Subject: Re: Reality

This past year, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading practically each and every one of your emails for the truth and wisdom they contain. However, the ending of today’s email depressed me.  As the mother of an 18 year would-be rock star, I was thrilled (until 5 minutes ago) that my son (who had previously expressed interest in blowing off college to “work on his music”) is heading off to be a freshman in the music conservatory at Purchase College next week.  I’m worried that you wouldn’t include studying Studio Composition in your advice of “So stay in college. Earn a professional degree”.  And since I think so highly of you, I decided to do what I’ve never done until now which is to bother you with an email.  What IS your opinion on Bachelor of Music degrees?  Useless or useful?

Many thanks,
Alice Tamkin

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From: Bob Lefsetz
To: Alice Tamkin
Subject: Re: Reality

1. If he actually learns to read, write/compose, he’s ahead of the game.

2. If he wants to be a rock star, give up. But only he’ll learn this. A few do  make it… I don’t know your kid, but if he’s talented, self-confident, perseveres  and can work every angle, leave him alone in the dark and he’ll find his way home, he’s got a chance…otherwise he’ll just be disillusioned.

3. Life is long. I’d go to a traditional college and one always has time to go broke playing music.

4. As for music education being a way to make money…at least he’s studying  something real, as opposed to marketing, but it’s very tough out there.

__________

It is not my job to give you hope. I am not a website or an app promising you success if you just pay me a few bucks (hopefully every month!) The entertainment business is littered with scoundrels trying to make a profit off your hopes and dreams. I am not one of them.

And I know you hate me for it. At least those not giving kudos.

I saw that movie “Milk,” wherein Harvey’s political opponent said he wasn’t worried about Harvey beating him, because Harvey didn’t give people the one thing they needed, HOPE!

I am not running for office.

What do I know?

There will be entertainment in the future. There will be musicians, visual artists and dancers. But despite more people participating, looking for our attention, ever fewer gain mass appeal.

And it’s all right if you’re plying the niches. As long as you don’t harbor a fantasy of crossing over, as long as you’re happy.

And if you’re happy playing in your bedroom and never selling a thing, that’s fine with me too.

But my inbox is inundated with acts with websites and videos and iTunes downloads hungry for attention and a helping hand to make it. I ask you to align your dreams with your effort. Being successful is more than talent, more than practice, it’s first and foremost a personality issue. Can you befriend people and have them work to your advantage? Madonna excelled at this! Not that you have to be manipulative and dishonest, but it helps!

As for help… If you read me and get a few tips, that’s great. But success comes down to you. And in the arts, it’s extremely elusive.

I’d love to have you prove me wrong! I’d love to have something I say sucked ultimately triumph in a new incarnation down the road.

But this hasn’t happened yet. Because it’s easier to look in the mirror and perform affirmations, saying you’re good enough and deserve success, and quite another to actually achieve it.

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Re: Samsung & Armstrong

As for those blasting me that Lance Armstrong never failed a drug test and is innocent… If you were raped and four people saw it but the rape kit was lost would we have to let the rapist go free? Because there’s no physical evidence?

Testing is just one of the means employed to ferret out doping, it’s not the only one.

Please read these two articles:

Witnesses Made Case Against Armstrong Potent

“And in the doping world, that is known as a nonanalytical positive – an athlete implicated not by a positive drug test but by supporting evidence.

In recent years, it has become the new way to catch athletes who cheat.

‘Science can’t decide everything,’ David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said. ‘These days, you need to complement a testing program with the gathering of evidence with other methods. To build your case, you put together strands that make one strong rope.'”

And:

Armstrong, Best of His Time, Now With an Asterisk

“Maybe the most telling segment concerns an Irish masseuse named Emma O’Reilly, who was Armstrong’s personal kneader during the 1999 Tour. (She was also asked to make a mysterious run from Spain to France, to deliver some mysterious material across the border.)

During the 1999 Tour, O’Reilly said, her workload had been lightened when one cyclist, the aforementioned Vaughters, dropped out of the race. That left her more time to minister to Armstrong and one other rider. On the team bus, she claimed, she heard several top team officials fretting about a positive test by Armstrong for steroids. They were in a panic, saying: ‘What are we going to do? What are we going to do?’ Their solution was to get one of their compliant doctors to issue a prescription for a steroid-based ointment to combat saddle sores. If Armstrong had saddle sores, O’Reilly said, she would have known.

In ‘Confidentiel’ (page 207), O’Reilly quotes Armstrong as telling her, ‘Now Emma you know enough to bring me down.’

That backdated doctor’s note in 1999 nullified the finding of steroids. Lance rode on. Five years later, during an early stage in Belgium, I referred to a ‘positive test’ in 1999. One of Armstrong’s top advisers sidled up to me in a prerace staging area and said, in unmistakably legal terms, that a nullified result was not a positive test. I granted the legal distinction but always remembered the urgent and specific way that message was delivered.”

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I got an e-mail from Xeni Jardin, who is battling breast cancer, that Livestrong helped a lot of people navigate cancer treatment, that the organization was praiseworthy. She implored her Twitter followers to testify, and a number of them did.

But I still refer you to the “Outside” article I referenced in my original piece:

It’s Not About The Lab Rats

“Nevertheless, the notion persists that Livestrong’s main purpose is to help pay for lab research into cancer cures. In an online ’60 Minutes Overtime’ interview after the May broadcast, CBS anchor Scott Pelley said Armstrong’s alleged misdeeds were mitigated because ‘he has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research.’

Pelley isn’t alone in getting that wrong: a search of The New York Times turns up dozens of hits for ‘Armstrong’ and ‘cancer research.’ An Associated Press story from August 2010 described Livestrong as ‘one of the top 10 groups funding cancer research in the United States.’ The comments section of any article about Armstrong will inevitably include messages like this one from ESPN.com: ‘keep raising millions for cancer research lance, and ignore the haters.’ At one point, the foundation brought in a PR consultant to try and clarify the messaging, but Armstrong himself says there’s only so much they can do. ‘We can’t control what everybody says they’re wearing the bracelets for,’ he told me.

At the same time, though, Armstrong and his supporters help perpetuate the notion that they are, in fact, helping battle cancer in the lab. ‘I am here to fight this disease,’ he angrily told journalist Paul Kimmage at a press conference held during his 2009 comeback. In 2010, the foundation agreed to let an Australian hospital call its new research facility the Livestrong Cancer Research Center. And when I recently visited my local RadioShack, a major Armstrong sponsor, the clerk asked, ‘Would you like to make a donation to the Livestrong foundation to help support cancer research?’

No wonder people get confused.”

Just when we’re convinced the legal system does not work…

I’ve been following the Tour de France ever since Greg LeMond emerged triumphant. This was not supposed to happen. Americans were always also-rans.

But it turned out LeMond was a genetic freak. That’s what it takes to win in basketball as well as bike racing, if you’re playing by the rules. Despite the success of Muggsy Bogues, you cannot compete in the NBA if you’re of average height. And Muggsy didn’t make it on sheer pluck alone, he could jump! I’m surprised no short person has sued the NBA, claiming they’ve been locked out of a career. That’s the American way, suing to success.

But suits take money. And winning is rarely everything. Because oftentimes you can’t collect.

But ever since O.J. it’s been common knowledge that the government’s lawyers are amateurs compared to the high-priced attorneys available on the outside. Hell, I winced watching that trial, because no one on the government’s side realized trials are theatre. It’s not only about the facts, but how you present those facts, whether you weave a coherent story. It’s like being able to write a hit song but being unable to perform it. You’d better not book a gig. But the government has been booking gigs forever…and losing. Except for Rudy Giuliani and Eliot Spitzer. That’s how they built their names and careers. By doing the impossible. Fighting power and winning. And we know their names because their success was so rare. Everybody else working for the home team is if not an incompetent also-ran, someone not quite good enough.

But they nailed Lance Armstrong. Not the government, they couldn’t even lock up Roger Clemens. They’re all show, and no go. And they gave up on Armstrong too. But the non-profit, non-governmental USADA

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

got Lance, when no one else could.

He doped. There’s no question of that. I could recite the evidence, but if you still believe he’s innocent, you probably believe lowering taxes on the rich will balance the budget and a woman can prevent pregnancy by squinting and squeezing her legs.

But what Lance did not do was admit it. No one admits their mistakes anymore. Everybody’s got to be perfect, all the time.

Hell, I knew Lance was guilty before he even started to race. Because I went to college with bike racers, back in the seventies. World class cross-country ski racers, every summer they went to Europe to compete in bicycle races. Were they planning to graduate and go pro? Of course not. Because all the winners were on dope!

You’ve got to be on dope to win.

That’s what Lance should have said. In a crooked, illegal game, I played and won. He was king of the dopers! Instead, he keeps saying he’s innocent like a kid in a locked house protesting over an empty plate that he didn’t eat the cookies. We could have a turning point in the national discussion if only Lance would come clean, be a force for good. But Lance is all about image, like a bad “rock star” whose hits were written by committee and produced by Dr. Luke… They’re afraid the facade will crumble.

And do you know despite wearing a yellow wristband, essentially none of the money donated to Livestrong goes to cancer research?

It’s Not About The Lab Rats

That’s not their mission. They’re about awareness… Are people truly clueless when it comes to cancer? And if the word needs to be spread, shouldn’t Lance be forthright and honest? No, he employs subterfuge, the same way he won the Tour de France, he wants you to believe one thing while he does another.

As for the Samsung Galaxy products… If you don’t think they’re a rip-off of Apple gear, you’re truly blind.

And this is about everything musicians rail about. Copyrights. Only in this case, it’s called patents. Can someone steal with impunity?

Then again, patents don’t last forever.

But can you ride the back of someone else’s hard work and innovation to riches? Can someone copy your CD at no cost? If you don’t think so, then you must come down on the side of Apple in this lawsuit, however much you hate the Cupertino company.

And in this case, it was the best against the best. And the judge was a hoot, she’d take no gruff, she didn’t lose control of her courtroom. Hell upon seeing Apple’s witness list, she asked the company’s barristers if they were smoking crack!

And I don’t want to get into a lengthy discussion of whether patent protection should exist, I’ll just say there were rules. And Samsung broke them, just like Lance Armstrong.

And if the rules are bad, you lobby to change them.

But Lance is not part of the solution, he’s truly part of the problem.

So what did we learn here?

1. Innovate or die. That’s how Lance won all those trophies, by employing cutting edge doping technologies. And that’s how Apple escaped the doldrums. If you’re in a creative business, sleep with one eye open, never rest on your laurels, you’re only as good as what you did today.

2. Hire the best legal help you can. Oftentimes, that’s more important to success than whether you’re innocent or guilty. Hell, look how long it took to get Lance!

3. Like in the westerns of yore, the bad guys win for a while, but lose in the long run. Choose your path. Brief success or long term struggle. Hell, Apple’s been around in excess of thirty years. It took the company this long to get into this fight. As for Lance Armstrong, he worked long and hard for an athlete, but most athletes peak and are done way before they’re forty, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Kinda like those kid stars who end up robbing 7-11’s, or those wearing blinders who believe retirement will never come and don’t prepare for it.

4. Don’t put your faith in the government or institutions, but in yourself. That’s what all successful entrepreneurs have, a belief that they’re right and the rules are meant to be bent. Now this is complicated:

a. Companies lobby for less regulation because they want to continue to rape and pillage and prosper. They don’t care about the hoi polloi. If you restrict them, they don’t go out of business, they just have a slightly harder time making tons of money. It’s the government that looks out for the people. So when you’re pro-corporation, you’re against yourself, unless you’re running or high up in said corporation.

b. That’s the problem with sports. The bending of the rules. The reason we’re fascinated with sports is because we believe it’s the last bastion of honesty, a place where we can see all the angles, a fair fight. That’s why we root out dopers. We don’t really care who wins, it’s just that we need faith in the system.

c. But my main point is if you think there’s always somebody smarter than you, who knows better and more and is looking out for you…you’re sorely mistaken. If you’ve been aggrieved, you’ve got to look for your own solutions.

5. The press is not as powerful as you think. There was a whole book written about Lance doping, years ago, but it was never translated from the French, the media building Lance Armstrong up was reluctant to tear him down. And these same reporters were so beholden to the Apple god, so star-struck and at the same time angry that technology is undermining their business, that they could never get the story straight. It’s a big problem with reporters, they get the facts but miss the story. Winners understand the underpinnings, the strategy… Not only is government one step behind, but the media too.

It’s hard to believe we’re in a brand new era when the Supreme Court hands Bush II the Presidency and Justice Roberts employs fallacious logic to uphold Obamacare, but maybe the tide is turning. Maybe the real America is on a comeback.

And the real America is not solely blood and guts and combat, but playing within the boundaries, the rules, and owning your actions. Hell, if you didn’t do anything illegal Mitt Romney, release your tax returns. If you employed offshore accounts, let’s put them in evidence, let’s have a national discussion. And speaking of discussion, even the left wing patron saint Paul Krugman believes Medicare spending must be addressed, but nobody on the left will even entertain a discussion.

But ain’t that America. Where we’ve got no faith in the institutions and we argue all day long, accomplishing little.

If you had faith in Lance Armstrong, you were duped. Plain and simple. Which is why people are still defending him, they don’t want to have to upend their beliefs, rewrite history.

It turns out we can only have faith in Apple. Which is purely in search of excellence and puts forth a scorched earth policy defending itself. Apple is the hero in the westerns and John Lennon and all the icons that have withstood the test of time.

Because Steve Jobs did not worry about being liked. Because he fought 24/7 for what he thought was right, despite everybody else saying he was wrong.

I’m not sure where we go from here, but for one day, there’s justice in the world.

P.S. I realize having faith in Apple contradicts #4 above, but that’s the point. Our heroes have failed us so many times that we’ve become enamored of a corporation. Hell, Apple products are better than any hit record of the past decade. More innovation, more surprises and seamless quality. We used to have these elements in individuals. We need them to return.

“Among The Leaves”
Sun Kil Moon

I couldn’t take one more play of “Touch Of Grey.” That’s what they were spinning on the Spectrum, SiriusXM’s Gen X adult alternative. Aren’t some tracks too burned out to EVER play?

So I pushed the button for the baby boomer alternative station, the Loft, and heard this.

And it’s exquisite.

I didn’t think I liked Sun Kil Moon. Not that much. And I forgot it was the guy from the Red House Painters, who were close, but no cigar. But if they made more music like this I’d tell everybody to stop watching TV, going to the movies, reading books, and to just turn on their radio.

Then again, they don’t play this kind of stuff on terrestrial radio. Not on Top Forty, the only place with critical mass. And tracks like “Among The Leaves” deserve critical mass…because of the FEEL!

You hear the sound and you’re immediately relaxed and transported, floating above your life, watching omnisciently as you go about your business.

And then there’s the string part, the viola. How did they come up with this? It’s like your mother putting you to bed, reading you a story, kissing you on the forehead. Hearing it you feel everything’s all right in the world. I imagine Mark Kozelek hearing it in his head before he built the record. Or his friend, the player, saying “I’ve got a perfect part for this!” It makes the track.

It doesn’t matter what the lyrics are. It’s about the sound.

The intro is kind of like “All I Need” off Air’s “Moon Safari.”

And I’m thinking maybe it’s the atmosphere. Clouds rolling into Santa Monica, ending the brutal heat wave. Myself in such a good, relaxed mood.

Yes, Kozelek does not have a classically pretty voice. It’s like your girl or boyfriend singing to you, almost amateurish, but that adds to the intimacy.

And “Among The Leaves” is nothing if not intimate. You just want to get closer, you’ve just got to get closer, you’ve just got to hear it again.

“Lilywhite”
Cat Stevens

“Tea For The Tillerman” was the hit. But “Mona Bone Jakon” contained that song from “Harold and Maude,” “Trouble.”

Trouble
Oh trouble set me free

If you’ve got enough talent you don’t need the beats, none of the penumbra, voice and guitar are enough. If the song is good enough. And “Trouble” is. One of the most perfect song placements in a movie EVER!

Life is about trouble. The rich have money but no amount of cash can keep you on an even emotional plane, can prevent someone from hitting your car, breaking up with you.

Oh, this is so wistful and so real, unforgettable.

And there’s a little more on this track than just Cat and his axe, but you can imagine him sitting on your couch singing it to you.

And be sure to listen to the covers, by the troubled Kristin Hersh and Elliott Smith, even Bruce Robison and Eddie Vedder:

Eddie Vedder – Trouble (Los Angeles ’98) HD

All faithful. No rearrangement is necessary. Sometimes you can’t improve upon perfection. This is the song that many know but plenty don’t. They need to.

And the opening cut on “Mona Bone Jakon” is “Lady D’Arbanville.” When I heard this originally, I didn’t know she truly existed, I figured she was an ancient queen, already dead if she ever walked the earth. Years later, Patti appeared in American movies. And however beautiful she was, she didn’t live up to the song. Cat Stevens idealized her. Ain’t that love.

I thought of all this as “Lilywhite” played.

“Tea For The Tillerman” was the breakthrough, but it was just a tad slick, made for everyone, whereas “Mona Bone Jakon” seemed to be made just for you, the listener.

“Summer Breeze”
Seals & Crofts

That GUITAR! Its sting makes the track, it’s equivalent to the viola in “Among The Leaves.”

This was a hit during Thanksgiving vacation. I remember driving through Westport, Connecticut with my corduroy fall jacket on, hearing this cut. Ain’t that amazing, how you can remember exactly where you were when you heard a track, even though you’ve heard it a zillion times.

On one hand, “Summer Breeze” is similar to the Tradewinds’ “New York’s A Lonely Town,” reminiscent of a better time, that you want to return to. But “Summer Breeze” is more than that. There’s the sense of anticipation in the intro, the joy, this was the apotheosis of a band that was on Warner Brothers and therefore had credibility whereas from a distance, you might think they were no different from England Dan & John Ford Coley and the rest of the AM fodder.

The opening cut on this album was good too, “Hummingbird.” And although I never owned this album, I heard it, it was everywhere, it was a hit. Especially in the dorm room next door, where the inhabitants were Bahais.

There was a last hurrah, on the next album, with the overplayed “Diamond Girl” and the maudlin but better “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)”…then again, it just feels this way, because two albums later they had a hit with “I’ll Play For You” and in ’76 “Get Closer” reached #6, and I liked that one, but by this time we’d realized Seals & Crofts were just too soft and mainstream, loved by wimpy girls everywhere, we avoided them.

Then again, how can you argue with the wisdom of this?

Darling if you want me to be closer to you, get closer to me

That’s how love is. It takes two.

I also want to give credit to the producer of “Summer Breeze,” Louie Shelton, who’s been almost completely forgotten, even though it’s his magic that makes the track, yes, “Summer Breeze” is a good song, but it’s a phenomenal RECORD!

And be sure to listen to the covers by the Isley Brothers, Jason Mraz and Type O Negative…

“Dance With Me”
Orleans

Some songs just sneak up on you.

It’s not the riff, like in “Satisfaction,” something instant and irresistible.

And it’s not the histrionic vocals, the melisma of Mariah Carey and her followers.

And it’s not the exotic changes of everyone from Yes to David Bowie…

Sometimes it’s the sum of all those parts.

You can take “Dance With Me” seriously, contemplate the lyrics, but really “Dance With Me” is all about feel… You hear it and you feel thrilled just to be alive.

And we’ll never hear Larry Hoppen sing it ever again.

And we’ll never hear Brad Delp sing “More Than A Feeling” either.

Thank god we’ve got these records.

Spotify link

Previous Rhinofy playlists

Someone just emailed me about an act. Entitled _____ _______.

This woman raved, as fans are wont to do.

I pulled up the album on Spotify. In fifteen seconds I was done.

Forty years ago, if someone gave me an album I’d play it all the way through, multiple times, waiting for it to reveal itself. Records were scarce. They required a good sum of money to produce, to both record and manufacture. If someone had navigated that gauntlet, I’d pay attention. And I had very few options. On my shelf weren’t 18 million tracks. I was always foraging for something new. And starving at the same time. It’d be like a hungry kid turning down a Happy Meal. It’d never happen. Hell, a hungry adult wouldn’t turn down a Happy Meal. But if right next to McDonald’s was Spago and In-N-Out and everything was cheap, McDonald’s might go out of business.

Food ain’t cheap, but music is. I’m oversatiated. I’ve got the history of recorded music at my fingertips. And for me to spend time listening to your track, when I can listen to the Beatles and the Stones and Radiohead and Joni Mitchell, it’s got to be damn good.

Ergo the blockbuster mentality. You blame the studios, the record labels, but they’re not at fault. It’s the customer. Who’s got very little time and wants only the best. Which is oftentimes what their friends want.

Now let me be clear. There’s a concomitant niche village on the other side. Where everything is handmade. Just like there are people who only eat raw food and others who won’t wear leather. But it’s not the mainstream. Occasionally, something will cross to the other side. But very rarely. You can put in 10,000 hours, play on the road for twenty years and still not become mainstream. Hell, it’s harder than it’s ever been, ever since the advent of recorded music.

So, if you’re happy being niche, fine. But if you want to be more, know that it’s nigh near impossible.

Look at videogames. Once upon a time it was a burgeoning industry. Now it’s only about the hits, the franchises. People want to play World of Warcraft, because that’s where all their friends are.

_____ _______ ain’t bad. And in the decades of yore, that was good enough. Now you’ve got to be spectacular or we instantly move on. We’re not interested in good.

Think of how many marketing messages you get in a day. It’s not only me that’s inundated with salesmanship. And I’m sophisticated. Do you really not think I know it’s you hyping your own album? Telling me it’s one of the best of the year? Or that you’re the agent of the act you say has recorded an LP that’s phenomenal from start to finish? Everyone’s sophisticated now, because of the plethora of bullshit they’ve been exposed to.

That’s one of the reasons why there’s only one Google, one Amazon and one Apple. You don’t need a second site/company when one is so good. It’s not like we can shop at Korvette’s or drive ten miles to the indie store. It’s not like Google doesn’t have enough links, Amazon doesn’t have enough SKUs, it’s not like people are bitching their iPads don’t do enough and are breaking down.

This is the world you’re living in.

It’s easier than ever to make music, and it’s easier than ever to be ignored.

It’s harder to fly on people’s radar screens and stay there.

And this has got nothing to do with piracy, nothing to do with short attention spans, nothing to do with money, it’s got to do with technology and culture. Technology that makes recording cheap and distribution easy, culture that is a smorgasbord of options, even though you can only partake of one at one time.

If I listen to your record, I can’t listen to another. I can’t watch television. I can’t talk on the telephone. Hell, even phone calls used to be scarce. Every house had one handset, and there was no call waiting. You were thrilled if someone called and you were lucky if no one else was home telling you to get off the line. Now, even ten year olds have their own handsets, and they don’t want to talk on them, they’d rather text, because they don’t want to waste any time, texting’s more efficient.

And if a ten year old is worried about efficiency, if it’s built into his life, what about the adolescents and adults? Sure, there’s a long tail, your grandma will buy your album on iTunes, but no one else will. We now live in a nation where winners take all. There’s not only been consolidation in industry, but in music too. You’ve got the illusion of power. But that’s all it is. Truly, your odds of reaching mass public consciousness are close to nil. You’re better off playing the lottery.

So stay in college. Earn a professional degree. Buy insurance.

Or else live in the land of hopes and dreams which we all pay lip service to but laugh at behind your back.