Leonard Cohen – Spotify

A great song can be sung by anybody. And even though two covers of Leonard’s work are legendary, Judy Collins’s “Suzanne” and Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah,” it’s Don Henley’s cover of “Everybody Knows” that sticks with me, that I sing in my head again and again…remember when we could still sing songs?

Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Sound like our election?

I certainly think it does. I understand the poor feel screwed, that they’ve been left behind in the march to globalization and digitization, but I have a hard time seeing how cutting taxes on the rich will help them out. As for bringing back manufacturing to America…well, that’s fine if you want to pay $2500 for a flat screen that’s made by few people anyway, automation is king.

“Everybody Knows” originally appeared on Leonard Cohen’s 1988 album “I’m Your Man,” which had very little impact, because by this time the buzz was done. After the thrill is gone, after you’re no longer the critics’ darling, will you continue to compose? The greats do, Leonard Cohen did.

And seven years later, Don Henley included it on his greatest hits album, “Actual Miles,” one of three new compositions included to implore completists to purchase the LP, back when that was still a thing, buying albums.

And now it’s twenty one years later and most people have still not heard “Everybody Knows,” but it’s lying in wait, you will be slayed by its truth when you finally discover it. This is the antithesis of today’s hit and run music, this is a time bomb, a land mine, waiting to go off when you stumble upon it, a great song is forever, never forget that.

My mother asked me about Leonard Cohen. Which was kind of surprising, because despite her being a culture vulture, I was the pop music king, this was before our parents were our friends, before oldsters turned their progeny on to the Beatles, when to be on the same page as your parents was a rare event.

And the first album made an impact, back when records didn’t have to chart, didn’t have to have a single, to do so.

You should probably start here, with 1968’s “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” produced by the unheralded John Simon who’s been forgotten by the wankers inducting second-rate poseurs into the Hall of Fame while he midwifed some of the greatest albums in the modern canon.

And “Songs of Leonard Cohen” sounds like a Simon album, in that it’s got a slickness, with strings, that most don’t think of when they think of Leonard Cohen today, but it’s a document, seared into my brain and the culture.

Its most famous song is the aforementioned “Suzanne,” which cemented Judy Collins’ career, made her a star, transformed her from a folkie into a pop princess. Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” ultimately put her over the top, but it was “Suzanne” that turned the tide, it was unlike today, there was not a baby boomer who hadn’t heard it, despite it not being a hit single.

Suzanne takes you down to her place by the river
You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night forever

Notice the difference? This is unlike today’s lyrics, which are all about status and accomplishment, “Suzanne” is about life, which is why Leonard Cohen’s song resonated and still radiates, we’re touched by humanity, flash comes and goes, real life sustains. And Leonard’s version is even more subtle than Judy’s, it’s like there’s a poet in the corner singing his song, quietly, to the point where you’re intrigued and you want to get closer, you need to get closer.

And just when you want to tell her that you have no love to give her
She gets you on her wavelength and lets the river answer
That you’ve always been her lover

That’s the power of people as opposed to corporations, they’ll surprise you, you’ll think they have no effect on you and then you can’t live without them. And no recitation of the power of “Suzanne” can be complete without reference to the lyrics about touching her (and his!) perfect body with her mind. We’re all seeking perfection, and we find it in the less than perfect, a conundrum that’s part of the mystery of life.

And the two other songs that touched me from the debut, they all did, but the ones that immediately come to mind are “So Long, Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” my college roommate used to play that album again and again, and they were imprinted upon my mind. We now know who Marianne was, she recently passed, but back then it didn’t matter, we created a picture in our own mind, the songs were for us. And we never disconnect from those we love, certainly not emotionally, we never really say goodbye, which is why these partings are always so awkward.

Suddenly, with the success of “Songs of Leonard Cohen” Leonard was no longer a poet from the Great White North, he was a member of the pop firmament, no one had previously crossed over, still, he inhabited his own space, he always existed in his own rarefied world.

The follow-up, 1969’s “Songs From A Room” is most famous for its opening cut, “Bird on the Wire,” which was famously covered by Joe Cocker on his second album, his best, as well as the live album “Mad Dogs & Englishmen,” great songs were passed around, sung by everybody.

But Leonard Cohen’s commercial impact was waning with each LP. The second and third were produced by Bob Johnston in accordance with Leonard’s wishes, but the sounds were less accessible than the John Simon work, but each album had a standout track, on 1971’s “Songs of Love and Hate” it was “Famous Blue Raincoat,” which Jennifer Warnes made famous as the title track of her 1987 album, her artistic and commercial peak.

And then it was a journey into the wilderness, everybody knew Leonard’s name, he got press, but few acquired albums that got no airplay and therefore had little cultural impact. More people remember that 1977’s “Death of a Ladies’ Man” was produced by Phil Spector than any of the songs. I bought it, it was a curio, kind of like the Ramones album “End of the Century” that Spector also produced, equally a mismatch.

1984’s “Various Positions” included “Hallelujah,” a modern day standard, but completely ignored upon its release.

And 1988’s “I’m Your Man” included “First We Take Manhattan,” as well as “Everybody Knows,” the former the opening cut on that Jennifer Warnes album “Famous Blue Raincoat,” featuring searing guitar work by the dearly departed Stevie Ray Vaughan. You see the public might not have been listening, but the artists were, back when being an artist was just that, you weren’t in the hunt for corporate opportunities, you weren’t a brand, but a malleable mass in search of experimentation and satiation as well as riches. Pushing the envelope was key, and the music spoke for you.

The music was speaking for Leonard Cohen. Because he wasn’t speaking at all. He’d checked out, he’d gone up the road to Mt. Baldy, he’d joined a monastery.

There’s this illusion that rock stars live that life 24/7, but the truth is people are paying attention for a very short time, especially in the pre-Internet era, if you weren’t making hits and you weren’t getting arrested it was like you didn’t even exist. When I went to a birthday party in the Valley back in 2003 and Leonard was there he was just an old Jew in a hat, not someone who changed the tenor of the entire assemblage. He radiated a charisma, but he seemed self-contained, in his own bubble, you could lean in, but he was not leaning out, it was very different from the famous people who are looking for attention and adoration, it was like he knew something we did not, that the joke was on us, that money and fame were secondary to personal fulfillment, and that life was hard, and you did your best to soldier on.

And then Leonard Cohen lost all his money and went on the road and became an icon.

How weird is all this. If that woman hadn’t stolen from him, he might never have played live again, gotten all that press, those accolades. Funny how life goes. You think you’re in charge, but you’re not.

Leonard got a victory lap nonpareil. He just released a new album that got rave reviews.

And today he died.

So what are we left with?

The songs. He’s no longer here, but his work will live on, he’s got a legacy.

And what is that legacy?

Someone who did it differently. Who was in search of pleasure, who experienced the pain. Leonard Cohen was a seeker. Whether it be that foray to Greece way back when or up the hill to the monastery, he was looking for answers.

And now he’s revered for that.

Let that be a wake-up call. That despite all the emphasis on money, the constant social networking, life is really a mysterious adventure you go through alone, you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other, you’ve got to make choices, they’re only your own. And those who are willing to buck the trends, who do it their way, are the ones we look up to.

He was a charming poet from Canada, not the scion of a studio head in Los Angeles.

He followed his muse, it led him to a recording contract and the fruits that ultimately bore.

But when I think of Leonard Cohen today, I think of someone who was sui generis, who was birthed in an era where who you were was more important than what you did. A man who realized that telling his own personal story was more important than playing the game, that ultimately it’s not statistics we’re drawn to, but truth.

And like I said, there’s a lot of truth in “Everybody Knows.”

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody’s talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows

We all know the truth, we’re just afraid to speak it. That’s what we depend upon artists for, that’s why we’re drawn to them.

I feel like my father or my dog just died. I’ve been at loose ends for forty eight hours.

And when you’re in a spot like that, the only thing that resonates is music.

Leonard Cohen made music, and so much more.

He needed to express himself.

We needed to listen.

That’s how it goes.

Everybody knows.

You can’t say we weren’t warned.

He defeated all his Republican challengers. Brexit told us that the elites were out of touch with the rank and file. The disconnect is not only about economics, but attitudes, education, identity…

That’s right, you went to a good college and pulled yourself up by your bootstraps and…

Everybody else was left behind, and they don’t like it.

The left wing said it was about racism. Pure and simple. That Trump had awakened all the bigoted nutjobs…

But you can’t win with the bigots only. He defeated Hillary fair and square. How did the intelligentsia get it so WRONG?

First, the mainstream press thought people were listening to it. To these holier-than-thou talking heads who are paid millions to bloviate in a world where we get our news from the internet, not television… If you’re still watching TV for the answers, you ain’t got a clue. How did I know Trump was gonna win? Because early in the evening Nate Silver had him ahead. Said his odds were better than fifty percent. The same Nate Silver the “New York Times” let go, because the sports reporters didn’t want to cede turf. If you watched the “Times” odds for the last six months the Donald had no chance, Hillary had it locked up.

But she didn’t.

Not that Nate Silver is infallible. He missed the Trump phenomenon completely. He thought when the other Republican candidates started dropping out there’d be a rally around Rubio or another RNC-approved candidate. But that never happened. Nate said Trump’s appeal had a ceiling. That turned out to be untrue.

But at least Silver had the balls to admit he was wrong, to stand up to the “Huffington Post,” which said Hillary had a lock on the election, when it questioned Nate’s methods.

There are two lessons for you right there. Be willing to change and also be willing to stand up for what you believe in. And in this groupthink world we live in that’s very rare.

That was part of Trump’s appeal. He refused to play by the rules. He said racist stuff, sexist stuff, he committed faux pas after faux pas, he broke taboos. But what the inside the Beltway people and the mainstream media didn’t realize was that you hear this stuff all the time online, hatred rules, it’s a free-for-all with no decorum. So, people were not offended, they brushed these misdemeanors right off.

But Hillary was a bad candidate! And there was the Comey letter!

If you’re depending on those excuses to explain the Democratic loss you’re missing the point. This was not the usual race, everything the pols said counted did not. Trump had little infrastructure, almost no get out the vote effort, yet he won anyway.

Could Bernie have defeated Donald?

Maybe. But the same press that made fun of Occupy Wall Street refused to take Sanders seriously. The same cabal that let the Wall Street rapists not only escape scot-free, but triumph once again. That’s right, in the financial world it’s morning in America.

Maybe not tomorrow, when the markets tank, but…

The conundrum is that Trump’s victory will only make things better for the wealthy. Kind of like the old days, when Republicans ran against gay marriage so they could lower their taxes. But the Republicans own the narrative. And the narrative is that government is a controlling wastrel which bleeds money and that Hillary Clinton is a crook.

And the Democratic response?

Crickets.

Bill O’Reilly is accused of sexual harassment and he fights back, Fox News rallies the troops.

Democrats are accused of misdeeds and they become crybabies.

But it’s not so much that Clinton was a victim of misdeeds, rather she was out of touch with the public. People need hope. Without platitudes. “Stronger Together”? If that resonates with you, you must be part of Hill’s inner circle.

And Hill’s inner circle ran a traditional campaign, by the book. Like a record industry banking on resuscitating the CD, never mind the nitwits invested in vinyl. Times change, and you must too. The public embraced streaming, listens on YouTube and Spotify and Apple Music dwarf those on disc or file. But you can’t convince the old guard, no way.

So how do we get out of this mess?

First and foremost we’re headed for bad times. Trump is inexperienced and expertise is necessary to run any enterprise, just ask Jesse Ventura or Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose reigns were ineffective.

But they were both media stars.

Trump is a media star, anointed by television. In a world where celebrity is everything. Kim Kardashian is a talentless doofus, but she’s got more influence than anybody in Congress, she’s laughing all the way to the bank, it’s not like this wasn’t obvious.

And what’s obvious is we have to go back to sixties values.

I know, I know, that sounds insane on this day, but the truth is we have to help our brother, we’re all in it together. We’ve got to give the poor and disadvantaged a better education and a leg up, a helping hand.

Doubt me?

Then explain the phenomenon of Purdue Pharma. Which single-handedly created the heroin epidemic by stating that its product OxyContin was not addictive. That’s right, you start on Oxy and when you can’t afford it you move on to cheaper heroin. Meanwhile, Purdue got rich.

That’s the problem. The liberals got rich. They became fat cats. They used to care about the working man, now they want nothing to do with him. Sure, Dems may dominate Silicon Valley, creating the products that those in the red states utilize, but they want nothing to do with their users. Not only is there no tech support, these guys, and it is mostly guys, fly private and live in an alternative universe, and you think the underclass doesn’t know?

The underclass knows you can’t afford rent even if you do graduate from college, you’re living with your parents.

The underclass knows that the fortunate have contempt for them.

So the underclass decided to give the fortunate the middle finger.

First they came for your union, then they came for your welfare, are you really gonna believe in the spineless Democrats who refused to stand up for you?

I don’t think so.

Don’t get wrapped up in the cognitive dissonance. How these same people will be worse under a Republican regime, left to forage on their own. Citizens in burgs benefiting from European Union expenditures voted for Brexit, because they didn’t like being told what to do, they’d lost their identity, they wanted to reclaim it.

You’ve lost your job, you can’t find another one that feeds your family and you’re gonna believe the most inauthentic person alive is gonna help you out? That’s right, the Clintons triangulate, they do what’s expedient in a world that runs on instinct. You go with your gut, not the rulebook.

Donald Trump went with his gut, he burned the rulebook, and he’s having the last laugh.

The joke may be on us, but he’s now our President, and with a Republican Congress he’s gonna dismantle Obamacare and Dodd-Frank and people will be worse off. But they wanted change. They’re hurting. They’re open to anything new. Even a charlatan preaching false hope.

But if you want to be angry tonight, be angry at yourself. For drinking the media kool-aid. These are the newspapers we’ve got to save? Not only did they get it wrong, they’re operating in an echo chamber, they’re out of touch, maybe a new model is necessary. Be angry at yourself for not taking a stand against narcissism, for taking your piece of the pie and not giving back, for living on the fruits of the system.

Like musicians, whose goal is to sell out. One song of truth can have more power than any corporation. But no, these soulless “artists” would rather get paid. Everybody’s looking to get paid.

Don’t try to explain this by traditional metrics.

And even though I’m giving Nate Silver some credit, the truth is data did not foresee this. We thought everything could be mechanized, that 0’s and 1’s would save the world, when the truth is it comes down to people, and emotions, and no machine can compete.

Facebook was biased, Google is controlling what we know and see…

Well, if that’s true, how come these left-leaning organizations couldn’t elect Hillary?

No, the truth is we can never know what’s inside another human being, what they feel.

But we can see that most of America was disgruntled with the status quo, it wanted a reset, and it got it.

I can’t even contemplate tomorrow.

But I can see the seeds of discontent. The yuppie movement. The BMWification of the upper middle class. The flaunting of wealth. The separation of them from us.

We’re all just people folks.

One person, one vote.

And the people have spoken.

They want Trump.

My shrink saw it.

We don’t have that kind of relationship, one wherein he shares his personal story. It’s all about me, all the time, which I find a bit difficult, I tend to reflect the sun upon others. Ask somebody a question, show interest, and they’ll go on forever, they’ll tell you their deepest, darkest secrets.

But they won’t reciprocate. That’s the dirty little secret of people, they’re self-centered, narcissistic, if someone asks you about you they’re a keeper. And if you want to get ahead in this life, win friends and influence people, show interest, everybody wants to be known, they’re just waiting for someone to ask, tell somebody your story and you bond forever, never forget that.

But my shrink shocked me today, when I mentioned the Netflix show, a big smile spread across his face, he got excited, and that’s when I asked him, had he seen it?

He had.

I wasn’t going to. The hype slid off of me. Sure, it featured Winona Ryder, but all the reviewers said it was better than adequate but not top-notch.

But the populace felt otherwise.

Professional reviewers are toast. We depend upon the wisdom of the crowd. And oftentimes their interests don’t align. And TV shows are now akin to books, they’re hiding in plain sight until the word of mouth becomes deafening and we all tune in. This is not appointment television, this is land mines, waiting for you to step on them, to be blown away, to tell everybody about your experience.

A UTA agent told me it was one of the two best shows on television. The other being “Atlanta.” Are you feeling the buzz on that FX show? Starring the ubiquitous Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino? That’s one the critics have all aligned on, yet it hasn’t quite penetrated the public consciousness. That’s the world we live in, you can employ scorched earth publicity and either gain traction or not, in most cases not, like Gaga, or you can put it out there to little impact and wait for the public to make noise. And people love to embrace art and spread the word, it makes them feel good.

And I read that Stephenie Meyer couldn’t wait for the second season of “Stranger Things,” and I never read the “Twilight” books but I know she’s a fan, kind of like Elton, he not only makes the music, he LISTENS TO IT! So many artists are ME, ME, ME all the time and that focus has us either accepting or neglecting them, there’s no in between, but when they’re a fan like us…

So now I was ready.

Now “Stranger Things” was released on Netflix on July 15th. Let that be a lesson to you, don’t judge your results upon the first week. If you’ve made something great give it some time. Then again, there’s a tsunami of product and it might get buried, we live in challenging times.

So I’m late to the party, but it’s new to me. If you’re putting people down for being late adopters you’re living by twentieth century precepts. Today there’s so much stuff no one can keep up. Be thrilled someone ever comes on board.

And I love Netflix.

But it’s not what it once was. It no longer has an exhaustive catalog of flicks.

What I hate about movies is you can read about ’em but you can’t see ’em. I’m paying $150 to Spectrum, and I fire up my cable maybe an hour and a half a week. There’s the Netflix subscription and the Amazon Prime and I’m already paying for HBO… It’s like being pecked to death by ducks. Name a number for everything, please. We’ve got that in music, when are we going to get that in movies?

I was listening to Brett Easton Ellis testify about the Duplass Brothers’ “Blue Jay” in his podcast. It’s coming to Netflix, but I couldn’t wait. Because if you wait, you never see it, there’s always something new. So I paid. Five bucks. And felt ripped off. Because even though I’m a fan of Mark and Jay this movie was far from great, and I only have time for great. And I didn’t think “Stranger Things” was great at first, but I’m changing my mind.

Funny thing about some of these shows, it takes a while for you to get hooked. With “Stranger Things” I’d say it’s four episodes, by time you hit five you want to slow down the clock, you’re afraid it’s going to be over.

So, it’s made by the Duffer Brothers, who I’ve never heard of before. That’s one of the great things about art and the low barrier to entry, there are always new players on the scene, testing limits, pushing boundaries. And “Stranger Things” is a horror flick, a fantasy/sci-fi production, but it’s also a human drama, about high school and families and…

It’s a whole world and you get sucked down the rabbit hole.

Quite a respite from this election cycle we’re living through, where everybody disagrees and is hunkered down in their bunker, unwilling to listen or change. And that’s the power of art, it’s the ANTIDOTE!

Life is boring.

But that’s what makes it interesting. Everybody’s the lead in their own movie, everybody’s got a story, which brings us back to the opening of this diatribe but…

Will Byers disappears.

But Eleven has got superpowers.

And Matthew Modine has never been better, he finally lives up to his rep.

And the series is referential. Not only to so many horror movies made previously, but “E.T.,” with the three kids in search of…

Kids are hamstrung by their parents, yet they live in a relatively stress-free world unburdened by adult responsibilities.

Of course there’s bullying and status issues, but…

I abhor fantasy, yet I like a good thrill. You’re gonna wonder about some of the choices the characters make, but you’ll find yourself pulled in by “Stranger Things.” Winona Ryder might be recognizable, but almost everybody else is not, it’s kind of like the original “90210,” these actors have been plucked from obscurity to leave their mark and…

Netflix gives you the money to execute your vision. Something we used to do in the music business before the suits took over. The artists know best.

And the public knows when something resonates.

I heard Dana Carvey on Stern, one of the most entertaining hours extant.

But I pulled up Garth’s Netflix special and winced, he doesn’t know how to sustain, Dana can riff, and that’s about it. But the Duffer Brothers?

We live in exciting times. Despite all the hogwash about short attention spans, “experts” telling us to make it ever so much more brief, the truth is we want to go deep, we want to enmesh ourselves in the story.

But you’ve got to write it, you’ve got to birth it and finish it.

And…

“Stranger Things” is not the “Walking Dead,” a show that comes on once a week that we talk about the very next day. It’s something more sinister, like Cream or the rest of the album acts that didn’t cross over to Top Forty, at least not at first. “Stranger Things” is made for people who are digging, who want to go for the ride more than talk about it. It’s not for Instagramming, but for watching.

Some things remain the same, the public wants to be entertained, it’s got an insatiable appetite for quality entertainment.

And “Stranger Things” is that.

I’m not gonna tell you what happens. I’m just spreading the word. So that maybe you’ll take a chance and be happy.

“Stranger Things” is making me very happy.

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

“Get Together”
The Youngbloods

Break records at Louis, ate breakfast at Gucci
My girl a superstar from a home movie

“Clique”
Kanye West

Trump could win.

The left-leaning mainstream press, except for Fox News, of course, is selling a different story, that Hillary is safely ahead, the Democratic turnout is deafening, Latinos are coming out in droves, and the Donald has little chance.

But Nate Silver says otherwise. He says that Hillary is up by three points nationally and that three point polling errors happen all the time. And that Trump has a one in three chance of electoral college victory. And Nate is the most accurate prognosticator we’ve got, but he’s been wrong too. He said Trump had no chance in the primaries, but Trump succeeded. Is Silver overcorrecting? Afraid to have egg on his face? Then again, Silver is dealing with data, not emotion, and if you lean toward sanity, this is positively scary.

As for that left-leaning mainstream press… That’s a construct of the right wing propaganda machine. Hillary is a criminal and the press is not to be trusted, it’s biased, in favor of anything the right wing does not believe in, in this case reason. But that’s the country we live in, where everybody’s working the refs, and the Republicans did a great job of it, read Paul Krugman on the Comey letter…

And that proves we also live in a world of individuals. Not only can one person in Silicon Valley change the world, but one person in Washington, D.C., one person at home with a vote. And that’s always been true, despite groupthink, but that’s one of the few things that parallels what once was.

The mainstream media has never had less power. And it is run by elites. Have you seen what these TV personalities make? Furthermore, none of them do any reporting, they’re just talking heads, pundits, entertainers, no wonder the news divisions are profit centers, there’s little gravitas, and little audience.

So the country is run by the “New York Times,” with boots on the ground. But the “Times” is not gaining online, it’s individual websites, news sites, who are repurposing the “Times”‘s facts if there are any facts at all, speaking to a mistrustful audience that only hears what it wants to. What’s a poor boy to do? Certainly not play in a rock and roll band, there’s no money in that. Corporations control the cash, and for all the tech press, the odds of scoring big are just as long as having a hit record and if you’ve got a brain you hunker down and get an education, it’s the safe way out, and in this era you want to play it safe, otherwise why would record companies employ the same cadre of old men to write all the hit records, they don’t want to take a risk!

The youth may have succeeded in getting rid of Lyndon Johnson, but no one under thirty expected Richard Nixon to get elected and the seventies were all about licking one’s wounds, going back to the land. Hell, even Bernie Sanders moved to Vermont, albeit in ’68, it was just too rough in the decaying inner city run by the usual suspects.

But today the cities are safe, other than Chicago, and bastions of intellectualism, it’s the country where your life is in danger, from opioids, from guns, from lack of services. And this is where the disgruntlement has burgeoned.

Along with a south that was scary back then and is scary still now. If you had long hair you didn’t venture below the Mason-Dixon line. But instead of feeling inadequate, our brethren in the Sun Belt now feel powerful, they’re not licking the wounds of Reconstruction, North Carolina is bringing back the values of the Old South, and Texas is as red as it could be. They’re girded for battle, they won’t back down, the Allman Brothers might have gotten moderate Democrat Jimmy Carter elected President, but now there are no powerful moderate Democrats down south and all the players are in Nashville where if you evidence blue values, you’re evicted.

And then came the eighties. It was not the sixties anymore. First came MTV, which showed us you could make a lot of money by looking good and selling out. It also showed us we lived in a heterogeneous society of many colors. Which is why we’ve got a black President and gay marriage, credit MTV, it changed people’s values. But it also eliminated the rock star values of yore. Wherein speaking your truth and being independent counted. It was all money, all the time. Sure, Led Zeppelin made it about the money in the seventies, but that band played by its own rules, they were the Trumps of their day, albeit less heinous, although one can compare the mud shark episode to the groping scandals of Trump, then again, Jimmy and Robert, never mind Bonzo, were not running for President. They were selling something different, music, and it hasn’t been about the music for a very long time.

Along with MTV the eighties bought Reagan, who the Republicans have deified. For what accomplishments, I’m not sure. But this is important. Because the right wing skewed the game. It started the Federalist Society, to put right wing judges in place. It’s a giant disinformation campaign wherein government is not to be trusted, taxes are bad, and corporations are good. I’ll argue Reagan did much more damage than good, but my inbox will fill up.

But I can take it.

But no one else can.

Everybody today is recoiling, trying to avoid the tsunami of hate.

And then Bill Clinton gets elected and prosperity reigns. As the social safety net is eviscerated. But so much money is coming in, the deficit evaporates, that we’re all partying like it’s 1999, and then it is, we don’t care about the poor, the country is run by educated baby boomers who’ve been coddled and out of touch with the rank and file for years and then…

The twenty first century comes along and it all gets worse.

There’s a tech revolution, spearheaded by Steve Jobs. First we get iPods, then we get iPhones. And in the process, media is disrupted. Not only the music companies, but the news too. And the movies. Music is now in a good place on a business level, it’s made it to the other side, all the wares for one low legal price. Where is this in movies and television? Nonexistent, and that’s a problem. But the movie and TV executives believe they’re smarter than the idiots working in music, that they’re immune, and there’s the problem right there, elites who think they’re better than the rest, and immune. But they’re not, Brexit taught us that.

So now we can all communicate. And what we’ve ended up with is noise, a Tower of Babel society, where you only hear what you want to. Where Hillary fans know no Trump supporters. With all this information at our fingertips we actually know less, because we filter for our prejudices. We just reinforce what we already know, while those in power try to sell us what’s advantageous to them.

Like there’s no downside in selling out to the man. Music used to be predicated on independence, no longer. Therefore, the public doesn’t look for truth in it like it once did. Why would you believe what a musician has to say? Someone who wrote the song with nineteen other people and is trying to sell you jeans and perfume along with his or her opinion.

And if you don’t have money, your opinion is worthless. Reagan legitimized greed, the rich flaunt their lifestyles and in a world where Lloyd Blankfein makes all the money and rules, why listen to a singer? And Marc Andreessen is a seer… What did he ever do other than start Netscape, a company that’s been plowed under, no one’s using Netscape today, but they are still listening to Beatle records.

We’ve got false idols and life is hard and you’ll do and believe anything that makes you feel good.

Purdue says OxyContin is not addictive so it’s overprescribed and we end up with a heroin epidemic. And no one cared until the sons and daughters of rich Republicans started dying too.

And the younger generation, even college graduates, is still living with its parents, they can’t afford to move out. But we keep hearing about the greatness of Megyn Kelly. How does one become her and what exactly is she selling? So if you’re not beautiful you don’t count and if you’re on TV you matter, is it any wonder everybody’s at home burnishing their social media brand, trying to make it? YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat are the great hope, they’re the way out of the doldrums, out of the suburbs into a world of money and fame. And you might question what skills these people bring to the table, but what skills does Kim Kardashian bring to the table, and she’s their hero, she’s the biggest winner! She makes more than the musicians and the path is easier, why would you bother to learn how to play?

And if you do play, you can’t get noticed unless you play pop music and are pushed by the machine. So most players are disgruntled. Everybody in America is disgruntled other than the rich. So we want to be them and they ride herd over us. Hell, people believe Trump is their friend the same way we thought David Crosby was our friend way back when. But Crosby was a hotheaded stoner in service to the music, he and his cronies made lasting contributions. But now it’s all smoke and mirrors and self-aggrandizing and…

There’s progress to be made. We could all agree on the facts. But that would require news outlets to focus on them, to stop employing false equivalencies and focus on reporting. And put aside the emphasis on the get and the horse race. But it might be bad television. That’s right, “Network” predicted this, it’s all about ratings.

And the cultural institutions would have to have some self-respect. Record companies would have to take a chance on that which is not an easy sell. And the self-righteous nerds in the arts focused on trumping up that which few care about will have to self-correct too. How is it that there are elites in every enterprise? Who think they’re better than the rest. The public is locked out, to the point it doesn’t care, and then it foists something like Trump upon the holier-than-thou elites to show them that they really don’t rule.

That’s right, the people rule. And the media and the pollsters and the prognosticators are all out of touch with the people. They think their power is inviolate, that what they say goes, that they know better, and if you don’t hate these people, you’re one of them.

And there are very few of them.

So, the right wing labels Hillary a crook. As if she broke into a bank, shot twenty people and stole millions. Actually, that’s not far from the version of the truth they’re selling. You’d think she’s a deplorable.

But the true deplorables are the white supremacist, immigrant-hating men and women who don’t believe in change.

But change is inevitable.

And change is what has happened in our country. And no one seems to have a grasp on it. Not the media, not artists, no one seems to be able to say this is where we are and I’ve got a plan out of here. Trump is a bozo selling snake oil and Hillary is completely out of touch. But so is the government. Government is now a way to get rich, no different from Hollywood way back when. Hate the game, not the player.

And everybody does hate the game.

But we keep playing it. So far, revolution has not come. Shooting black people is bad, but somehow it’s now the African-Americans’ fault, explain that to me, please. And if Trump loses his supporters want to overthrow the government, not realizing that Congress has nearly done this, by not promulgating legislation and not anointing a Supreme Court justice. We’re constantly on the precipice but we don’t tip over. Will it take a terrorist attack, or a hacking scandal of gigantic proportions? And then will we elect a strongman who makes us safe who really does anything but that?

If you’ve got a brain, you’ve got more questions than answers.

And if you’ve got a brain you’re doing your best to understand the dissatisfaction in our nation. Quote me statistics all day long, but it doesn’t feel like we’re going in the right direction, it doesn’t feel like I have opportunity, and hope is everything, but there’s only hope for the rich elite.

Which is how Trump gained traction. Want to turn things around? Look at yourself, change your behavior, don’t only vote but ask yourself if you respect others, look for their gifts. The rich have all the money, but the poor will help you in a crisis, that’s what the statistics say.

And we trust statistics, but sometimes falsely. Because they’re cherry-picked, they don’t tell the truth. We won’t know which candidate will win until everybody votes and their choices have been tabulated.

There’s a serious chance Trump wins.

And even if he doesn’t, and let’s pray he doesn’t, our long national nightmare will not have ended, it will have only just begun. The government will be gridlocked and the problems of the people will still exist.

And the problem is we all live in a society, we’re all in it together, and no one wants to live by that credo, everybody’s pointing fingers at everyone else and looking for a way out. They want to separate themselves, but it can’t be done. It is a big tent, it is a Great Society. And you can’t win every time, you’ve got to do your best to understand contrary viewpoints, educate people on the facts and include them in progress.

But recently, that’s become impossible to do. We planted seeds decades ago that are now sprouting and surprising us.

Come on, do you expect the poor to do the right thing when public education has been underfunded and people can’t analyze the truth, never mind know where to find it?

No, we’re all complicit.

And we’ve got to turn this country around.

We need new leaders and we’ve got to watch the parking meters, but the parking meters were all sold to hedge funds that now charge us on Sundays and public service is seen as a joke, an engineer is revered but someone who has dedicated themselves to the process, to helping others, is not.

This is where we are.

And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Then again, those words were written by a Canadian.

But we’re constantly told the United States is the greatest country in the world!

But in many ways it’s not.

And if we can’t look for the truth in our country, how are we gonna look for the truth in ourselves?

We’ve got a long way to go, and whatever happens on Tuesday it is not the end, but only the beginning.

Nate Silver – “Election Update: Don’t Ignore The Polls – Clinton Leads, But It’s A Close Race”

Paul Krugman – “Working the Refs”