RE: The Stax Documentary

In your review of the Stax documentary you mentioned Stax being “screwed by Jerry Wexler” such that “Atlantic ends up with all the Masters.” However, technically, the latter statement is incorrect.

When Jim Stewart made the deal with Jerry Wexler, Stax (now Concord) actually retained ownership of the Masters. But that was because the deal was really a lifetime distribution deal (IN PERPETUITY) in which Atlantic (now Warner Brothers) received 50% of all income from Stax Masters as a distribution fee.

Meanwhile, the contracts Stax had with their artists (who were almost all Black) provided for a 50/50 split of income from Master use licenses (including uses of the Masters in film, television and advertisements, which are primary sources of income for the artists these days).

The result is that for every dollar that comes in today for the use of a Stax master, Warner takes 50% of that dollar (per the Wexler deal) and then sends 50 cents to Concord. Concord, under the artist’s label deal, then takes 50% of that amount and sends the artist 25 cents. So Stax artists are only being paid 25 cents on the dollar – half of what most artists, even those with bad contracts from the 1960s, are being paid for income from Master use licenses.

To add insult to injury, Concord was a partner in “Soulsville USA,” which showed how Jerry Wexler took advantage of Jim Stewart’s trust to pull a fast one on Jim. Watching the documentary, I was struck by the fact that my client William Bell is still living with the effects of this onerous deal almost 60 years later. Of course, almost every label has voluntarily updated their record royalty rates to modern equivalencies, but this particular situation has not been remedied in spite of repeated requests over the course of years. I can personally vouch for the efforts of Zelma Redding on behalf of her late husband’s estate, and my efforts on behalf of William Bell who, despite writing songs like ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water,” “Born Under A Bad Sign,” and “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” (which has over 50 million streams on Spotify), was not mentioned in the documentary.

This outdated deal is a grave injustice to Stax artists and should be corrected!

PS, It’s ironic that your review came out on the same day Concord announced the release of a new John Fogerty album. In Fogerty’s case, Concord ‘did the right thing’ and restored the song copyrights he lost under a bad deal with Fantasy Records, such that the press release touts the upcoming album as ‘a personal reclamation of artistic ownership.’ Would that they would do the right thing for the Black artists from Stax!

Charles Driebe

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Driebe

blindambitionmgt.com

__________________________________

Subject: Re: Swift?

“So what’s forever, “Desperado” or “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”? “Hotel California” or “Cruel Summer”?”

Perfect!

I’m a Substitute Teacher and several ago, I asked an elementary school class what they wanted to be and several kids said “Influencer!”.  Nobody said “Musician”.

Always enjoy your newsletter!

Jim Moulder

__________________________________

Subject: Re: The Stax Documentary

I had several heartfelt and fascinating conversations with Al Bell when I interviewed him for the Library of Congress. The film “Wattstax” was added to the National Film Registry in 2020.

He is truly a passionate and caring man who supported those artists out of sheer love for the music and the community. He wanted fans to share the experiences even when most had no money.  He said they found ways to charge $1 for tickets to Wattstax, most of which went to charity. 

He’s also a songwriter. He wrote “I’ll Take You There,” made famous by The Staple Singers. 

He told me that he wrote it after the murder of his brother. He sat crying in an abandoned school bus in his parent’s backyard. While the song only has one verse, he said it was the music that rang so clear in his head. He is soulful to his core. 

I adore that man. If you get the chance to meet him or interview him, take it. It will be one of the most inspiring and uplifting conversations you will ever have. 

Stacie Seifrit-Griffin

__________________________________

Subject: Re: The Stax Documentary

I thought it was very good as well. However our family was very disappointed that when Steve Cropper was describing how the MGs cut “Green Onions”, he failed to mentioned that Stax house bass player, Lewie Steinberg was actually the bass player and credited co/writer on the session. To make it even worse, they showed a photo of Donald “Duck” Dunn while describing this session. Duck wouldn’t join the MGs for another year after that hit.

 

Lewie is my wife, Diane Steinberg’s uncle. This fact always gets swept under the rug because Duck went on to do great things in his career, while Lewie, who played on several early Stax hits, including “Last Night” by the Mar Keys, was sort of swept under the rug over time.

Kenny Lee Lewis

__________________________________

From: Doug McClement

Subject: Re: Billy Joel

Back in December 1977, Billy Joel was playing his first big Toronto arena show at Maple Leaf Gardens. I was running a recording studio downtown at the time.  A student from the University of Toronto weekly newspaper interviewed him at his hotel using a portable micro cassette player, and brought the tape to my studio to transfer it to a regular cassette to make it easier to transcribe. When we hooked everything up and she pressed the play button, the tape was blank!!

She started to cry.  But she gathered herself together, and phoned her contact at CPI, the local promoter, and got a call back from Billy’s road manager saying that he was willing to DO THE WHOLE INTERVIEW OVER AGAIN for her. Keep in mind, this was not the Toronto Star, just a little University weekly. I don’t think many artists, then or now would do something like that. A classy move.  I’ve never forgotten it.  (and my future wife and I went to see his show that night, and were blown away by Billy and his incredible band. A true showman!  Such great songs.  Good songwriting always wins.)

A few years later, I had to drive from Toronto to Long Island to take a Sound Workshop console back to the factory in Hauppauge for modifications.  As I drove south along Hwy 87 in the Bronx the sun was setting on Manhattan on my right,  and suddenly “New York State of Mind” was playing on the radio.  A New York moment I’ll never forget.

__________________________________

Subject: Re: A Complete Unknown

10 seconds into A Complete Unknown Timothy Chalamet is riding in a car taking him into New York City for the first time. A voice on the radio in the car mentions the “NFC East New York Giants”. Dylan moved to NYC in 1961. The NFL and AFL were separate leagues until 1970, therefore there were no NFC of AFC until then, only the NFL and the AFL. I saw the movie in the theater and my first thought was “okay quit nitpicking” but again, it was 10 seconds in and turned out to be the gateway to the many other inaccuracies you mentioned.  Overall it was sloppy.

Jim Blaney

__________________________________

From: Ron Farber

Subject: GARLAND JEFFREYS

Hi Bob,

A couple of pertinent comments/corrections on Garland Jeffreys.  First off, scores of people still around can verify that waaay back in the 1970’s yours truly was 100% responsible for bringing him to A&M.  Had been a fan since his only Atlantic lp years before. with a great track, “She Didn’t Lie.”  The original single of “Wild In The Streets”  came later.  FYI, it was actually a legit hit 45 in a few markets, particularly Cleveland and Boston.  Also, it received major airplay on fm album rock radio throughout the northeast!   Between his Atlantic & A&M signings, Arista released a weak 7 inch single by Garland,  “The Disco Kid.”  And it deservedly bombed.  Song was an insult to his artistic integrity!

Garland’s A&M debut, “Ghost Writer” had some good original songs like “35mm Dream”  and “Spanish Town.”

Both garnered much AOR play.  “Wild…” had never been in an album and was actually then unavailable.  I conspired with Garland (who owned the master) that we HAD to get it on his lp.  Jerry Moss did not want this ‘old song’ used and initially rejected it.  Finally, Garland had to reshuffle all the tracks (including “Wild”)  when he presented his ‘final mix’ in a ‘one on one’ meeting with Moss.  Jerry gave the whole thing a yes. as he ok’d the mix.   After that, Garland mentioned that “Wild” was in there!  Moss smirked realizing he had been had and allowed it to happen!

BTW, without the benefit of anything near a hit single, this album did initially sell over 100,000 units.  Having “Wild  on the album made it sell!  Song later became an anthem.

Also, as you wrote, the two later A&M releases did not do anything.  Yet, this great performing talent was able to then record three albums with the giant Epic label. Throughout his A&M and Epic tenure, he toured  Europe; where he became a major live draw in France, Germany and elsewhere.  Yes, his ‘star’ actually did rise in Western Europe far more than here.  Soooo Garland did indeed achieve success and was able to enjoy it!

I look forward to seeing the documentary about him.

Stay well Bob.

Ron Farber

__________________________________

Subject: Re: The Zombies Documentary

I once had a very revealing conversation with Paul Atkinson when he worked with us at CBS Records. He told me that when The Zombies ended he was really in a bad way for a very long time. He was used to being a rock star, that’s how he defined himself. He said he just couldn’t stand the idea of having a real job. He just couldn’t be a regular bloke.

I totally understood it. In the 50’s everyone wanted to write the great American novel, From the late 60’s through the 80’s everyone wanted to be a rock star. It was just so big and beautiful, held so much gravitas. So, once you are that how can you just allow yourself to be folded into the mainstream?

For some reason he wanted, or needed, to share with me just how much pain he was in for so long, like his soul was being ripped from him. Eventually he found his way through being a great A&R man and as time passed realized that life had more to offer than just being that rock star. Finding a great wife really helped. He finally made it to another side where he could be equally proud of himself. But it was a long time getting to that place. It was a heavy life’s story that I was honored to hear.

Paul Rappaport

__________________________________

From: Kenny Lee Lewis

Subject: Re: The Zombies Documentary

It’s a common story. When Steve Miller took has break in 2001 for 4 years disgruntled with Napster, SFX Live Venue management, his label Capitol, and about a dozen other factors, the band had to all go find work.

I ended up at Guitar Center Hollywood as an Artist Relations sales manager working with Dave Weiderman and helping with the Rock Walk inductions.

The ironic part is that many of my so called “celebrity” clients had also had to get other jobs to support their music “habit”. One former pop star I recall had become a sheriff out in Riverside and would actually come buy recording gear from me wearing his uniform after getting off work. Whatever pays the bills man.

__________________________________

From: Jane Millan

Subject: Re: Tegan And Sara At Departure

Re Tegan and Sara and Canadian bands 

My daughter and son in law are in two Canadian bands. Stars (you are stars.com) and Broken Social Scene (see their history in recent award winning Canadian documentary It’s All Gonna to Break if you enjoy watching commitment and love of the art blossom into love for and of the artists). 

They make a living enough to support their family with two kids and their own home in Montreal at a comfortable if not lavish lifestyle. They’ve been doing it for twenty years and love it in spite of tough challenges and their own ups and downs with the industry. 

They play at festivals and they still sell out clubs doing what they love in Canada, USA, and Europe and more. They once toured with Tegan and Sara as opening act and were impressed with not only their talent and but also their ethics. 

It can be difficult to hold on to one’s ethics in the music business but I think you’ll find many  Canadian bands (e g The Tragically Hip)  hold on well to theirs and gain respect and loyalty from and yes they talk to their fans. 

My daughter Amy Millan went to a public high school for the arts determined to be on a stage for her life and a wise teacher once said to me. “Don’t tell her to get a back up career. You’re telling her she’ll fail. “ That teacher said the hard work obtaining and sustaining success in the arts is understated. 

Hard for a parent to not advise their kid to get a back up income to being in a band but I have a feeling Tegan and Sara’s parents had similar advice. 

If a parent is fully supporting their kid in the arts they are also supporting him or her or whatever pronoun used in their own core values. 

J.Millan

__________________________________

From: Thomas Cussins

Subject: Re: Tegan And Sara At Departure

I was promoting a Tegan and Sara show in Santa Cruz in 2008 and they were in the green room stuffing their own CDs into sleeves. Manufacturing the sleeves separately had gotten them a better deal and then putting them together themselves before shows saved even more. I will always remember that hustle, the kind that keeps a band viable for over 20 years.

Keep telling it like it is thanks Bob

__________________________________

From: noah bailin

Subject: Re: Dave Chappelle At Queen Elizabeth Theatre

I was once working on a Chappelle tour years ago (for YONDR, which I believe he is an investor in..) and afterward he invited me and 5 others to the movie theatre next door (at 12:30 am) to watch a private screening of GET OUT. He talked about it in his show that night and is a huge fan of the movie.  During the movie he set up a mic and did commentary throughout the movie (mystery science theatre style!) for this small group of us. He then passed the mic around and asked for our comments/jokes. For the first time in my life I was speechless (if you know me, it’s rare) and I definitely regret freezing up..sigh. Super special sh*t though. He is always performing, simply because he loves it. I also just adore his true love of music. He always has to have bluetooth speakers with him and DJ whenever he can.

__________________________________

Subject: Ron Delsener

Bob:

A couple of Delsner stories. In 1993 I was VP Of Music and Movies at The Wiz and one of our owners asked why no one was selling CDs or videos of the bands performing at all of the venues around town. I called around and got an introduction to Ron and Mitch. We met a couple of times and eventually worked out a deal to sell product at Jones Beach. The first show we did was Poison. I get to venue and find that Ron wouldn’t be there because he had to be at a little Paul McCartney show he was promoting at The Meadowlands that same evening. His assistant met me and told me we had a big problem. Poison’s management would not give us permission to sell at the show because they thought it would cut into their merchandise sales. They shot down any argument I’d make and insisted we shut the booth down. End of story…Until Ron and I spoke on the following Monday and he told me problem solved and I would never have that problem again. I have no idea what he said or did but from that point on we sold CDs at every show without any problem.

Our deal also included access to a VIP Area where we would entertain our vendors and friends. The one rule was no liquor was to be consumed in the open. That was pretty tough to enforce and one evening the state troopers shut us down and confiscated all the liquor on site which Ron had actually supplied. Ron calls me and tells me to meet him backstage before the next show. He has two milk crates full of bottles of liquor. He covers them with a blanket and the two of us proceed to carry them past a bevy of state troopers to our reserved area. Ron had one comment..”Don’t get caught.”

We eventually expanded our deal to include a couple of clubs that Ron operated in the city and events like Simon and Garfunkle’s run at The Felt Forum, Johnny Mathis at Carnegie Hall, ect.

I once asked Ron and Mitch the secret to their succesful relationship. The answer was simple. Trust…Ron didn’t trust Mitch and Mitch didn’t trust Ron….

Jay Rosenberg

__________________________________

Subject: Jill Sobule

Bob—

I’m surprised you haven’t written about the tragic passing of Jill Sobule in a house fire.

Unfortunately, to many she was best known for “Supermodel” and the real, original “I Kissed a Girl.” But there was so much more to Jill—she was a truly gifted songwriter and performer. Her catalog explored depression, teen angst, war, lost love, and so many other deeply personal and social topics—often through intimate, character-driven stories that somehow felt both specific and universal.

Her Jewish identity and LGBTQ themes were often at the core of her work, but she never hit you over the head with any of it. More often, her songs invited you to see the world through someone else’s eyes.

During COVID, I had the chance to take two hands-on songwriting workshops with Jill and got to know her a bit personally. The small classes included musicians of all skill levels, and I’ll never forget how Jill treated everyone with kindness, humor, and thoughtful encouragement. When something wasn’t great (trust me, I had my moments), she’d always find something positive to say first—then gently guide us with questions like:

“Could you make that line more personal?”
“Does the melody really match the emotion of the lyric?”

It was actually amazing how much of a mentor she became to this group when clearly few of us would ever go on to make a living as a songwriter.

I was lucky enough to see her perform live many times—once with Lloyd Cole’s short-lived band The Negatives—but more often solo, strumming an amped-up travel guitar. (She was actually a pretty great guitarist.) Jill had this rare ability to command a room, to get the audience to really listen and hang on every word and nuance.

Years ago, when she was still workshopping “Mary Kay” (yes, a song about that Mary Kay Letourneau—so perfectly Jill), she invited my son onstage to hold her laptop because she hadn’t memorized the lyrics yet. It was a vulnerable, human moment. And classic Jill.

She was only 66 (hey, that’s my age!), and it breaks my heart to know there were so many more songs in her. She deserves far more recognition than she ever received.

Rich Madow

Baltimore, MD

__________________________________

From: russ wilson

Subject: Re: Cauliflower Pizza

Hi Bob, I wanted to comment on your comments on medical testing. I had a friend who’s father-in-law had prostate cancer. They caught it and he recovered fine. He reached seventy and they told him that he didn’t need testing anymore. About five years later he died a painful death from the cancer returning in it’s virulent form. My doctor tried the same approach with me about my age and not needing it. This is after a scarce three years before when my number was almost eleven! It came down and we believe it was an infection but, after I told her to include the test or I would go back to the urologist she conceded. You are right. Don’t let them talk you out of a test!

__________________________________

Subject: Re: More When Did An Artist Peak?-SiriusXM This Week

There should be a companion episode, Bob, about When Did The Audience Peak?

 

When did they stop listening to anything but their favorites? 

Is there a general growth of Attention Deficit Disorder in the listeners?

When did they stop caring who wrote/performed their new favorite song?

Why is it harder than ever in the past 50 years for a musician to build an audience?

Why are brilliant musicians/showmen who should be playing stadiums instead finding work as Tom Rush’s accompanists?

 

Stuff like that.

Tom Rush

1

This is weird. Because I just started watching the Questlove documentary last night. I planned to finish up today and give you my take on it and I’m gassing up my car and my sister texts me that Sly died and… What am I gonna do, write about the doc, write about the man, not write at all?

I can’t do that. Because of one night back in February 1970 when I went with Ellen to see Sly and the Family Stone at Madison Square Garden.

This was mere months before the Woodstock movie blew Sly into the stratosphere. Today everybody talks about Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” that finished the festival, but acolytes already knew he was performing the anthem live and it was no longer the Experience and in the film it was early in the morning on the last day, but…

In the middle of the night, Sly and the Family Stone blew the place apart. Sure, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were featured, after all “Déjà Vu” had recently been released and was ubiquitous, but Sly… This was a black man entering a white man’s world and stealing the show. Not only the performance, but the images in the movie, if I remember correctly Sly’s set ended in a freeze frame. I could check on it, but the memory is better. Yet checking on that Madison Square Garden show…

The internet tells me it was on February 13, 1970.

As for the set list, setlist.fm tells me it’s incomplete, but it does say these numbers started the show:

1. “Stand!”

2. “Dance to the Music”

3. “M’Lady”

4. ‘Everyday People”

5. “I Want to Take You Higher”

6. “Hot Fun in the Summertime”

7. “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”

A murderer’s row of hits. Unbridled energy.

2

“Dance to the Music” was released in November 1967, and nobody had any idea who Sly or the band were. The first issue of “Rolling Stone” came out the same month. Music news was sparse, never mind deep history on an act that hadn’t broken through. But that record?

You only had to hear it once. Because of its power.

In 1967 horns were not rare. Blood, Sweat & Tears made them ubiquitous and Chicago followed up but horns and strings were mostly absent from rock in the seventies. Maybe you had a sax solo, but…the flourish of a horn intro, it heralds something important, the king is coming. And he did, after the music broke down, when it exploded again. And then there was the call-out to the various members, but even better the solos, the bass and then the organ and those horns lending emphasis once again…

“Hello Goodbye” was dominating the chart. Radio was playing stuff like “Daydream Believer,” “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” and “Incense and Peppermints.” The original version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” the Gladys Knight take which was soon eclipsed by Marvin Gaye’s and and promptly forgotten was on the chart, along with Smokey’s “I Second that Emotion,” but…you can see that “Dance to the Music” stood out, was completely different, created a lane that no one even saw.

By time Sly and the Family Stone had their next hit a year later the whole nation had blown up. Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., both cut down before their time. There’d been riots. And then Sly and the band come out with a record that brings us together, “Everyday People.”

“Everyday People” was not a dance number. But it did have an infectious beat. And a nursery rhyme verse and the cliché “Different strokes for different folks.”

“Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong”

You can’t get a politician to admit this today, nor the entertainers either. They’ve got a posture and they’re sticking with it. Projecting strength instead of vulnerability. But those who can admit their mistakes are the ultimate winners. And we took our lessons from our acts and their records.

“There is a yellow one that won’t accept the black one

That won’t accept the red one that won’t accept the white one

Different strokes for different folks”

This message is anathema today, everybody’s in their corner hating everybody else. Blacks, Jews, Bros, it’s open season on our citizens.

Needless to say “Everyday People” went to number one.

And then came “Stand!” Which literally exploded on the airwaves. Sly was selling optimism in a dark era, you could not help but move to this music. Not that the message was original, but everybody else was coming from a negative position.

“There’s a permanent crease in your right and wrong”

People were baked into their positions, and this was back when not only races were fighting, but generations. There was a huge gulf between the parents and the boomers. The oldsters wanted decorum, a return to the fifties, when America was supposedly great, whereas the youngsters were constantly pushing the envelope, questioning EVERYTHING!

But “Hot Fun in the Summertime” was something completely different. Released at the end of July 1969 it immediately blasted out of transistors, car radios, and took us back to school in the fall. Back when classes didn’t start until September and we could luxuriate in joy and contemplation in August. It was not like today, everybody heard and knew “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” I distinctly remember hearing it blasting from a series of radios in a park in downtown Chicago.

And at the end of the year into the next, 1970, there was the popping bass of “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” So funky that you couldn’t concentrate on the lyrics, other than the chorus/refrain, because your body was too busy movin’, whether you be white, black or brown.

And then came that Madison Square Garden show.

3

Now even though Wikipedia will tell you “Sing a Simple Song” was not a chart hit, the truth was I knew it from the radio. But not a whole hell of a lot more.

But Ellen said she was a fan of the band and I saw they were playing at MSG and I called her and asked her if she wanted to go.

SHE WAS IN!

Which meant this was the first time I’d see her outside of school.

Now the New Haven Railroad did not show up, but I called my parents who happened to be going into the city that night themselves and they picked us up and gave us a ride. But there was no time to have dinner. It was straight to the Garden, which at this point was still pretty new.

And if you had seats in the upper ring you were screwed. Because you couldn’t climb down to a lower level. But if you were below that, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

And we had the seats the promoters hold back for guests today, in the lower loge.

Now check out this bill…

Richard Pryor opened. But this was before most people knew who he was, and the audience was talking and you couldn’t really hear him over the rabble-rousing.

Next came Fleetwood Mac.

And then Grand Funk Railroad. I remember their performance. This was the time of the red album, they seemed to be everywhere.

And then after a break came Sly and the Family Stone. Who started, as you can see above, with STAND!

We jumped up immediately. As did the rest of the assembled multitude. But this was before the dreaded “festival seating,” a blank floor where people push and shove and if you’re vertically challenged, good luck being able to see.

Everybody had a seat. But many rushed the stage. So we hopped over the plastic wall down to the floor, ran to empty seats in the middle, stood on the chairs and grooved the whole night long.

THIS was unexpected.

I was more of a white rock guy. I knew the Black AM hits but I didn’t buy the albums and didn’t go to the shows. I HAD NO IDEA!

Sure, I was expecting the hits, but this was so much more!

And the highlight was “I Want to Take You Higher,” which I’d never heard before, but it didn’t take long to catch on and participate, throwing our arms into the air as Sly Stone exhorted us to do so. I mean we’re twisting and dancing, working up a sweat, it was a full workout.

And then it was over.

4

I immediately had to buy the album, “Stand!” And then came the Woodstock movie. And it wasn’t that long thereafter that Sly not only started showing up late, but sometimes not at all, and he lost the momentum of the Woodstock film and no one would promote him and no one would go…this was not Live Nation, a no-show could put a promoter out of business and good luck getting your ticket money back.

But there was another hit. “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” was billed as a masterpiece, but I couldn’t figure out why. I played it and it was dark and introspective and lacking hooks except for the sotto voce, almost mumbled lead vocal on this song “Family Affair.”

Now that’s a number that did not sound like anything else on the radio. But its individuality was so powerful it broke through the noise and went to number one and held its own with the FM rock monoliths. They played the track on Top Forty, yet it was anything but disposable tripe. It sounded like it was being made in the next room over and you were privileged to be included as you strained to listen.

And this was an unexpected comeback. By this time there was a vibrant rock press and new hit acts to fill it and Sly was seen as a drugged-out has-been.

There was one more hit, “If You Want Me to Stay”… It was the same guy but the number was upbeat like the tracks from the sixties as opposed to a drug stupor like “Family Affair.” “If You Want Me to Stay” was infectious and undeniable.

And then it was over. I kept buying the albums but not only were there no hits, the records did not demand they be played.

And by time corporate rock dominated and disco was surging, Sly was forgotten.

5

Which brings us to the Questlove documentary, “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius). I expected the usual hagiography (which according to the Oxford dictionary means “the writing of the lives of saints” or derogatorily “adulatory writing about another person”) and that’s why I don’t bother with most rock docs, but the title really tells it all, you do get a lot of Sly, but you also get a lot of talking heads speaking about the burden of Black genius, that’s the through thread.

Is it harder for a Black person? Do they have to work two or three times harder than someone white? Are expectations higher after success, are they carrying the hopes and dreams of their entire race? There’s a lot of erudite takes, D’Angelo displays intellectual faculties, as do André 3000 and Vernon Reid, and I wish all white people were forced to watch this doc, just to see that their preconceived notion of who these Black musicians are may be wrong.

And the analysis! Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis break down the numbers (never mind telling the story of how Sly was sampled for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation”) and you know what they’re talking about, but…you feel inadequate. We tend to believe all pop musicians can’t read music and are doing it all on feel, but that is patently untrue.

Now I knew the Sly legend. I knew he produced those Beau Brummels records and was a successful radio DJ, but what I did not know was all the dues he paid before that, primarily in church, where he performed six, sometimes seven days a week. That’s so different from today’s model, where the effort goes into the marketing more than the musical creativity, where we’re supposed to adore barely pubescent acts who have no knowledge, no education, no chops at all.

What I’m saying here is Sly didn’t rise up out of thin air. He paid his dues, in groups playing live… That was a whole life that’s now history, lounge acts, club acts performing the hits of the day sans scrutiny. That’s where you learn how to do it.

As for Sly blowing himself up…

Sly went deep into drugs. There have been others who’ve done so and survived, like David Crosby, but most don’t, they either die or clean up. Sure, you chase that initial high, but if you’re successful you’re also trying to soothe yourself. Everybody wants your attention and you’re working overtime and the only people who seem to understand are in the same boat you are. Sly yearned for normality, as quoted in today’s “New York Times” obituary:

“’I wanted to go fishing, man. Or drive my own car. For a long time, I didn’t understand anywhere but hotel rooms, the inside of airplanes, and trying to figure out a way that I didn’t come off wrong to human beings.'”

But the machine wants more, the people want more, and everybody tells you to make another one like the last one, but in truth that’s not what the audience is looking for, they want something unexpected and fresh, and that’s a bar that’s just too high for most. Then again, most are just producing regurgative pablum anyway. Did any Beatle really push the envelope after the band broke up? Maybe John Lennon with the initial Plastic Ono Band album with “Mother,” et al, but there was little innovation thereafter, some great tunes, but nothing that would blow your mind like “Strawberry Fields Forever” (and that’s just one of many).

They chew you up and spit you out and then where are you? NOWHERE!

So when Sly tries to come back it’s just too late. He doesn’t fit in, doesn’t know what to do and goes back to the camper.

Except for that one bleak moment at the Grammys, where he showed up for a few bars and then exited immediately. That didn’t do him any favors, that didn’t burnish his image.

The Questlove documentary does.

But really it comes down to the records.

6

If you do it right, the records survive, they even eclipse the act, which is why Journey can continue to sell all those tickets with a substitute singer. People love the songs, they just want to hear them.

Sure, Sly had cultural impact. Sure, he inspired many musicians thereafter. But really, it’s all in the grooves.

And every single one of those hits sounds as fresh today as it did yesterday. Maybe a little out of time, but they exist in their own world where era is not really important. It’s about the creativity and the ENERGY!

That’s what the layperson can’t fathom, how these geniuses come up with this stuff. Sometimes the songs are stone simple, but it’s not like anybody else created them. It’s an amalgam of so many elements, practice, musical knowledge, a knowledge of the landscape and an environment that stimulates you to be all you can be. (Then again, most truly great acts are rebelling against a culture that won’t accept them as they are. They’ve got something to prove.)

So what do we say?

It’s a sad story. But it’s also a glorious story.

There are lessons to be learned, but is Sly so unique that ultimately his arc was singular?

Now those Sly and the Family Stone hits were fifty years ago, over half a century. Believe me, we were not listening to the  music of our grandparents in the sixties. But the sixties were a time of exploration. And expression. And the best way to get your message across was via music.

And sure, you’ve got all the white acts, from the Beatles to the aforementioned Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young). But the Black acts? They existed in a separate world, the Motown hits, even the Aretha Franklin hits on Atlantic, it was about singles more than albums. They did not sound like rock acts.

But the thing with Sly Stone is he sounded both rock and R&B. And as great as the singles were, you had to buy the albums too, which made him an anomaly.

It was a group, which is demonstrated clearly in Questlove’s doc, but Sly was the visionary.

And how exactly did he come up with those Beau Brummels hits? How did he get that dark feel that only the Brits had been able to capture on wax before this?

To survive you have to reinvent yourself.

But that usually means losing half your audience and starting over. And most people are not willing to do this, hell, when Garth Brooks made a rock record he employed a pseudonym.

But the sixties and early seventies were different. Acts could go through a lifetime of changes in only a few years. As Sly did. But then what?

The landscape is littered with geniuses who were driven to climb the mountain to the top and then became disillusioned and lost. Look at Bobby Fischer. Sure, he might have been crazy, but most of your iconic heroes are. Maybe not bipolar, but broken inside. Our legendary stars are the other, and Sly Stone was too.

And now he’s gone.

Kinda like Keith Richards, we didn’t expect Sly to live to 82. Back in the sixties that was a ripe old age, today people might live longer, but 82 is still a pretty good ride. And what exactly was he doing all these years?

If you want your heroes to come back to the charts know that it’s almost always impossible. Because having been to the top and seeing that it doesn’t solve all your problems, the inspiration, the drive is lost.

So another one bites the dust as Freddie sang.

Sure, it’s sad. But somehow this one’s different. Because Sly was so different. He never mellowed and came out as grandpa, making the talk show rounds and singing some dumb song with Jimmy Fallon or doing an interview to explain the songs and events from decades before. After his hits Sly became even MORE of an enigma than he was during his heyday, and usually it’s the opposite.

But when I was standing on that chair on the floor of Madison Square Garden, soaked in the sound, having an experience that couldn’t be caught on a smartphone, that was one and done…

These are the peaks that make up a life.

And Sly Stone provided one of mine.

Surprised you did not mention they all got sick of being interviewed, and that’s why this drops dead where it does, at the second album. I so wanted to hear them talk about “How the West Was Won,” because I’d argue that’s the greatest Zep album, with “Since I’ve Been Loving You” their best ever track. Calling Bonzo civilized is absolute revisionist history. He was a brute. Lifted me over his head as if he were pressing iron, and threw me down the stairs to their plane. And poor Danny Goldberg was at the foot of the stairs yelling, “no, Bonzo, no; he’s the journalist on the road with us…”

Tom Zito

____________________________________

I haven’t seen the doc yet but it will have to, as a teen rock reporter for Tiger Beat magazine in the 1960’s. I got to go to every single concert at The Rock Pile in Toronto, the infamous former Masonic Temple at 888 Yonge Street the major North/ South street in Toronto. Yes it’s very haunted. I got to see everyone and I mean everyone who came through there, two nights a weekend, different acts from 1967 onwards.some in early 60’s too.

I had been a Yardbirds fan from the  For your Love Days,and Shape of Thing’s To Come, I’d been a John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers fan when Eric Clapton played with them, the Yardbirds were in the popular film Blow Up with Jeff Beck smashing his guitar. I knew Jimmy was in the YB’s.

I got to see the Zep play at the Rock Pile on a very hot August night in 1969 it was packed to the rafters. I was standing on the floor a few feet from the stage and me and everyone had their minds blown. I went backstage. Robert Plant and the guys are hanging out. I’m wearing a black lace see-through shirt with strategic pockets and a nude body stocking underneath, I’m 17. Robert  Plant came up to me grabbed my shirt and pulled me over to him, the buttons ripped open on the front of my shirt, I was stunned and  holding onto my shirt and walked my way backwards out. Other people in the room were like. Wow Robert Plant ripped your shirt open! You’re so lucky.

Got to see Zep later in 1970s play at a college campus in the suburbs. They were good but the energy wasn’t as raw as the that first 1969 album was. Still I’m a fan. I watch every ls live performances on YouTube now.

So glad I was born when I was to live through seeking the Beatles live 4 times and all the great rock acts many of whom I met.

That time and that music will never repeated.

Tara Greene

____________________________________

In 1969, I was 15 living near Springfield Mass. my sister somehow got the first Zep album with Communications Breakdown etc and we played it over & over. So when we heard on local Fm radio that Zeppelin would be playing the Springfield Municipal auditorium, a few of us got tickets and our parents to drive us. But the place was 2/3 empty so I/we went down and sat in the front row in front of Page (and as the joke goes, I haven’t heard well ever since). It was a great show and plant was over the top with his lemon dong . The next week the 2 nd Zep album was issued in. The disc with Whole lotta Love and the rest is history . It’s possible that the Springfield Mass show may have been one of their first in the US but it was far from crowded.

Ironically later in life-after law school in my first job with a small boutique firm that handled US taxes for British entertainers, I was handed 100 pages of depositions to summarize- about 25 pages of sworn statements by  each member of Zepelin as they appealed the UsGov IRS going after them for US performance income sheltered in the British Virgin Islands. (The US gov didn’t buy it, but the depositions were an entertaining read for a 25  year old newbie lawyer/ fan and insights into what the band members actually knew or didn’t about the business they were in.)

bkatchinson

____________________________________

I saw Led Zeppelin on Halloween evening, October 31, 1969 at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts. A venerable blue blood 2500 seat venue not accustomed to British rockers.

I believe Led Zeppelin 2 had just been released. Taj Mahal opened the show.  Taj grew up in Springfield and had a tremendous welcome as I recall.

At that time he had already recorded a few records of his own.

While i had seen a few live shows ( Dave Clark 5

being the most notable) the Led Zeppelin show simply blew everyone away both sonically and culturally. We had simply not experienced anything like this before in our young 15 years and knew intuitively that our world was going to get a lot more interesting, and fast.

I spent the summer before on a ranch near Snowflake, Arizona. There was a turntable and one record on the property. The first Led Zeppelin LP. So by the time I got to Symphony Hall I was quite familiar with the music but not the explosive experience of a full out live rock and roll show.

For the next 55 years I measured every live performances against this first live experience, not unlike a first love who always stays with you.

Whatever you want to say about Led Zeppelin, they were certainly one of the best rock and roll acts to hit American shores, ever.

PS, my oldest son is a professional musician who has backed Terry “superlungs”Reid on some of his solo tours over the past 10 years.

Terry is of course best known as the vocalist that was asked by Jimmy Page to join the new band. Terry passed because he was at the time committed to going out on tour opening for the Stones and i believe Cream. He recommended Page speak to his buddy Robert Plant. The rest is history. If you haven’t had Terry on your podcast you should. I don’t think there are many others out there who intersected so many lives in Rock N Roll. Happy to make an introduction.

Jonathan Plotkin

Chief Imagination Officer

The Spontoonist

____________________________________

As I watched this documentary I realized that Jimmy Page is a Rock and Roll genius along with Brian Wilson, Phil Spector and Lennon/McCartney.

Peace

Tim Clary

____________________________________

I was NOT there. But in the 90s when I was a teenager my guitar teacher started teaching me Zeppelin in my second lesson, and when I put Led Zeppelin II on my dad’s Klipsch Heresies my world was transformed. Then when I studied music in college, they made us read books about the blues and how Zeppelin appropriated black musicians’ work. Well, that’s a topic for the classroom and it’s part of the story, but Zeppelin was not a cover band, and the way they make you feel in their live performances is the essence of rock and roll, based on the blues but so much more. Very few bands have done it like they did. I like rock from all eras, but 80s rock all sounds corny by comparison, and 90s rock sounds almost unmusical. Jimmy Page really did have the touch. There are a lot of great guitarists out there, and my favorite is Hendrix for his unique style, but Page and maybe Brian May are the only other popular rock guitarist on that level technically, musically, harmonically who could communicate so much with a single melodic line.

Mitchell Maddox

____________________________________

I was fortunate to see Led Zeppelin on their first US tour.

They opened for Country Joe and the Fish at the Fillmore West in SF.

And, of course, they were remarkable.

Best,

Michael Wright

____________________________________

What I loved about it was the early focus on how being born in England during or just after WW2 shaped all of them. And Page’s and Jones’s descriptions of their early days as session musicians and arrangers.

Also, I never knew Plant was homeless for a time because of his utter commitment to becoming a singer.

Seeing it at a French cinema early this year with a special sound system was revelatory. I thought I knew every note of these songs, but I heard sounds I’d never heard before. I want a sequel that covers the next two albums.

Alison Bracker

____________________________________

Was lucky to see them perform live at The Forum when I was 11 or 12. My sister took me — I never took Physical Graffiti off the record player. Just played it over and over and over.

-Lesley Bracker

____________________________________

Thanks for writing about this. I was waiting… Zep was my band. Being on the “younger” side I saw them twice, LA Forum ’77 and Knebworth in ’79. Seeing the band on their home turf and the British audience was an unforgettable experience to say the least.

I loved the movie. I learned some things I did not know and saw some amazing unseen footage! I absolutely love how John Bonham was given a voice for the film and to watch the other three being filmed listening to the interview for the first time was magical! Seeing their faces and the emotion it brought, priceless! My wife is not a fan fan but loved it nonetheless. I must say this film deserved to be seen and heard via the IMAX experience. On TV at home would not have done it justice.

Cheers, Mark Southland

____________________________________

I was there too, too young for their breakthrough but an early fan and was 10th row at the MSG run in ’77 I believe.  I know the story but love doco’s that show a slice of an artist’s history rather than a chronological career film.

 

The reason I watched it was Bonham, the clips of him in the trailers blew me away.  I know all of Jimmy’s playing and moves, the raw power of Bonham is what I enjoyed the most.

 

Barry Ehrmann

____________________________________

I saw Led Zeppelin at the Baltimore Civic Center in 1971 and Rod Stewart and Faces in 1972. Jimmy Page played a guitar solo on “Dazed and Confused” for 20 minutes with a bow on a double neck guitar. I still go to shows today and see groups who are technically more talented than the groups back then but they don’t have the inner drive or creativity that people like Jimmy Page had. Like you, I was fortunate to see most of the great acts of the 1970’s for a couple of bucks a show. It was an experience. Thanks for all that you do to keep the spotlight on the industry.

Tom Fitzsimmons

____________________________________

Facts:

“The Doors renaissance was unexpected, yet I don’t hear any kids talking about the band today. But Led Zeppelin?”

Anecdotally I can attest: My students have never heard of the Doors of Jim Morrison. Honestly, if I play “Light My Fire” for them, they can’t connect. I see a student or two wearing a Zep shirt daily.

I told one student who loves music about Jim Morrison singing the lyric on Ed Sullivan show even though he was supposed to change it. My student said, “How do you know so much obscure music knowledge?”

Obscure…

Heck, my World Lit class just read Julia Keller’s editorial about 9/11. No one knew who Dan Rather or David Letterman were. (They did know The Wrinkle in Time reference.)

Mike Vial, from the trenches

____________________________________

I didn’t want it to ever end. I may have to watch that doc as I do Cameron Crowe movies – over and over and over and over again.

I remember the first time I ever heard a Zeppelin song – I was 12 and visiting my friend’s house. I heard music coming from her older sister’s room and the sound crushed my heart and gave me butterflies (she was playing Houses of the Holy). I never felt that way ever before about anything. It shook me and made me want to cry. I think it was my first love. Their music has owned me completely ever since. It still makes my heart hurt and my stomach shake but it also reminds me of everything wonderful I’ve seen and every joy I’ve experienced. For the past 40 years my favorite place to be is in my headphones listening to Led Zeppelin – my happy place. I have to thank Denise Casillas for listening to them in her Orange County bedroom back in 1984 – I will never forget that moment ever.

Denise Alvarado

____________________________________

Led Zep’s first tour was my first concert. I was 12 years old. I begged my mom to let me go. We lived on West Street, literally just a couples blocks from the concert venue, the brand new Anaheim Convention Center (which had been an orange grove we rode our Sting Ray bikes in). My dad had just bought me a used Strat at Garden Grove Music (’58 Mary Kaye, I still have it) because, after 5 years playing a Japanese log, we couldn’t afford a new Strat.

I arrived early with anticipation. I had LZ’s first album months before I heard of the tour, and wore it out on my parents’ Packard Bell console. The opening act was some unknown British band named ….. Jethro Tull. Talk about hitting your first-concert lottery. Then Zep. It was an era where you could rush the stage, without any security, and I did. I was on the right, just under JPJ, Page was on the left playing thru a pair of trapezoidal Rickenbacker Transonic cabinets, JPJ had Acoustic 150s. They played most of the record, and I was enthralled. If anything cemented my next 12 years playing in L.A. rock and prog bands (Gazelle, Pegasus), it was this show. This band.

John LaGrou

____________________________________

Well said, maestro. I was a huge fan, Jimmy page is my spirit animal as a player… What I took away from the film, besides seeing footage that I hand never before — and I didn’t think that was possible — was, and this is why the title “becoming Led Zeppelin“ is so great, you actually see these four guys, and it had to be THOSE four guys, that’s where the alchemy lies, become the biggest band in the world in a minute, in ONE YEAR between Led Zeppelin 1 and 2, it coalesces, takes off into the stratosphere and becomes a band for the ages. Fascinating. Hard to imagine it could ever happen again. Also the way Page imagined the albums as full albums, like each a novel, created to be ingested as a piece, not as a list of easy to swallow, bite sized snacks (which dovetails with his solo on “Stairway to Heaven” — far from my favorite song of theirs, but it contains the greatest guitar solo of all time, and I’m not the only gunslinger who thinks that, it’s perfect in every way and primarily its genius is the story it tells, with a beginning middle and end, not just hot licks strung together. I defy anyone from the rock era to be unable to hum the beginning of that solo, iconic is too soft a word for this work of art). I was also struck while watching the film by the love between these guys, still, and watching them listen with big smiles, wryly and in some cases joyfully, to the sound of Bonham’s disembodied, nonchalant voice was wonderful and at times really emotional… I think it’s a great film, even for those not in the cult. It’s like watching the Eiffel Tower being built in a year.

Steve Jones

____________________________________

Thanks for the stroll down Memory Lane. I was at that Faces Rod Stewart show too! But I still have my Fillmore East program that lists when Led Zep shared the stage with Woody Herman and his Thundering Heard. I so wanted to go to the but maybe it was a scool night or I couldn’t scrape up three bucks for a Fillmore East ticket. Years later, I’m working at Scholastic Magazines as a writer/music editor and I was, like you, and remain a music fanatic. So thanks to Atlantic Records publicity department I got a free ticket to a double bill of Bad Company and Led Zep. Atlantic Records knew what they had with Swan Song (if memory serves) there was a show So at Madison Square Garden and it was Bad Company opening up for Led Zep. You mentioned Jimmy’s geetars. Love my Telecaster but that double neck Gibson guitar blew me away. The only time I’d ever seen the double neck  Gibson 12-25 was in the hands of John McLaughlin. A six string and a 12 string in the same guitar! As a guitar collector I’d love to own one of those two in one guitars but I’m not sure my aging back could handle the weight. I sold off my Les Paul cause it weighed as much as a boat anchor. Led Zep changed music, the concert biz in so many ways! Glad I got to see them! Thanks for the memories.

Chip Lovitt

____________________________________

Thanks for your excellent perspectives on   Becoming Led Zeppelin. Generally quite agreeable.

A few things to add:  the Yardbirds released one LP where Page was to sole lead guitarist – “Little Games”. Unfortunately a second rate effort save for a few highlights but listen carefully and you’ll hear much of Page’s Good Times Bad Times guitar solo, the opening chords of The Song Remains the Same, and use of the violin bow on his Tele…all rehashed as innovations on LZ songs.

But what I really like about Becoming Led Zeppelin is it helps us forget their Song Remains the Same movie ever existed. The performances recorded in that movie should have never been released. Even a hardcore fan like me cannot excuse them for the dreadful Dazed and Confused performance.

Anyway, Becoming Led Zeppelin is a wonderful film – bravo to the producers and director!

markv

____________________________________

Thank you for your thoughts Bob…they have spurred me to respond.

I approached this film with a certain amount of trepidation caused by my highly personal opinion that the “before fame” chapters of biographical works are usually not what interests me. I always want to get straight to the blood and guts chapters.

But in the theater Becoming Led Zeppelin immediately fascinated me. I mean it’s always interesting to see where the people came from – what kind of roots and environments influenced them – but seeing the milieu that all four members came through was a moving experience. To hear Johnny Kidd & The Pirates doing “Shaking All Over” in the theater with a modern sound system created a palpable excitement for me not unlike it must have hit Page et al in their salad days. So as I watched the disparate stories of these four working musicians with their influences, struggles, and successes I began to understand just how rebellious and explosive what was simmering and waiting for its moment to explode really must have been. It blew my mind to realize just how little time elapsed between Page & JOJ performing on Lulu’s “To Sir With Love” and the sonic assault that “Communication Breakdown” unleashed upon the world. It must have felt like a musical atomic bomb during those days. Revolutionary, rude, cacophonous, almost punk, and most importantly FRESH.

And you are correct Bob when you speak of the way Zeppelin’s music made people FEEL. The first Zeppelin song I heard was “Dancing Days” when I was in 4th grade on a friend’s older brother’s record player. It was an excitement unlike anything I had felt before and I am sure it changed the course of my life. I am definitely on record as saying that seeing Jimmy Page work the MSG stage in The Song Remains The Same film (at the Ridge Cinemas in Richmond VA) was the impetus for me wanting to be a musician. I mean who else gets to go to work in black silk dragon pajamas?

After seeing Becoming Led Zeppelin I was discussing my thoughts with another ancient LZ fan like myself and I mentioned the other aspect of the film that truly affected me: I said that it really got me right in the feels to see the surprise, joy, and amusement Page, Plant, and Jones displayed while being shown performance footage of themselves as “young gods.” Their reactions to their younger selves simply made me happy. It was an unexpected by-product for me.

But to see their loving and almost tearful reactions upon hearing the shockingly civilized tone with which John Bonham speaks in that last and lost interview was mind blowing. It’s not that I expected some kind of different reaction from them it’s just that their reaction was what any NORMAL person’s feeling for a tragically lost comrade would be. And I know that I am not alone in saying that I NEVER once considered the members of Led Zeppelin to be normal people.

I told my Zeppelin loving friend how amazed by the modern interview segments I had been upon seeing the film. And he simply responded, “It humanized them.” Nuff said.

And he was right. Becoming Led Zeppelin brought these gods down from Mt Olympus and put them back on Earth as gentlemen and elder statesmen. This is a remarkable accomplishment when the film could have been a predictably simple and complete fluff job.

One last thought: I was hoping for an announcement of a second film that might be entitled BEING LED ZEPPELIN that would detail the days of their ascension. But now I think I am happy with what we have. I do wish Jimmy Page would just fling open the vault and give us what he knows every Zeppelin fan like myself wants: MORE!

Cheers,
Dave Schools

____________________________________

You forgot Coverdale/Page (1993).

Josh Valentine

Longmont, CO

____________________________________

I ran our high school radio station. A good friend, came in with a block of hash at 10am, and Physical Graffiti. We locked the doors, and played it for hours. Got in sh*t for it since the jocks who had a speaker in their room didn’t like it. One of my greatest life moments ever.

Jim Carroll

____________________________________

Love Led Zeppelin. Bought II when it was released. Saw them live in Stockholm in 72(?).

Anyhow, Becoming Led Zeppelin is NOT streaming in Sweden. What a bummer.

Thought that Netflix was world-wide. But, alas, no. Every itsy-bitsy country has their own catalogue.

So I guess it’s off to the Torrents.

Bye Bob, dig your writing.

Chris Bell

____________________________________

It made me cry with joy more than once. Fucking glorious!

Hugo Burnham

Apple TV+ trailer: https://shorturl.at/dxkKf

I’ll watch Owen Wilson in anything. He’s kind of like Howard Stern, self-deprecating, but even more lovable. And he’s got that smile/wink of the eye.

Unfortunately he’s better than this predictable show, but that does not mean I didn’t enjoy it. I broke my cardinal rule of not watching anything week by week, but when the first episode was over, I saw they’d also dropped another three, but I’m writing about the first one anyway. Maybe Apple learned its lesson with “The Morning Show”… If you’re starting with nothing, you’ve got to give people more than a little taste.

I’ve been off Apple TV+ for a while, but online it says if you get a new Mac, you’re entitled to three months for $2.99 each, and that’s a deal. Which I couldn’t figure out how to get, no matter how much I researched and clicked. I asked the guy at the Apple Store when I went in for a new case for my iPhone. Yes, I saw this video on TikTok from an ex-employee saying they’ll take ANYTHING back, even cases, so I went and they did! And this guy in the store said OF COURSE I was entitled to the deal. But I still could not make it happen.

And then I called AppleCare.

Which I never do. Because if you can’t find the answer online, it probably doesn’t exist. And you’ve got to go through the first layer of help, where they ask you stuff like “Is it plugged in?” And that’s what happened, but they kicked me up to the big guy and Friday, nearly a week later, I got an e-mail from my helper saying that they couldn’t solve my problems, that they were bugs, which was what I thought, but I got sick of having no ding when I got e-mail and having my messages stacked as opposed to a list on the lock screen of my iPhone.

And we were on the phone for nearly two hours. And there was a lot of downtime and we established a bond so I asked him about the Apple TV+ deal, and he was feeling guilty because he was unable to solve my problems so he said “Let me see what I can do…” and ultimately I got three months free, ergo “Stick.”

Not that I was expecting much. The reviews were not top-notch. But there’s that magic Owen Wilson element. Ever since I saw him in “Bottle Rocket” I’ve been hooked.

He’s got that weird nose, as a result of injury. Someone else might have fixed it, but he hasn’t bothered. Maybe he thinks he’ll end up with something worse, which is probably true. But he’s a good-looking guy and then I start to think about the suicide attempt, which was contrary to the characters Wilson always plays. It was unfathomable at the time. But even if you’re handsome and famous and talented, that does not mean you can’t get depressed. Maybe he’s not convinced of all I see in him, what we all see in him.

So “Stick’ may have been greenlit because of the success of “Ted Lasso.” Why not make another sports comedy? But other than “Bend It Like Beckham,” I don’t think a soccer movie has made it in the U.S. But that golf movie, “Tin Cup,” it’s Ron Shelton’s second best movie, after “Bull Durham,” and it’s serious as well as funny…and there are other golf movies, however lowbrow, like “Caddyshack” and “Happy Gilmore,” and do we need another variation on the golf theme?

Sans Wilson this show would suck.

But Judy Greer as Stick’s ex…she looks so much like Lisa Kudrow, but she’s not ditzy. She’s the center of the family. She can’t help but love Stick. Until enough time goes by that she just can’t handle his losing anymore, and then there’s that family tragedy, talk about predictable.

And then there’s Marc Maron… He’s so good, so natural in “Stick” it’s amazing. The role is perfect for his personality. You can’t see him acting like you did in his sitcom and in that wrestling show, “Glow.”

The rest of the cast? Mariana Treviño is kinda good, but it seemed like her accent faded in and out.

And then there’s Peter Drager as Santi…the prodigy, the golfer… Wilson’s rap in the back of the grocery store about loving the game is so right on, just like in the opening when he waxes rhapsodic about the feeling you get when the course meets the sky at the right time on the right day…I know exactly what he’s talking about, that’s how I feel skiing. And like with golf, every turn, every day is not great, but when you nail it…

As for golf, I played as a kid, not well, but semi-regularly.

And then I played in the eighties when everybody took it up for business reasons. But I just couldn’t take it that seriously, I just couldn’t be that competitive. Furthermore, my mother, who lived to golf, taught me etiquette which my compatriots did not have, they’d yell in frustration and throw their clubs…

But watching this show made me want to play again. A little. And I’m looking forward to the rest of the episodes. It’s SO predictable. But when Owen Wilson gets excited, there’s a passion you rarely see in other performances. He might be smiling, he might be laughing, but he BELIEVES!

Which makes you believe too.

Which puts a smile on my face. Not in the “Ted Lasso” way, because Ted was a doofus out of his element and Jason Sudeikis has talent, but not like Owen Wilson…talk about natural.

And Wilson has charisma. The kind the almost made it people have, when they’re down on their luck thereafter, boozin’ and druggin’ and screwin’ and bettin’… This role was made for Wilson.

I loved his performance so much, along with his interaction with his ex-wife, that I just had to tell you about it. You’ve go to acknowledge talent when you see it, because it’s truly rare. And comedy? That’s the hardest acting of all. And Wilson doesn’t play to the camera, he never breaks character, he’s FANTASTIC!