You’ve got to be willing to question the system.

That was what Napster was about. That powered all the change at the turn of the century until a little over a decade ago when the tech companies solidified their power.

This is why Trump won and is winning. He questioned orthodoxy.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have put their faith in the system to save them, I wouldn’t be so sure.

The triumphs in the past fifteen years have been made by those who were innovative, who were not wedded to the album cycle. Drake released a “mixtape.” Some acts put out multiple albums per year. They realized in an attention economy the fear wasn’t a stiff, but being noticed at all.

Meanwhile, we keep getting cries from oldsters to save the album. To preserve everything that once was. Never mind that most of that paradigm has been blown to smithereens.

The music business used to be run by the labels. They made the investment, everything was about recordings. They took unknowns, spent heavily and turned some of them into stars.

They haven’t done that in eons. If you build it yourself they are interested. So if you’re sitting at home wondering why you’re not successful you haven’t realized that the onus is upon you to break yourself. And most acts signed to the label don’t get big advances/recording budgets to boot, those days are through.

Yet even youngsters can’t understand that their cheese has moved. Somebody has to be at fault, if it’s not the labels then it must be Spotify. There must be some reason they’re not successful.

No, the reason is them. Their music, their effort.

Used to be you couldn’t say that, but there’s been a realignment in America. I’m sure you saw that yesterday Newsom came down against trans athletes in female sports. He also decried meetings wherein everybody uttered their pronouns before the work could begin. Gavin got the memo, he’s more of a rock star than most musicians, because he’s been willing to pivot, check the wind and go in a different direction.

This is why music is moribund. The people involved believe it’s all about money. Not whatsoever, it’s about POWER! And until you see it that way, you and your music will be marginalized.

It’s not enough that your music be good, great, you must stand for something, hopefully in the music, but also as a person. You must be an individual. That’s what an artist is. Outside judgment. Which is why the TV competition shows are outside artistry. As for winners like Carrie Underwood… That’s commerce, not artistry. There’s no there there when it comes to Underwood. For someone who has been around the world she seems to still have the viewpoint of the small town in Oklahoma that she grew up in. We live in the information age, you must gather information, for viewpoint if nothing else. And, as an artist, YOU are in control. If you can’t say no, you’re not an artist.

Same deal with the Democrats. The outcry is deafening, from the public, from the press, yet we still see no movement. They expect the system to save them. So how’s that working out so far? I find it hilarious when they start talking about the 2028 election…as if there’s going to be one. Corporations don’t last forever, and neither do countries/governments. But the Democrats have been so busy playing by the rules, coloring inside the lines, that they’ve not only lost power, but the faith of the people they’re supposed to represent. Think about that, the elected officials are disconnected from their constituents. How’s that supposed to work? The Democratic party is on the precipice of extinction… And what’s its answer? We have a two party system, the Democrats are forever, OH YEAH?

So you’ve got to change your mindset. America was built on the concept of the rugged individual, who entered new territory and did it their way.

But our entire nation is upside down. It’s ruled by an elite that played by the rules. Manipulated the educational system so their kids could go to good schools and get traditional jobs. Where’s the innovation? Sure, we had all the tech stuff earlier in this century, but no more.

As for the Republicans…they’re going backward. They want tax cuts for the rich and they’re eviscerating the IRS. The latter makes no sense. They’re scaring the hoi polloi that they’re going to get audited when the truth is most people employ the standard deduction and the rich skate. Our nation runs on the revenue of the IRS, in what fakokta world do you undercut it?

One in which down is up and vice versa.

And sure, so many people are deep in their niches. There’s more news than ever before, the truth has a harder time surfacing. But rather than argue with these people you need to divine the truth and use it to your advantage.

Yes, it’s all about the individual today. You are playing without a net, in all endeavors. Not only in art, but employment. You think your job is forever, that it’s safe, but then you lose it. Like a Boy Scout you must be prepared. And I won’t detail how that organization has gone off the rails and is on the verge of extinction. Like I said, nothing is forever.

As for James Carville saying the Democrats should play dead and wait for the Republicans to screw up… Once again, that evidences faith in the system, which may well be fallacious. One of the most striking headlines I’ve seen recently is what if the courts rule and Trump doesn’t obey the judgments?

And you can bury your head, be somnambulant, but if you’re a thinker you’re aware that the public is hungry for the new and different, for leaders, for DISRUPTION!

Stop accepting conventional wisdom. Napster was outright copyright infringement, but we wouldn’t have gotten Spotify without it, the business wouldn’t have changed. Furthermore, sans Spotify and YouTube chances are you wouldn’t even be in the music business.

Also, accept reality. The revenue goes to those at the top. Because the audience only wants the best and has easy access to it. And if you’re going to play that game you must be as good as those at the top and if not, you’re cottage industry, which is okay, but don’t bitch that you’re not a wealthy household name.

And the top is ripe for disruption. Sure, there are stars, but not a whole lot of disruption, innovation. The system isn’t built for it. Everybody’s baked into the old constructs. It’s your job to revolutionize it. The Beatles were rejected at first. Jon Mellencamp delivered “American Fool” with “Hurts So Good” and Mercury didn’t want to release it. If you’re waiting for a green light, if you’re waiting for approval, you’re doomed.

Of course you can play their way, but that’s a road to marginalization.

First and foremost this is about thinking, ideas. Which is why hit records don’t come from the musicians in the Philharmonic, nor Berklee. Innovative ideas can come in an instant. But you must be open to them.

And you must be confident in your route.

Everything is up for grabs today, EVERYTHING!

And the spoils go to those who abhor and ignore the system and do things their way. Remember that.

Producer Howard Benson has worked with acts as varied as the All-American Rejects and Kelly Clarkson. You know his hit with Hoobastank, “The Reason,” as well as P.O.D.’s “Payable on Death” and multiple records with Three Days Grace. This is his story, how he made it and how he produces records.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/howard-benson/id1316200737?i=1000698070284

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/1ac8b55d-4d83-4c2b-8777-431f136ccd21/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-howard-benson

 

Playlist: https://shorturl.at/WhzPz

Was different from 1964. 1964 was all bright and sunny, brand new. Credit the Beatles and the tsunami of British acts that followed them on to the radio.

The radio… Record companies still talk about it, but youngsters do not. But in ’65 the radio was everything. Everybody had a transistor and everybody was addicted. Every market had at least one Top 40 station. And the disc jockeys were famous! And occasionally there were regional hits, but most big records were known by everybody. And I mean EVERYBODY! Every boomer listening to the radio knew every cut. The nerds might have missed the switch to FM in the late sixties, but even they were listening to Top 40 radio.

And seeing the hit acts of the day on Ed Sullivan.

WE’RE GONNA BE ON ED SULLIVAN!

Ed… Every boomer knows this too, from “Bye Bye Birdie.”

Anyway, you hated having to sit through the whole program for the rock act, you tried to second-guess placement, usually the bigger the act the later in the program they appeared…but it was kind of like “Laugh-In,” the next day in school everybody talked about the band on TV.

So, you know how 1965 is different?

The Beatles hit with “Ticket to Ride.” AND SHE DON’T CARE!

Yes, 1964 was “A Hard Day’s Night.” By ’65 there was a lot more depth in the Beatles’ music and lyrics. Gravitas. The screaming had died down, people were listening.

So writing about “Eve of Destruction” in 1965 I decided to pull up the “Billboard” playlist, the Hot 100. I put it on shuffle, to surprise me. And there were a couple of tune-outs, not every track was a rock act. But then there was “You Were on My Mind,” the We Five version.

“When I woke up this morning

You were on my mind”

The funny thing is the lyrics are negative, but the vibe of the music is positive. She’s gone, long before she left Hall & Oates, but there’s a bounce in the song, that encompasses the optimism of the era. We were a can-do nation, we were testing personal limits, ultimately the Army stole our slogan, “Be all that you can be.”

And then came Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and “Wooly Bully.” You’ve got to know, we listened on the aforementioned transistor, on scratched up 45s on record players with heavy needles, there was no internet, the lyrics were up for grabs. But sixty years later, on Spotify, the words are perfectly clear.

And then the Sir Douglas Quintet and “She’s About a Mover,” HEY HEY! Doug Sahm had a celebrated comeback on Atlantic in ’73, the album was really pretty good, but now he’s been completely forgotten.

Doug Sahm died at fifty eight of a heart attack, not from misadventure, but coronary heart disease. Musicians traditionally get bad health care, never mind oftentimes having no insurance.

But Sal Valentino is still alive.

I’m getting to Sal, but first I want to talk about “Satisfaction,” that came up on Spotify before “Laugh, Laugh.”

“Satisfaction” is in our DNA. It was considered limit-testing, dangerous back in the day. It was the biggest hit of the summer, that riff was everywhere. And you know what the biggest complaint was? Who was a young person to complain they couldn’t get satisfaction? They had their whole lives in front of them, they should be upbeat, happy! Truly, that’s what people said.

And Mick and Keith are still around playing this adolescent song… I think they’ve had plenty of satisfaction in their lives, but people go see them to remember when, or to get a glimpse of when music truly mattered, when it made a difference.

But then I heard the Beau Brummels song.

There were two, “Laugh, Laugh” and “Just a Little.” I actually preferred the latter more, but both were stupendous. Band member Ron Elliott wrote both, with help from Bob Durand on the latter. But Sal Valentino was the vocalist.

Yes, yes, yes, Sly Stone was the producer. You’ve proved your rock and roll bona fides, you can take your seat. Then again, did you know that Vault bought Autumn, the Tom Donahue label that released the Beau Brummels’ music, and Vault was owned by Jack Lewerke, and his son Greg was the manager of Walter Egan (and ultimately the Blasters)?

Ah, trivia that might be documented online that will few will bother to Google in the future.

Now Sal was such a force that after the Beau Brummels broke up Warner signed his act Stoneground, which released three albums and…

Those of us on the east coast scratched our head. Who?

And then Sal Valentino disappeared.

“I hate to say it but I told you so

Don’t mind my preaching to you

I said ‘Don’t trust him,’ baby now you know

You don’t learn everything there is to know in school”

It’s the harmonica in the intro that sets the tone. The darkness. Something absent from today’s hit parade. But it was all over the airwaves in ’65, like with the Zombies’ “She’s Not There.”

“Wouldn’t believe me when I gave advice

I said that he was a tease

If you want help you better ask me nice

So be sincere, convince me with a ‘pretty please'”

This isn’t the usual teen ditty. These aren’t ten to thirteen year old Beatles fans from 1964, these are late teenagers, high school juniors and seniors, who are past the era of puppy love.

“Laugh, laugh, I thought I’d die

It seemed so funny to me

Laugh, laugh, you met a guy

Who taught you how it feels to be

Lonely, oh so lonely”

WHEW! The attitude. Sure, you got it at the end of the decade with Led Zeppelin and so many more, but this was 1965! This was more of her being on his mind. He had perspective, a sense of humor, he was enjoying her being dumped by the guy she left him for.

Hmm…

But there’s that loneliness.

Now in the seventies there were a ton of singer-songwriters singing about loneliness. But that’s not a theme in today’s I’m a winner music world. I’m a world-beater, pay attention to me, buy my cosmetics, I’m flawless. Sure, I have breakups, but I crawl from the wreckage into a brand new car. That actor, I’ve replaced him with an athlete!

“Don’t think I’m being funny when I say

You got just what you deserve

I can’t help feeling you found out today

You thought you were too good, you had a lot of nerve”

Man, we’ve all lived this. We’ve all been left, at least most of us. And this is exactly what we thought, that they believed they were too good for us. And when they take a fall, we relish it. He’s DISSING HER!

“Won’t say I’m sorry for the things I said

I’m glad he packed up to go

You kept on bragging he was yours instead

Found you don’t know everything there is to know”

Everybody’s apologizing today. For everything. Nobody’s standing their ground saying the words I uttered hurt you, BUT SCREW YOU, I’M STANDING BY THEM!

“Before I go I’d like to say one thing

Don’t close your ears to me

Take my advice and you’ll find out that being

Just another girl won’t cause you misery”

She’ll survive. But he’ll still have one up on her.

“Don’t say you can get any boy at your call

Don’t be so smug or else

You’ll find you can’t get any boy at all

You’ll wind up an old lady sitting on the shelf”

What’s that cliché? Show me a beautiful woman and I’ll show you a man who’s tired of f*cking her?

Oh Bob, there you go, you had to ruin it, what next, some anti-Trump venom? You’ve got to respect women, beautiful women have feelings too.

Then again, if you’re a man… Sure, the women will complain that they’ve got to be skinny and wear makeup based on the images on TV and in magazines and now online, but what is also true is men are made to feel desirous of said women and the odds of being involved with one are…

Minuscule.

Of course, of course, looks aren’t everything. But we live in a looks-based society.

We all have these feelings, but we don’t vocalize them, for fear of being excoriated.

But Sal Valentino is setting this woman straight in this song.

And right now she’s lonely, oh so lonely…

And as I’m playing the record again I’m thinking how this simple 45, not even known by younger generations, is not just a curio of the time, but an avatar of what once was. In an era where money wasn’t everything. Where music wasn’t just mindless or clapback. “Laugh, Laugh” is chiaroscuro…then again, you probably wouldn’t know that term unless you studied art history, and we all know that’s a loser’s game, STEM all the way, baby, or at least business.

But the people who create our entertainment, which we live for, didn’t follow the approved track. They thought for themselves, revealed their truth and we couldn’t get enough of it, STILL!

We wanted to penetrate the miasma. Who were these young guys who were dropping such wisdom, who seemed to exist separate from the rest of society? They were our heroes.

So I’m listening to “Laugh, Laugh” and I’m thinking Sal Valentino should be dead. It’s not like anybody has mentioned his name recently. And Michael Brown is six feet under, a man who concocted a similar sound for the Left Banke.

But I was pretty sure Sal Valentino was alive, but I went to Wikipedia just to check.

Yup, Sal’s still here. He was born in 1942, just like Paul McCartney.

But he ain’t living on his royalties. He gave up music, became a forklift driver, worked in a warehouse and then for the racing form.

Hmm…

We think they’re dead or they’re rich, but most are not. We know their songs by heart, why isn’t Sal Valentino on the oldies circuit?

Then again, maybe he’s lost his voice.

Or despite being alive he’s not healthy enough to go on the road.

But those records… Like I said above, every single baby boomers knows them, by heart. And the guy who sang them is living in obscurity.

What a strange world we live in.

1

I first heard about the Vietnam War from Marshall Drazen.

It was 1964. We were at Camp Laurelwood. Well, actually we were on an overnight, off-site, gathering wood, and he said “You know there’s a war in Vietnam…”

I didn’t.

But Marshall had older siblings. Who told him about it.

War? That was something that happened in the forties, or the fifties. All the talk was about World War II and what is now called the Holocaust. As for Korea… Most of our parents were too old for that and it wasn’t as easily understood. But now there was a war in Vietnam? Where in the hell was Vietnam?

Well, I knew it was in Southeast Asia somewhere, but…how could there be a war?

I parked this information in my brain, no one else was talking about it, but in the summer of ’65 there was a song by Barry McGuire entitled “Eve of Destruction.” It was a gigantic hit. And at this point most people knew there was as war. Over there. That we were going to win, right?

You have to know that America was almighty. If we set our mind to it we did it. Ergo the space race. We were supreme. Of course we could conquer some little rebellion halfway around the world.

And then people started to die.

First those you did not know. Those who were not on the college track. Who had no deferment. Those who thought joining the military was a leg up.

And then…

You were next.

It seemed impossible. The war had been going on for years. Now I’m gonna have to go?

And now the tide was turning. If the war was so winnable, why were we still fighting it? And why were we fighting anyway. The Domino Theory? And the old men in Washington, were they baked in old ideas, did they really know what was going on? Culture was exploding, there was a generation gap. And it was very exciting. There were old fogeys who kept their brush cuts and stood up straight and said nothing had changed, but the middle of America was shifting. It was the music, the movies…everybody wanted in on that.

Now the war went on and on and it finally ended in ’75 with capitulation. We all saw the footage from the airport. People dying to get on a plane, and probably dying if they didn’t.

And then it was hedonism, for the rest of the seventies into the eighties and nineties. Sure, some were left behind, but the boomers who had protested the war were now raking in the dough.

Oh, there was Carter and the hostage crisis, but it was all blamed on him.

And then there was the disco demolition at Comiskey Park and…

Mores were changing in America, but we were in no war, everybody was getting high and chasing the buck. Cocaine was prevalent. Billionaires started to appear and then…

It was the twenty first century. Bush II was the president, the internet was rampant and…we thought the new war was bad, but it was all containable.

Of course there was 9/11, but there was no introspection, no understanding that we were now part of not only the world economy, but the world at large.

And then everything continued to splinter. There were winners and losers and…

Trump got re-elected.

2

I wake up every day and read the news and am stunned and depressed. And I wonder if everybody else feels this way.

But my inbox and social media tells me this is untrue. There are all these videos on TikTok with women looking into the camera and gleefully saying how they support Trump, that he’s doing what he promised, and then there’s a dagger plunged into the heart of the Democrats, the nonbelievers.

But for the past couple of weeks there’s been an increasing number of videos from farmers on TikTok. Stunned. They voted for Trump and now they’re going bankrupt. DOGE eliminated their payments and protections. And then there was that cattle farmer in Nebraska yesterday. She’d voted for Trump three times, but now said they were going bankrupt, because all the undocumented help they depended upon had disappeared.

I don’t own a farm.

But I do buy products. I just bought a new computer two months ago, cost me 4k. It was made in China, what would it cost today?

And I’m not planning to buy a new car, but even in today’s WSJ it spoke about car parts crossing the border multiple times before the assembly of a car was complete.

And I started to think if this was like the Vietnam War. Where everybody supported the President until they didn’t. And believe me they didn’t, Johnson decided not to run for a second term.

And in the free-for-all that resulted… It was just like the 2024 election. The left was so busy arguing within, Humphrey was nominated and the protesting youngsters were not happy and…Nixon won.

And the war went on. And our draft dates got ever closer.

And Country Joe and the Fish said they felt like they were fixin’ to die and…once again, when your life is on the line, it’s a whole new matter. When true believers’ kids died they re-evaluated their belief in the war.

Now so far it hasn’t been life or death. But maybe that’s coming, with Medicaid cuts, possibly even Social Security cuts.

And so much infrastructure that people have depended upon has been eviscerated.

But Nixon didn’t care. Nor does Trump. Both can handle the hate and continue to march forward.

But not J.D. Vance. I’m sure you’ve seen what happened at Sugarbush over the weekend. People were not only protesting on the street, they were running him off the slope.

And the truth is it’s a very rare person who can withstand negative feedback. Which is why so many abstain from participating online, they can’t handle the blowback.

What does it take to get someone out of their house to protest?

When they’re personally affected.

Right now so much has been theory. But when the buck stops with the average American…

There were still true believers. People who thought we should have stayed in Vietnam, who were behind Nixon one hundred percent.

Same deal with Trump, no matter what happens. There will be people standing up for him and his declarations, because they’ve put their faith in the man and refuse to question their beliefs.

As a matter of fact, that’s what’s different from today as opposed to the sixties. Everybody’s afraid to question their beliefs, especially the boomers and Gen-X’ers. Used to be old people faded away, now they think they’re all powerful and they are right, goddam*it. And the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans. They can’t understand why Kamala lost. It must be racism or sexism… They refuse to look under the hood and question her, her beliefs and her campaign. See how Trump was authentic, you got what you were seeing, whereas Harris was inauthentic, a phony you’d keep at arm’s length in real life.

And then there’s the educated looking down on those who are not, who are probably not as wealthy. They know better. But how can you if you’ve never walked in the other person’s shoes?

And as the internet progresses we’re all deep into our own silos. Most don’t even know what is happening with everybody else, never mind the facts.

RFJ, Jr. promotes Vitamin A for measles. All well and good until the outbreak is in your neighborhood and your kids are at risk.

Is this just like Vietnam, will the public ultimately be affected to the point where people react?

Then again, Vietnam lasted for over a decade. And Nixon got re-elected. And unlike in ’74, today’s Congress is not squeezing Trump out of office.

I can’t predict the future, but every day I’m depressed, politics and the world situation are all I can think about.

There are some who believe in America First, that nothing that happens overseas can affect us.

But after Brexit it’s oftentimes economically unfeasible for new acts to tour the continent.

Actions have consequences.

And when is there a concomitant reaction?

That’s what I want to know.