Live long enough and all your heroes disappoint you. Van Morrison? The anti-covid backlash made it so his hard core fans stopped streaming his music. He, like Elon Musk, didn’t realize who his audience was. Even Eric Clapton has been hurt. Then again, scuttlebutt will tell you that the vaccine hurts and the virus started in a lab, and neither could be further from the truth.

But don’t let the truth get in the way of your emotional beliefs.

Today’s hit artists are stars first and foremost, whereas back then that came second. Seemed that they were true to themselves first. Doing what they wanted to do, screw the audience.

Not completely, but…

“Gasoline Alley” is one of my favorite albums.

Now the funny thing is fifty five years later, it’s not only unknown to later generations, but those who were alive and supposedly paying attention back when.

“Going home, running home

Down to Gasoline Alley where I started from

Going home, and I’m running home

Down to Gasoline Alley where I was born”

“Gasoline Alley”? Wasn’t that a comic strip? In any event, one thing is for sure, you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth in gasoline alley.

I dropped the needle on this record and was positively shocked. That voice? This is what all the music magazines were raving about? And then there was the instrumentation, closer to the folk revival of the U.K. than straight ahead rock. The third album, “Every Picture Tells a Story,” yielded hits, but “Gasoline Alley” is the best.

Image. That’s what killed music. MTV. All these years later we can admit it. It became about how you looked, the trappings, more than the music. But decades before… Rockers were outsiders. They gave the middle finger to society, they could not be co-opted. And it was this magic that drove hundreds of thousands to Woodstock, they just had to get closer.

Now there’s no there there. If there’s any gravitas at all, the act tells you so. Whereas you used to have to come to them, not vice versa. You discovered them, went to see them, and they were always at arm’s length. Want to be completely creeped-out? Catch some of Ronnie Wood’s videos on TikTok… This is the guy? He never talked before. Now he has and… But at least we now know where the phrase/album title “I’ve Got My Own Album to Do” came from.

I know, I know, I shouldn’t be pissing on your heroes.

But this suspension of disbelief… I just can’t do it anymore. Desperate for attention and success and money seemingly every act has compromised themselves, whether it be via endorsements/sponsorships or duets or recording lame material… You may hate Don Henley, but that’s one thing he’s never done, sold out, which is one reason the Eagles are still so big… It’s funny, it’s those who think they know better, the punks, who hate the Eagles, because they stole the punks’ lunch… They made it on their own terms.

And Neil Young too. But Neil does need attention.

But Rod Stewart…

What did it for me were those execrable “American Songbook” albums made with schlockmeister Clive Davis. You’re not a singer, you’re an ARTIST!

At least that’s what we used to think. But one false move… Then again, Rod Stewart made FOUR of these albums. For who? For the brain dead who weren’t fans to begin with? You expect us to respect you with your poufed-up hair and skinny pants now? I can’t. You were the coolest dude plying the boards, I believed in you, and now I don’t.

And all of this has gone through my brain as I’ve heard “Forever Young” on SiriusXM multiple times this past week.

I barely liked it when it was a hit, but I’ve come to love it today.

And I know its draw is supposed to be the lyrics, but for me they’re secondary to the sound. Like a musical circus rolling over hill and dale in the English countryside. When done right, rock sits above. It’s something you reach up to the stars to grab. It’s God, riding shotgun and keeping you warm.

The song has changes, which are anathema in today’s world where one chord can suffice.

And sure, it’s got guitars… But if you crank it a bit, you’ll find it’s got a pounding beat too, a big bass drum.

There’s a lot in the track. This is not the rootsiness of the seventies, this is definitely eighties.

But what puts the track over the top is the changes, the melody, and Rod’s voice. He’s not shouting. He’s not punching the clock, going through the motions like he is on the “American Songbook” albums, it’s a late career victory lap, but it’s completely in Rod’s oeuvre. It was a return to form back then, and it still resonates.

The track FEELS optimistic. It just makes you feel good. It’s a throwback to before income inequality eradicated hope in the youth. When a seventies rocker figured out how to participate and triumph in the eighties without compromising, without selling out.

And all these years later this is about as much as we can hope for.

Today’s music is made on the cheap, made to appeal to a niche, but back then you spent a fortune in a studio to try and create something that dominated the airwaves worldwide…and if you succeeded, everybody knew you and your song.

So in 2025 everything is personal. It’s what makes us feel good that counts. And “Forever Young” makes me feel good.

Tune in Saturday November 1st to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

There was a vibe.

And it was different from a regular game.

The intensity was ratcheted up a notch. You knew you were experiencing something different. And the fact that it could be seen by others on TV…never factored in. It was intimate, for the 52,175 in attendance.

But it was not a full house.

Now I’m not saying the best seats were not filled, that would be untrue. But the far distant spots in the upper deck, where it starts to curve around, out past the foul poles, you couldn’t miss it…there was a veritable plethora of unsold seats.

Now you could say it was scalpers not lowering their prices to flip them… But these are the worst seats in the house, and the scalpers buy the most desirable seats, not these.

So why were they unfilled?

BECAUSE THEY COST $881!

Now the funny thing is the vibe at Dodger Stadium was better than almost any show I’ve been to. At the venue, there’s always jockeying for position. Someone won’t sit down. Others talk. And then there’s the pushing ahead, the intimidation. You know, you’ve experienced it at an arena show. Where the music is supposed to bring us together.

But not at the World Series. As Marc mentioned, once we exited the building, it would be a different story. And he was right. As soon as we hit the parking lot the police had a fan in a hold against a patrol car, arm extended, signing…

Blake said it was an agreement not to come back… For at least a year. There have been too many fan on fan crimes in the Dodgers lot. So the cops are cracking down.

But inside the building?

Everybody was friendly, everybody was in it together, it was the culmination of a long season, everybody was there for the Dodgers, for the game… Sure, there were a few Jays fans, but mostly you saw an ocean of Dodger blue.

And it was like a party.

This is not the baseball of yore, a solemn event. Where you sit quietly until the action takes place. There was a constant stream of music. Cheerleaders throwing t-shirts. It was all amped-up, sans the viciousness of the NFL.

Have you seen these players? Unlike in the Mantle/Mays days, they work out. But they’re all not perfect physical specimens. They’re short, they’re tall, some are a bit overweight…but they have the skills. This makes baseball different, the only direct equivalent I can think of is golf.

But baseball’s got a different momentum. Sure, the pitcher is regularly in action, like the golfer, but really what we’re waiting for is a burst of activity, a hit.

And the Dodgers seem to have lost the ability to do so. And you can’t win without scoring runs. And sure, the Jays’ pitcher was stupendous and…

This isn’t the baseball of the past forty years. This baseball goes fast, almost TOO FAST! The innings are going by and you want to put on the brakes, because this is the last game at the stadium for the year. But with the new rules, if there’s not a lot of offense…

And the Jays are playing a different game, more old school, moving the runners around the bases. The Dodgers play statistical baseball, and it says to go for the long ball. And sometimes that works, but last night it did not.

So normally a game is an outing… The food is as important as what takes place on the field. But in this case, I couldn’t get up, the food was irrelevant, I wanted to soak up the action, the experience, it demanded your attention.

And the question was…is it the same everywhere else?

Marc said no way… You don’t get the party vibe in New York. And he also said you don’t see overweight people at Dodger Stadium, that the contrast was palpable.

But what you’ve got to know, especially now, when “California” is a pejorative, when half the country has labeled it a hellhole… We’ve disconnected. We’re not fighting back, why? Stay where you want, we have it good. Where else can you watch baseball at the end of October in the eighties? In your shorts and t-shirt?

Yes, it was a celebration of California culture, a victory lap. With the broad sky and the palm trees in the distance… A veritable paradise. How could you not feel good?

I will say that the air started to come out of the balloon at the end of the middle innings, especially when the Blue Jays pulled so far ahead, but before that? Everybody was in it together, willing the Dodgers to perform…

Even though they didn’t.

So you had to be there… Just like at a show. But at what price?

Now you can’t watch the show at home, except for rarely, like with Coachella. But if you tune in that just gives you FOMO. Yet baseball is all over TV, it used to depress ticket sales drastically. But not in L.A… Which always leads the league in attendance, in one of the oldest parks in existence. Sure, the food is better than it used to be, but not in the league of the two new stadiums in NYC, never mind elsewhere. The product isn’t much different from what it was in the sixties. It’s traditional, even down to the symmetrical field.

So what is the draw?

It’s almost mystical.

In reality, Los Angeles is a two team town. The Dodgers and the Lakers. Sure, there are other outfits, other leagues, but if you live here you know, these two are the primary ones. And everybody is aware of them and how they’re doing.

But the passion is different. On the east coast you want to fight to the death over your team, that’s the way support is evidenced, with attitude, almost anger. Whereas here…it’s all pleasant.

Then again, how to describe the vibe of Los Angeles to those who see it as a scary place where no one can make ends meet? But in truth, L.A. is a giant suburb, and chances are where you live there’s little crime, you feel safe, which is what it really comes down to. And how depressed can you be about your problems, how much can you complain, when every day it’s sunny and warm, all you have to do is walk out the front door to feel glad to be alive.

Which means you don’t need a sports team to feel good about yourself. The team is an addition to your life, not everything.

But what is it worth to you? Do you need to go?

Obviously some saw the financial proposition as too much. Nearly a grand for a baseball game? No. Whereas with shows there’s no limit to what people will pay just to be inside, as long as they can see the stage.

So why don’t they charge what the tickets are worth at concerts?

In sports, it’s a badge of honor to have paid a lot.

And the funny thing with shows is for all the bitching and moaning, people still buy the tickets. Because they need to be there and the ducats are probably underpriced.

But they hate on acts…say they’re greedy if the ticket prices are too high.

Maybe that’s a difference. The Dodgers are the Ticketmaster of the team. They take the heat and the players skate…  The players are fungible, the team remains. Whereas with concerts, it’s the act’s name on the marquee.

But why should shows be priced artificially low? Let’s go one step further, why should the entire industry be handicapped by the vocal few who bitch about high prices and either pay them or don’t go? Fans are willing to pay. And if the acts don’t charge, then the secondary market gets all the uplift.

These guaranteed sellout acts should take a page from the Stones. Admit that they’re worth it and charge a fortune, what the tickets are truly worth. They’re gonna sell, and no one comes out of a show and says they paid too much for a ticket. Either they loved it or they didn’t. Price doesn’t come into the equation, no one says I paid $200 but really it was only a $100 show.

But that’s the world we live in. Where everybody’s afraid of the bogeyman. That there’s some force out there and if you make one false move…

Newsom has proven this wrong for the Democrats… Ironic that he’s from California. Schumer and Jeffries are still pussyfooting.

If the concert industry shook off the constraints and charged what the tickets are worth… The audience would adjust, get over it, in a short period of time, they’d accept this as normal. This is kind of like the switch from sale to subscription by Adobe and then Microsoft… Sure, there are people complaining that they used to pay once and have it forever, but under the new model, you get constant updates. Adobe’s revenue went down for a brief period, and then shot up!

It’s about changing the mind-set.

In the concert industry we’ve got the fallacy that the problem is Ticketmaster. No, the problem is we’ve got too many people fighting for too few underpriced tickets. Who wouldn’t want to be a scalper. Score a good seat for $250 and you can flip it for a grand! It’s found money! Sure, not every show…but a lot of these acts are guaranteed sellouts.

So you can sit there at home and instead of complaining you can’t get a ticket in the frenzy, you’ll ask yourself what is it worth to you to go?

Nobody on the consumption side is going to like this at first. Just like they said music should be free back in the sixties. An extremely desirable good, which is perishable to boot, is going to command increased attention and ultimately revenue…why not capture it?

All you’ve got to do is be brave.

You’re paying for Ohtani to play for the Dodgers, we’re all paying. We don’t sit at home and say he should take less. If anything, we know that if he does, the Dodgers and their deep pocketed owners will just capture the revenue. Why can’t acts be paid what they’re worth? So the secondary market doesn’t capture the uplift?

We need a change of heart and mind. Someone’s just got to step up, and then the whole paradigm will flip. This is what the audience wants, a fair shot at getting a good ticket. And under the present system, that’s an illusion. Yes, this will probably cause face value to go up, but it can also go down, based on demand… Like I said, the public thought corner upper deck seats weren’t worth the price…but they still had the option to buy them. Wouldn’t you like the option?

A one woman tour de force!

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