent people, they’re STREET SMART!

But there’s never been a thorough investigation of their identities previously. But here in this podcast about this fakokta CIA plot there’s more information about Doc McGhee than ever found previously?

HOW COME I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS!

That’s what I’m thinking as I’m listening. So much is revealed here, but no one e-mailed me about it, it was not part of the hype…

If this were the pre-internet era, we would know. But today? With so much product in the pipeline? Media hypes, it does not dive in. Most outlets print the press release. Actually listening, doing the work, pulling out the relevant points? Doesn’t happen.

I mean they’re plotting out all the deals, Doc’s involvement and then…

THEY GO TO HIS HOUSE!!

My mind is flipping. Why in the hell is Doc speaking with these people?

Then again, Doc’s no idiot, maybe he thinks if he doesn’t, they’ll print inaccurate information.

And what managers do is create the narrative and sway minds… They’re like Steve Jobs with his reality distortion field.

My eyes roll into the back of my head seemingly every day. Some manager e-mails me their act is the latest thing since sliced bread, a cut above the Spotify Top 50… It’s never happened.

Then again, when you hear from a name, like Doc McGhee, you pay attention. Because irrelevant of how good the act is, you know he’s going to push the button, use all his relationships to make the act a success. Attention is demanded.

Not that I actually know Doc, been around him, but I don’t think we’ve ever even spoken. But he’s out there, in his sportcoat, smiling… Intimidating he is not, at least not on the surface.

So, Doc gets out of the army and why does he go into dope and music…

BECAUSE NO ONE WILL HIRE HIM!

Chances are if you can get a straight job, you’re never going to make it in the music business, certainly not as an independent player like a manager. It’s their identity, their ability to get people on the same page and make things happen… These are not everyday people. And it’s clear as day in this podcast.

Doc starts talking about the Moscow festival, how the two shows drew 300,000 people. But the interviewer is prepared, and says the stadium only holds 75,000 and the total was half of Doc’s claim. Doc shrugs and…all managers exaggerate. My favorite used to be with record sales. If some act’s manager told me they’d sold 100,000 copies of their indie record, that meant they’d sold less than 5,000. And since everybody lies, everybody exaggerates. And it’s all right here in this podcast!

And Doc is bobbing and weaving and…

They’ve already laid the groundwork, Dave Sabo talking about meeting Doc at Jon Bon Jovi’s house…

Great managers are oftentimes BIGGER than their acts, larger than life in their own way. And they oftentimes have more money, because they’re not tempted by excess and that’s one thing they do understand, MONEY!

And Doc is waxing rhapsodic, about how the CIA definitely couldn’t be involved in the Moscow Festival, because the legal case was back in 1980… Well, then the interviewer says how a judgment wasn’t entered until 1988, only one year before the Peace Festival.

And Doc’s laughing, saying how he did it all himself, that’s what he’s best at, making things happen, but… I’ve never heard of a manager flying to a location every two weeks for a year in advance of a show, never mind in Russia.

But, isn’t it common knowledge that it was a quid pro quo, that Doc did this show to keep from going to jail?

Doc says absolutely not.

But when I finish the episode an immediate Google brings me to Jon Bon Jovi admitting it. And then Doc denying it.

And…

If you want to know how a real manager operates, if you want to know the real story of Doc McGhee, you absolutely have to listen to “The Doctor Is In,” episode 7 of “Wind of Change.”

6. The Doctor Is In

Or on the podcast platform of your choice.

And really, you should start with “I Follow The Moska,” episode 5 of “”Wind of Change,” which lays the groundwork.