I worked for him for several years in the 80’s; first as a backline tech, then Lighting Designer and Monitor mixer.

One of a few artists I consider friend and not just employer.

Did more than my share of cross country drives, playing clubs and colleges and big shows as they came along.

Fast forward 20 years and I’m helping his son’s band do gigs in the SF Bay Area, in between my day gig with Neal Schon.

Greg was a great guy to work with throughout the various gigs and venues. big or small. And we played them all.

He took them all in stride.

I remember the day he brought his son Ry into the rehearsal studio, just a teeny baby.

In 1986, he had a young Bay Area guitar player playing alongside him, a young Joe Satriani on lead guitar.

Just before Joe went off the planet.

His family is requesting donations be made to The Alzheimer’s Association in his name in lieu of flowers.

Rest in peace, Greg

Allen (The Alien) Craft

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Thanks so much for a moving and well-deserved homage to the wonderful Greg Kihn who, like Hamlet, has shuffled off this mortal coil. Always liked that metaphor for passing on and in truth, one of the few Shakespeare lines I can easily quote. But Greg deserves as such for he was a literary rocker and a published author himself and a member of the storied rock ’n roll class of 1949 which includes Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Lionel Richie and … myself. It’s fitting that you put Greg’s story squarely in context of The Modern Lovers/Beserkley epoch in which I was a peripheral player. First saw The Modern Lovers when they opened for the New York Dolls at the fabled Mercer Arts Center in 1972. For the record, more signings and memorable bands came out of the Mercer Arts Center than CBGBs (including KISS) not to mention the first staging of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” before it went on propel Jack Nicholson to icon status. Don’t want to disparage CBGBs but there were other equally important rock clubs in NYC during NYC’s 70’s golden age, first and foremost being Max’s Kansas City where the Velvet Underground played there last gigs and where Bruce Springsteen did one of his first. Impossible now to imagine the buzz that was happening around both the Dolls and Modern Lovers at the time, both equally primed to become the next big thing and both now nearly forgotten except with the real aficionados like you Bob.

I got to know Greg when he covered my song “Anastasia” on his 1994 album “Mutiny” and we did a memorable show at New Jersey’s Playpen club  later that year along with Marshall Crenshaw and John Eddie. I left a message for Bruce Springsteen that I would be there and true to form he showed up and got on stage with us and we sang whatever songs we all knew including a very extended version of “Gloria” of course. When Greg Kihn met Bruce for the first time back stage his opening was memorable, “Hey Bruce, I’m the guy from Baltimore Jack!” to paraphrase “Hungry Heart” (Greg being from Baltimore). There’s a photo of all of us together that night, looking so young although we were deep into middle age if such a thing exists in rock ’n roll. Personally, I prefer perpetual adolescence …

But back to Rock History, both the Dolls and Modern Lovers imploded before they had a chance to conquer the world and a few years later, after I signed with RCA Records, both Jerry Harrison and Ernie Brooks from the Lovers joined my band and contributed immensely to my 1976 album “Night Lights.” Jerry, of course, when on to fame and fortune with the Talking Heads and Ernie toured with me in Europe for decades before finally forsaking Paris’ charms and returning to the beauty of Long Island City. I stuck it out in the City of Light and thanks to European audiences and continental indie record labels I’ve had a 50 year career. Can’t complain …

Always though I’d meet Greg again somewhere down the road but as all of us baby boomers know too well that road is becoming less and less crowded …

From Paris,

Elliott Murphy

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So sad to hear about Greg Kihn. He was my favorite of the great power-pop artists from the late 70s. My oldest surviving rock t-shirt is my Beserkley (Home of the hits!)/Greg Kihn Band black and gold number, now almost 50 years old (it still fits!). He had a ton of charisma, and a great pop sensibility. One Sunday night in the early 80s, my friend Mark and I went to The Bottom Line to see him play, probably after the first Beserkley records but before his big hits. To our shock, the place was empty, maybe 50 people in the place, two of them strangely being The Edge and Bono. Greg came out, surveyed the sparse gathering, and with a wry smile, said, “All right, let’s rock this place!” and proceeded to burn the house down. I was happy yet a little disappointed when he scored hits with songs that were clearly inferior to the material on his first few records, but I’ve never been one to quite figure out the tastes of the hoi polloi.

Irwin Cohen
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

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I saw Greg Kihn about 20 years ago or so in a tent by Lake Decatur on a cold Memorial Day weekend in Decatur, Illinois. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. No frills, just pure Rock and Roll. Before the show I was walking into a rest room and he was walking out and we had a brief conversation concerning our love of Buddy Holly. I asked if he would do a Buddy song during his show and damned if he didn’t drop in a snippet of Peggy Sue into Roadrunner. It was wonderful. May he rest in Rock and Roll peace.

Peace and Love

Tim Clary

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So sad to see this.  Back in the early 80’s, I was a Keystone Club Card holder and was entitled to see most shows at the Keystone’s Berkeley and Palo Alto and the Stone in SF at no cost.  I probably saw Greg Kihn and the Rubinoo’s 3 – 4 times each.  Loved Greg Kihn’s music and while his greatest (i.e. most popular) hits were indeed Jeopardy and the Breakup Song, he had a great repertoire of deeper cuts than somehow didn’t achieve the same level of popularity – Sheila, Museum, Remember, Madison Avenue Man, Tell Me Lies, Valerie . . . the list goes on.  And can’t forget his covers of Bruce Springsteen’s For You and Rendezvous.  From the late 80’s until a couple of years ago, I forgot about him until I saw a local Sacramento band that featured a member of the Rubinoos.  That brought back memories of those Keystone Days and I curiously googled Greg Kihn in the hopes he might still be playing clubs, county fairs, or in some other gigs.  His website and Facebook pages didn’t contain much information and didn’t reference any live shows after 2019.  I had a hunch he might be ill and gave up the hunt, but still had hopes there might be a Beserkely Records reunion at some point.  Hadn’t thought about him much lately until I saw this message.  Sadly, I guess I can give up the hunt for a live show, but you’ve prompted me to take another trip down memory lane via his record catalog.  Thanks for recognizing one of the best rockers to come out of the East Bay.

Joe Selewicz
Sacramento

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Nice tribute to a rock original. Greg Kihn did an early version of Bruce Soringsteen’s For You and he totally nailed it like Manfred Mann did on Blinded by the Light. We’re gonna do the Breakup Song and For you at my Wednesday night jam! Yeah and Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers! I always liked how Jonathan Richmand’s was so blasé, a delightfully flat tone. Roadrunner! It still resonates.

Greg was the first DJ to talk on-air about Netflix. I know because I booked it about 2000. We were just starting to make noise and no one was ready for a DVD in the mail. I wanted the most charismatic and curious DJ in the Bay. Of course it was Greg at KFOX in San Jose. No one else came close. Yes, Greg was 1 of the first storytellers of the Netflix idea. Man, he made morning commutes great. RIP

P.H. Mullen

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Nothing takes you back to your youth like a song.

“Greg Kihn Live at the Country Club 1981 – The Breakup Song”

And in an instant I’m 11 again, feeling like I’m part of the radio. Tapping those drum breaks on our kitchen table, strumming my tennis racket in time. Watching Greg on “Solid Gold” when my parents went out for dinner.

We had less, but dreamed more.

Thanks for the music, Greg. And the remembrance, Bob.

Jon Regen

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So sorry to hear of Greg’s passing. While he was building his career he was playing acoustically live all over the UC Berkeley campus from 74-77.  He was always a consummate story teller and a bright highlight for my college experience.  May his memory be as much of a blessing for others as it was for me.

Richard Drapkin

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Spring break, Daytona Beach, 1983: the local radio station played “Jeopardy” every single hour and we never got tired of hearing it!

Mark B. Siegel

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42 years ago on August 7, 1982, my friends and I saw Greg Kihn open for Duran Duran, Elvis Costello & the Attractions and Blondie outdoors at Parade Stadium in Minneapolis. The cost? $15 in advance and $16 day of show.

Kihn’s voice was a bit rough that day, as he explained they had been up late on the drive from Madison or Chicago.

His band worked hard! I saw them 3-4 other times at Headliners in Madison and at clubs in Milwaukee.

And you were right. He was one of us. Approachable. The band signed all of our albums (I believe they had 4-5 albums before Rockihnroll with the “Break-Up Song” was released in ‘81).

His death hit me hard. Time is passing for us all. Get out and see a concert tonight.

Gary Judson

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I live in San Jose even though I can’t really afford to. Listened to Greg on KFOX “classic Rock” most every morning until I followed Stern to satellite. Even post terrestrial I would switch it back to FM to hear The Greg Kihn show. He was down to earth, loved the music and the artist and the process. He knew all the back-stories behind the band and the song, and you could catch him playing some small spot around the bay area from time to time. When you heard him on his show you could tell he knew his place and he was fine with it.

“And then the juke box plays a song I used to know” ah-ah-ah    ah-ah-ah-ah-ah.

Bob Menafra-Manager

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Thanks for this Bob.  I saw the one and only Greg Kihn Band in the Chicago before and after the hits. Great live show.  I owe my renewed passion for vinyl records to Greg Kihn (3000+ records).  I gave up my vinyl for CD’s in the 80’s.  Could never find a CD from GK.  Later in the 90’s when he was a DJ in San Francisco, I found his email and sent him a mail as to why no CD releases.  He promptly answered that he would not or could not put them on CD.  Since I add all his records he suggested maybe I just get a new turntable.  I did and this is where I am today.

Love your work

Take care

Tom Hicks

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I’m sorry to hear about Greg Kihn. I got to see him in Philly at a club date, he did a killer cover of Dylan’s Highway 61. My buddy Bob and I would buy a record and the other would tape it. I’m pretty sure I have the first three records. I loved the album title puns.
Sorry to see him go.
Gary Jackson

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Way back when I managed a record store, I sold a lot of Greg Kihn records when absolutely no one knew who he was because I played them in-store (as well as The Modern Lovers and The Rubinoos). Kihn’s Madison Avenue Man is on many of my playlists. I’m sorry to hear he’s gone but – for me – he never really went away because the music still stands up.

 

Mike Campbell
Programming Director

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Bob:  This post captures how i am feeling this morning.  Well played as usual.   Grateful that i woke upready for the day but feeling more sentimental with each new passing.  Greg Kihn was hardly a hero of mine but he certainly was a musical figure that captures a moment that seems more hopeful and a part of the soundtrack of the boomer generation.     Best,

Andrew Zacks

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I love that you wrote about Jonathan Richman.

Penn Jillette turned me on to him a few decades ago (Penn shared a Massachusetts upbringing with JR). Yeah, he had the pared-down punk sensibility, but he also had a smile, and wit. Where the rest of the punk and post-punk scene were screaming in your face, he was singing sweet paeans to “That Summer Feelin'” and his “Fender Stratocaster.” He defied labels, and did it with self-confidence, ease, and best of all: humor.

Gary Stockdale

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Great write up. I loved those two hits of his. When I lived in the Bay Area for awhile I enjoyed hearing him as a DJ. He was very good and came with great stories.

Kyle JF

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Bob – so glad you wrote about Jonathan (no relation) in your recent newsletter.   We (me, Laurie Anderson) interviewed him for our book about Lou Reed in 2023. I worked with him throughout the process of getting him involved in the book, sending him proofs, edits etc.  He doesn’t plug in at all (no smartphone, cell phone, PC) and everything done via snail mail.  But he does love to talk on the phone (we still talk a few times a year).  He is exceptional in every way.   Best wishes, Scott Richman

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It was 1978 and my college radio station, KCR in San Diego, was putting on a college radio convention. The concert that night featured Dyan Diamond and the main attraction Greg Kihn. Greg may not have made it nationally at that time, but in the Bay Area he was well known. The members of KCR from San Francisco brought Greg’s music to us all and we ate it up. Greg always put on a great show, giving everything he had. After the show, we had a party at the hotel room and my friend Sootie and I were trying to get some IDs for the radio station. Greg’s manager kept pushing us away, but Greg was all for it (and I think he had a thing for my friend Sootie). Finally, we slipped away from his manager and Greg, Dyan, Sootie and myself locked ourselves in the bathroom. With his manager banging on the doors, we got a handful of great IDs. For my young self, it was a favorite moment of my life up to that point. I am so glad I have these memories. By the way, Greg’s live show probably had my favorite version of Roadrunner and his cover of Rendezvous was wonderful. RIP Greg.

Bruce Greenberg

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Hey Bob.
Greg Kihn was a good guy. He used to stop by our radio station (KMET/LA) to say hi and man oh man, we played the crap out of The Breakup Up Song and Jeopardy. So sorry to hear this. F#ck Alzheimer’s.
Hugh Surratt

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Dear Bob, Thanks so much for acknowledging Greg Kihn (and also the Modern Lovers/Jonathan R.). I was so sad to hear he died (and heard he had Alzheimer’s, even worse). I booked Greg and his band (and all the Bezerkley bands) so often at my various clubs and they were always a pleasure. This month was not a good one for deaths (Kenny Wardell, a Bay Area radio legend); and Kevin Chisholm, production manager at the clubs and Santana mover) and I dread seeing who comes next. I feel guilty for being so healthy (although that’s not a guarantee of anything, really) and feel pain every time someone dies. It’s like holes appearing in my inner universe, a Swiss cheese brain thing. I’m so happy you spotlighted Greg and his accomplishments. Thank you,
queenie taylor

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Great piece on a stellar human being.

My buddy Steve and I befriended him and his band when they played in Vancouver WA, and joined them for about two hours of hot chocolate and laughs at Denny’s. He was one of us, and a real character.

He wrote some super-fun mysteries as well.

F*ck Alzheimer’s.

Don Crouch

Redmond, OR

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Greg Kihn is STILL on my playlist, that dude was a master of what I call power pop, and which I adore. And listen to his version of “I Fall To Pieces”!  Everytime we lose one of these soundtracks to our lives, they take a little piece of us with them.  Greg Kihn RIP…

Young Hutchinson

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Saw Greg Kihn a few years back on a bill in Phoenix with Tommy TuTone, Loverboy and Rick Springfield. Had also seen him back in the late 70’s opening for Journey. Good shows both nights. I remember he did a good version of “For your Love” live. RIP Greg.
-Bill Tibbs/ Canada

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On Jonathan Richman, what is truly fascinating is that the Modern Lovers album was recorded in 1972 in multiple sessions for Warner Bros and A&M.  He also did demos with Kim Fowley in 1973. The album didn’t get released by Berserkley until 1976!  He was truly ahead of his time.

Check out this thoughtful piece by Dean Wareham (a Richman acolyte), of Luna, who also asks: imagine if Modern Lovers had been released in 1973? Maybe kids looking to create art through music would have been infuenced by Jonathan Richman instead of Bread and the Doobie Brothers.

Link: https://www.salon.com/2012/06/15/dean_wareham_my_jonathan_richman_romance/

Tony DiNota

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This absolutely sucks. The album that got me was “With The Naked Eye.” “Beside Myself” was tremendous, but it was “Rendezvous,” the Springsteen cover, that hooked me forever. This is the definitive version, I don’t care what anybody says. There’s a live video on YouTube I’ve been watching for years, whenever I need a boost. The band’s in a club, Greg’s wearing a striped T-shirt, they kick it off, he leans into the mic, says “This one’s for the Boss” and the rest is freaking heaven. I always wanted to be up on that stage with him, feeling what they all felt. Which must have been a taste of rock and roll heaven.

Matt Auerbach.

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One fine day in about 1983, I was 13 years old and fully addicted to MTV.  My neighborhood in Marin County, CA was chock full of rockstars….so a sighting was not unusual.

But this day, I was casually riding my bike and jumping over breaks in the sidewalk when out of nowhere a fancy sports car (I think an Alfa Romeo) came flying out of the canyon and down the mountain. It ran the stop sign and started to make the left turn full speed on a collision course with me and my Diamond Back. The driver locks up his breaks and screeches to a halt, missing me by only inches!!
When I looked u

p at the driver, it was Greg Kihn…my brush with death was quickly replaced by the grace of a real rockstar!  He gave me a smirk and kind of nod….and was on his way. I remember it like it was yesterday. I thought he was even cooler than before.

Chris Stacey

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Man, I’m 52. So “Jeopardy” and “The Breakup Song” were FM hits when I was in my “10’s.” But even then, the sound of “power pop rock”- or whatever we want to call it, radio rock, leapt out of the speakers- even to an impressionable kid.  Song power, baby!!  It felt just edgy enough, just smart enough, just sardonic enough, just mainstream enough.

You’re right- the days of a Tommy Tutone, The Knack, or a Greg Kihn being your radio friends are over. But at a young age, this stuff grabbed me- it was the sound of grown ups playing guitars and telling relatable stories.

And those clever Kihn album titles….

When I read the news today about Greg’s passing I texted a friend and said “why am I way more affected by Greg Kihn’s loss than I should be?” and he knew exactly what I meant.

End of a whole era- these guys, not necessarily legends per se, but journeymen rockers sharing stories and connecting with the people through rock and roll.  I’ll never forget the magic and connection I felt to radio when the Greg Kihns of the world were making records.  Something innocent and pure and direct about it…

So thanks Greg, and may your music Kihntinue to live on the airwaves…

Jeff Babko
The Valley

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If an artist was on the Beserkley label, you knew that  they were worth checking out, because Trouser Press magazine was our bible, which made us insiders. In the 70s, I had friends who were Bruce fans (I was not) based on his first two albums. Since Greg Kihn had covered Bruce’s “For You”, we went to see him at My Father’s Place in Roslyn on Long Island. The club was a tiny place under an overpass (your car was covered with bird crap by the time you went home). Friends from college worked there, so we had no problem getting in. Greg Kihn put on an amazing show for a small audience,  his choice of covers was spot on (he did an uptempo version of Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces”), and we went back to see him every time he came to town. Did I think about him in the last 20 years? Probably not, but after I heard the news of his passing, I dug out the old albums and started googling (see below).

As for Jonathan Richman,  one never knew if he was on the spectrum (we used a different term back then), but he played My Father’s Place too,  and we saw him multiple times. We kept waiting for him to break character,  but that’s who he was.  No one else was singing silly songs about Martians or the ice cream man. But by the 80s, he never broke through big time.  And when he was in that “Mary” movie, did anyone (besides me and your audience) know who he was, or what a goof it was to see him there?

I was probably in the audience at this Greg Kihn show:

https://archive.org/details/greg-kihn-band-1978-ny-my-fathers-place-wlir

Good night,

Stuart Taubel

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I brought in Greg Kihn and his label Beserkly Records to Elektra/Asylum records in LA 81.

We had two big hits with Greg Kihn, Jeopardy, and The Breakup Song.

I discovered Berserkly Records at my first job in Miami, in 75, in a warehouse working for TK Records, Tone Distributors, in Hialiah.

Deep in the warehouse among stacks of records, mostly R&B, I saw the Modern Lovers record, the first one, with Roadrunner on it.

I always preferred bands straight out of the garage, The Modern Lovers were that.

I drove all over Fla to promo Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, the record fell on deaf ears, except one station in Tampa, WQSR, and it’s PD Steve Huuntington..

Then to NYC for Elektra, and the Associate National Rock job.

Few years later on to Los Angeles to head the Rock Dept.

Elektra was once a great label back in the mid  70’s, but by the time I got to LA the label was coming apart.

They did have Television who I still maintain were at the top of the Punk Pile, outstanding band, featuring Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, who also made two note worthy solo LP’s as well.

EA’a LA roster was in shambles, save for the classic artists (Eagles, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt).

EA was being run by a guy who came out of WEA, a salesman, who championed Richard Simmons as the second coming for a tiffany label.

Finally they signed The Cars, a good band who made fine records, but the live shows.. not so much.

Radio initially would not touch The Cars, nuts, but that was Radio back then, saying it was too punk. Might have been their wardrobe.

A year later I got a call from Lee Abrams saying their research was saying CARS.

Well then..

I left EA and called Rick Carroll  at KROQ who I had met once, asking if I could syndicate Rock of The 80’s.

We had 11 markets playing KROQ music in 82-86, SF, San Diego, Philly, Dallas and most importantly our first client, SEATTLE, six years before Nirvana.

Paramount TV bought Rock of the 80’s Show, and I had the pleasure of introducing new music to the American audience.

Rock of the 80’s was THE FIRST ALTERNATIVE MUSIC FORMAT, period.

Now, the Rock format is called Alternative.

When the Rock Hall of Fame did a salute to Alternative, I tried to get Rick Carroll and the DJ’s at KROQ a plaque or some recognition, not even a mention.

I do hope WPIX and Meg Griffin received notice, as they did set the bar high, they were the real Champions, as well as KROQ.

In 88 I did the same with Tone Loc’s, Wild Thing, KROQ first played it and became their #1 most requested record ever at that time.

Lee Masters at MTV did the same for me, after we had lunch at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in LA.

MTV put Wild Thing in power.

KROQ and MTV both in power, a mic drop moment if there ever was one.

Game on, game over.

Tone Loc LP was the first Black Hip Hop artist to debut at #1 in Billboard in 89.

Just sayin…..

Marty Schwartz

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He was also one of the first to cover a Springsteen song (“For You”) and I was lucky enough to hear “Roadrunner” on the radio when it was new as in Jersey we would pump WPIX-FM in the record store all day during the all too brief period when Meg Griffin and her then husband Joe From Chicago had their wonderful From Elvis To Elvis format going.

Mike Marrone

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I too got into Beserkley Records due to the Modern Lovers. My high school class was Lee Abrams’ target audience when he was creating AOR at WQDR in Raleigh. In college I broke free when Chris Stamey lived in the same dorm and turned us on The MC5, Stooges, and Modern Lovers.

So I kept buying Beserkley albums which I could do because Jefferson Holt worked at the record store on Franklin Street. And I bought Greg Kihn and Rubinoos album.

In November of 1981 I was playing speed chess for money at a club near campus in, well, Berkeley and picked up a paper that said Greg Kihn Band was playing an armory up in Santa Rosa.

I drove up to Santa Rosa and am still glad I did. GKB put on a solid rock n roll show with songs we could dance to in an armory up in Santa Rosa.

Art Menius

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Ha! For some inexplicable reason the first time I heard ‘Pablo Picasso’ was when John Cale did it. Wonderfully, an absolutely killer version,I might add. For some reason I missed it when Jonathan released it.

Ross Field

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Thanks for this, Bob. How important that first Modern Lovers album is, and how Berserkley was their platform. There was also the “Berserkley Chartbusters” comp, containing the taste of where Jonathan was going with “New Teller”, and sharing the comp with the Rubinoos, Greg Kihn, and Earthquake.

– Bob Crain

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Thank you Bob for writing about the Modern Lovers and Jonathan Richman..as a member of the music business scene in Boston back in the 70’s and 80’s

I knew of Jonathan Richman especially being around the WBCN crowd…He played on the station baseball team and was what I thought of as a “character” I guess…after leaving a tour manager job…and when Jonathan was signed to Beserkley, the DJ Maxanne Sartori recommended me to Matthew “King” Kaufman as a road manager for him… Matthew flew me out to Berkeley and I stayed at the “House of Beserkley” ..there were musicians in and out and Greg Kihn was obviously the most successful…I went to a few of his gigs..a very nice man… Jonathan had some gigs set up when we returned to Boston …they were acoustic

I believe… but he refused to use a PA and was definitely doing things his way…I can admire that now and realize it was part of what made him so great…

but it was not easy doing the job I was hired for.. so we parted ways…but I will always remember how much fun it was being in the Beserkely world for a while…

Peter Wassyng

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What a great tribute to those who just weren’t famous enough but gave us wonderful music. Jonathan was my neighbor in Boston as the M.L. put out their first tracks. At BCN we played a lot of songs cut by local artists we loved. We had Roadrunner on a 8 trk cartridge and hit it hard.

Nothing like it and I’ll take them over the Ramones for sure. Jonathan is so authentic and real. Picasso was a favorite obviously. But just when you try to figure someone out, I was talking to him about how the station was forming a softball team to play listeners in surrounding towns. He said, I’m in. I couldn’t believe it. Turns out he was a terrific athlete and could hit the sh*t out of the ball.

Greg deserved more time making music. Sad as you say.

John Brodey

The encore was an a cappella/barbershop quartet version of “Donna” that was utterly spectacular, the best thing I’ve seen all year.

But you’ve probably never heard the original.

10cc was a band nobody wanted that was signed by Jonathan King, of “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon” fame, and its initial album came out on King’s “UK” label via Mercury in the States and there was no airplay but plenty of ink, and if you were a dedicated follower of print you were intrigued and bought it.

At least I did.

I had to hear the track that went to number one in England, “Rubber Bullets.”

“I went to a party at the local county jail

All the cons were dancing and the band began to wail”

It sounded like nothing so much as the Beach Boys, who at this point had lost the formula. It was like hearing a new Beatles song, completely unexpected, but oh so fine.

“Load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets

I love to hear those convicts squeal

It’s a shame these slugs ain’t real”

And there was a sense of humor to boot. 10cc evidenced an intellectual quality while the airwaves were being ever more dominated by meat and potatoes and corporate rock. They were almost too good for the airwaves.

“Sheet Music,” the band’s second album, started with a delineation of finance almost a full decade before the audience caught on, before Reagan legitimized greed and everybody was doing the “Wall Street Shuffle.”

But “Sheet Music” had even less commercial impact in the U.S., if that was possible, and then came “The Original Soundtrack” and “I’m Not In Love.”

Now normally when you go to see an act of seventies hitmakers, that’s just what people want to hear, the hits. You know, the songs that crossed over to Top 40, and during the rest of the set the audience talks, goes to the bathroom, eats.

But not Thursday night.

If you weren’t a fan of 10cc, if you didn’t know the albums, you weren’t in attendance. It was a convocation of music nerds, those who lived for the music, and knew every note. How else could you start with “The Second Sitting for the Last Supper,” an album cut if there ever was one. It’d be like Paul McCartney starting the show with “You Gave Me the Answer” from “Venus and Mars,” hard core fans would be thrilled, and casual fans would be completely flummoxed. But like I said, there were no casual fans there Thursday night.

But there was cognitive dissonance. What was once a band of four now only has one original. You heard Eric Stewart’s parts, but they were sung by this young bloke with a high voice and intellectually it was not easy to swallow.

And then came “Art for Art’s Sake.”

And I couldn’t help throw my hands in the air.

“Art for art’s sake

MONEY FOR GOD’S SAKE!”

I was grabbed by the music and brought right back to 1976, only this was 2024, and it felt just as vital as it did back then. And just as meaningful.

There are no bands like 10cc. You can’t compare them to anyone. And therefore their music has never dated. It’s as fresh as it ever was, waiting to be discovered or reconnected with whenever you hear it.

Now I was on the boat, on the cruise, I’d left all preconceptions behind, because I was hearing a song I knew by heart that was more than a ditty, all these years later, after all, 10cc hadn’t performed live in the U.S. since ’78, at the Santa Monica Civic, I was there, I can even tell you where I sat, and the fact that when I got home my girlfriend was in bed and feigning sleep, she didn’t want me to to.

But I had to.

But the pièce de résistance was “Feel the Benefit.” The last song on 1977’s”Deceptive Bends,” when it was now two, after Godley and Creme had left to pursue their work with the Gizmotron.

There was less humor on “Deceptive Bends,” but there was a slice of pure pop that was undeniable, that you only had to hear once, “The Things We Do for Love.”

A sing-songy number straight out of the middle sixties I thought was a takeoff on that era, but Graham Gouldman has assured me it was written straight, all I know is it’s a master class in songwriting, right down to the bridge.

“Ooh, you made me love you

Ooh, you’ve got a way

Ooh, you had me crawling up the wall”

And when you love a song so much you play the album to death. Which is how I know “Feel the Benefit.” At this point it’s the 10cc record I play the most, the one I sing in my head.

Now the thing is “Feel the Benefit’ is a minor symphony, over eleven minutes long, the kind of number you never expect to be played live, like something from “Sgt. Pepper,” impossible to replicate.

But Thursday night 10cc hit every note.

Stewart may have been gone.

But Rick Fenn and Paul Burgess were there, band members for decades. And Fenn is an absolute master, from the era when guitar heroes were a dime a dozen and therefore someone like Rick didn’t get the attention he deserved.

It was positively astounding, the notes, the sounds he was wringing from his guitar. Not to mention Keith Hayman’s work on the keys. And then two-thirds of the way through Graham Gouldman pulled off a bass solo that showed he was more than a songwriter, MUCH MORE!

It was mesmerizing. It garnered a standing ovation. And not the only one.

Like I said, the audience knew the material.

The venue wasn’t completely full, but I was stunned how many hard core devotees there were of this music. Which was not cool like Jane’s Addiction, that wasn’t for boys only like Rush, but hit you in the head as well as the heart.

We were all on the same train. We were on a private journey, and the rest of the world did not matter. I read that Sabrina Carpenter just played the Forum, there’s all this hoopla over Chappell Roan, but they can’t hold a candle to what 10cc was…and now still is.

You see this music worked on its own, it didn’t need chart success to give it an imprimatur of greatness. The band took the sixties and synthesized them into something new.

I won’t say you had to be there, because if you did, YOU PROBABLY WERE!

It was strange. The original lead singer, one of the best in the business, was absent, but it was a religious experience nonetheless. You see there was the playing, but even more there were the songs.

You couldn’t help but have a smile on your face.

It was a private thing, but for everybody in attendance.

We were all celebrating the band, even those in it.

And then came the encore of “Donna.”

The initial 10cc album was akin to Zappa’s “Ruben and the Jets.” It hearkened back to the sounds of yore, but with a twist, with humor.

“Donna” in its original incarnation was a doo-wop parody. Not something you expected to hear live, then again I didn’t expect to hear “The Dean and I” either.

And I’d be honest if I said I wasn’t dying to hear “Donna” Thursday night, I was hoping for “Old Mister Time” or some other deep cut from “Bloody Tourists.”

There’s not a ton of instrumentation on the recorded “Donna,” but there were no instruments at all Thursday night.

It was the first encore, before the closing “Rubber Bullets.”

The band stood around one mic, like Dion and the Belmonts and every street corner group of the late fifties.

“Whoa, Donna

You make me stand up

You make me sit down Donna”

In this case Andy Park nailed the falsetto lead vocal and the rest of the members supported him, and they were smiling, almost laughing, and you were standing there, just waiting for them to hit a bad note, to fail, BUT THEY NEVER DID! IT WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!

The band cast a spell. And needless to say, when it broke, the audience exploded.

This had nothing to do with rock, had nothing to do with hits, had nothing to do with whether you knew the number, this had to do with MUSIC! Which was what enraptured us all those years ago.

The show was over and I wanted to see it again. I wanted to concentrate on what I missed, I wanted to luxuriate in this music once more, I wanted the high to continue.

I found it nearly impossible to fall asleep. Because of the pure joy. It wasn’t about shooting selfies, telling anybody I’d been there, but just being there myself, in the moment.

You can’t really ask for much more.

Tune in Saturday August 17th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

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

“They don’t write ’em like that anymore”

And they surely don’t.

Greg Kihn and his band were on Beserkley Records, famous up to this point for the initial Modern Lovers album, partially produced by John Cale, the group contained David Robinson, long before he had success drumming for the Cars, and Jerry Harrison, and this was 1976, before “Talking Heads 77” with “Psycho Killer” was released.

“The Modern Lovers” was a legendary punk album when the Ramones had no sales traction, only press, and we read the press incessantly, when if you were a little left of center you could still be noticed, being off the radar screen was not anathema, never mind being lost in the sea of songs of today.

And it’s not like you ever heard “The Modern Lovers” on the radio. You had to buy it to hear it. I read about the record, the band that had already broken up, so much that I finally laid down my cash.

And I was titillated and surprised.

Now when the history of punk is written, and in truth it’s been written time and again, mostly by acolytes, it should be noted that the two breakthrough icons of early punk, the progenitors, were both Jewish, Joey Ramone and Jonathan Richman. And that’s important, because their lyrics evidenced a Jewish sensibility, a sense of humor, the perspective of an outcast looking in. And despite being basic, the music possessed an intellectual quality absent from today’s hit parade. Where you were coming from, what you were saying, were very important. As was attitude. And no one but the critics and a few insiders got it. Believe me, even with their third album and “Rockaway Beach” almost no one was listening to the Ramones, and Richman went in such a wacky direction, an acoustic folk singer rendering his tunes around the summer campfire…

But when you dropped that needle on “The Modern Lovers”…

All the ink was about “Roadrunner,” the opening cut, but the essence of the album came at the end of the first side, with “Pablo Picasso.”

All I can tell you is, “Pablo Picasso was never called an a**hole.”

“Pablo Picasso” was a secret handshake, if you knew it you were on the inside, if you didn’t…you didn’t have a clue.

“The Modern Lovers” was a club. And it has continued to get praise over the decades, but in truth few people know it, and they should, but it’s hard to understand sans context. This was at the height of AOR, bands in spandex taking themselves seriously, meat and potatoes, and then came THIS?

I’ve seen Jonathan Richman many times. I thought his inclusion in “There’s Something About Mary” would break him wide, but that did not happen. Just like Graham Parker in “This Is 40.” However Parker had his moment, on Arista, even though the first two records on Mercury were the best.

So, why not?

Well, when you see Jonathan Richman, when you listen to the records you wonder if it’s a put-on. But it now appears that this is who he really is, just like another Jewish musician, Gene Simmons. But Richman looks inward, Simmons outward. But if you want to know which way the wind blows, you’d be better off listening to Richman.

All of which hipped me to Beserkley Records.

And I went to see the Rubinoos at the Whisky.

If it was on Beserkley, there was thinking involved. Matthew “King” Kaufman wasn’t only in it for the money, although you could hear the influences of Zappa in the records he released.

But no one expected Greg Kihn to be the breakthrough. For him and his band to be all over MTV. It would be like some influencer on Threads being as well-known as Taylor Swift, but unlike the stars of today, EVERYONE KNEW THE LYRICS TO JEOPARDY!

But that came later. And got a second life when Weird Al reconstructed it as “I Lost on Jeopardy,” one of the pinnacles of the comedic performer’s oeuvre.

And the thing about “Jeopardy” was that keyboard, a direct descendant of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.”

“Our love’s in jeopardy, baby”

Because she’s absent, can’t be found in those pre-cell phone days.

Once again, today the script has been flipped. If you’re a male on the hit parade you cannot show weakness, vulnerability, but that’s what made these records great. Greg Kihn wasn’t that far removed from you and me.

But “Jeopardy” came later, ’83, before that there was “The Breakup Song.”

It started with a guitar riff and sound which Bryan Adams would amplify into his breakthrough on “Run to You.” 

“We had broken up for good just an hour before”

A straight derivation from the sixties. As typical of Beserkley records. They were referential to that era when we’d all grown up, our formative years, especially those Top Forty singles we knew by heart.

They didn’t write ’em like that anymore, even in 1981, never mind today.

“We’ve been living together for a million years”

Unlike our parents we didn’t get married, we needed no piece of paper from the upstairs choir keeping us tied and true.

And when you break up, it does feel so strange out in the atmospheres. Not sure I’d heard that word in a song before or since.

So Greg Kihn and his band were not a typical MTV breakthrough, they’d put out albums previously, unheralded and unknown. But they were in the right place at the right time, and with exposure, they made it.

And then it was over. It always is. And then what do you do?

Some go back to college, some fall into drugs, others rob 7-11’s and…

Greg Kihn became a deejay. We knew this. But we didn’t hear him. Because radio was local, you may not remember that when Howard Stern was syndicated across the nation that was a huge breakthrough.

And now Greg Kihn is dead. As are two other members of his band. That’s what you check first these days, whether the members are even alive, never mind whether they get along and go on the road together.

Furthermore, they say Kihn had Alzheimer’s. I didn’t know. Maybe it was somewhere, maybe it was secret. But that long goodbye is such a bizarre way to go. You fade away and you don’t radiate.

And I’m not sure Kihn’s music will either. I mean it’s amazing what licensing can do for you, look at “My Sharona” and “Don’t Stop Believin’,” placements made them legendary.

And you can read the facts in the obituaries, but they won’t give you the feel.

Even at this late date, at the turn of the decade, from the seventies to the eighties, we still believed.

Music drove the culture. Forget Patti Smith, how many people listened to “The Modern Lovers” and started a band!

There was something to dig your teeth into. And it was all rooted in what had come before, rock and roll.

These songs had more than one chord, they had changes, choruses, and it was surprising that Greg Kihn was the Beserkley artist to strike lightning, but he did.

And for a while there, at the advent of the internet, everyone was around. You could look them up, eventually on Wikipedia, see where they’d been, maybe even follow them on Facebook.

But that era is ending. It’s the final chapter for our heroes, and then us.

And Greg Kihn was a hero. Do you know how hard it was to get a record deal, never mind have a hit, two? Nearly impossible. People didn’t sit at home with no skills and believe they’d become household names. Maybe you had fantasies, but you knew it was unrealistic.

But there were some who picked up the guitar after seeing the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan,” who played in high school bands, and then stuck with it. It wasn’t glamorous, they were falling behind while their brethren were building careers, never mind families, but this was the path they needed to go down, to stick to.

And the audience was ready for you. All those people who couldn’t follow the artistic path, they bought records, went to the club, music was the grease our world functioned on. The most nimble and influential art form.

And sure, we can all bow our heads in prayer when an icon dies, Freddie Mercury, Bowie, Glenn Frey… But they lived above us, we couldn’t reach them, they were gods.

But Greg Kihn was us just one step removed.

But it’s Greg Kihn and the rest of the two hit wonders, legendary album makers, non-stars, who not only fill out the canon, but our hearts.

It’s always weird when you find out about these passings. You power up your phone, you’re surfing the news, or you get an e-mail, and then your entire past is laid out in front of you.

And we think back and say…

They don’t write ’em like that anymore.

Definitely not.