Don Gehman has produced records for everybody from Stephen Stills to John Mellencamp to R.E.M. to Bruce Hornsby to Tracy Chapman to Hootie and the Blowfish. This is his story from Pennsylvania and Clair Brothers, to Florida and Criteria, to name producer. Quite a journey!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/don-gehman/id1316200737?i=1000663309969

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/3dce7ce5-c100-4f8f-bf82-46aa4a9deadb/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-don-gehman

Spotify: https://rb.gy/3ocfrw

YouTube: https://rb.gy/idggbx

1

“For you to think about me.”

Meat and potatoes rock and roll flourished in the midwest, in the south, had a presence in the west but was pooh-poohed in the northeast. “Free Bird” caught on in New York after it broke elsewhere. I don’t remember ever hearing Foghat on FM, nor did anybody own the records, even though I got hooked on the band hearing “Boogie Motel” and “Stone Blue” on FM when I moved to Los Angeles.

One of the reasons meat and potatoes rock gets a bad rep is the lyrics. Simple. Misogynistic. Anything but vulnerable.

But when I heard “Never Been Any Reason” on Spotify today…

I started with “Rocky Mountain High,” I had a hankering to hear it. And from there the instant radio station slipped into “Listen to the Music” and then “Foreplay/Long Time,” not that I saw the John Denver cut being aligned with the latter, but in truth we could be fans of all sounds back in the day. Today everything is available online, just a click away, but despite all the hoopla about the grazing of the youngsters it seems people end up in their silos.

Now I’ve heard “Never Been Any Reason” more as an oldie than when it was originally released in 1975. And it got a boost from its inclusion in “Dazed and Confused,” back in 1993, seems just like yesterday. Teen exploitation films are no longer a thing, at least at the multiplex, they can appear on streaming outlets, but they used to be a ritual. First and foremost with the B pictures of the sixties and seventies, and even through “American Pie” in the nineties. Then again, are today’s kids optimistic? Can they ignore the realities of climate change, income inequality and financial hardship? By time the seventies rolled around, politics was in the background, especially after Nixon was gone and Vietnam wound down. There was a level of hedonism boomers hadn’t seen previously, the seriousness of the sixties was history, we were luxuriating in our achievements.

We had weed, whites and wine, and things were pretty good.

The concert business was built in the sixties and matured in the seventies. The sound was finally good, you expected it. And shows were not exotic, they were a ritual, you went on a regular basis, they were affordable. And the touring artists could live quite well on the income.

So you banged your head. Let go. Felt alive. Untroubled.

Of course this wasn’t completely true, but the music got you through.

2

“Have you ever been lonely, do you have any fun”

One thing about the over-criticized internet, it has brought the lonely together, you can go online and find your tribe. It seems like the only people testifying about the ills of the internet are those who had/have no problem functioning in regular society, going to prom, getting laid, being a member of the group. But that leaves plenty of people out. And for this group the internet has been a godsend. The fact that money and looks aren’t everything online aids those who don’t ring the bell regarding these criteria. Sure, there are social media influencers parading their assets, then again Mr. Beast didn’t make it on looks. Nerds rule the internet and the cool people of yore don’t like this.

So who is this person the singer is asking these questions of? It sounds like the underdog. But it’s not. She’s his heart’s desire, she’s the winner.

“Did you see any action

Did you make any friends

Would you like some affection

Before I leave again”

Typical macho rock star a*shole, right? I mean listen to the music, it’s energetic, breezy, but in reality it’s a cover-up.

“I’ve been walking behind you

Since you’ve been able to see

There’s never been any reason

For you to think about me”

They grew up in the same neighborhood. She never took him seriously. He’s got a crush. Girls talk about their crushes all the time, they share this information, plot strategies of connection. But boys…they josh and jive and rate the girls, it’s all posturing, truth is never revealed, because you don’t want to look weak. Your crush is secret. And if it comes out oftentimes you’re an object of ridicule.

“Would you be my companion

Is there even a chance”

You know, go on the road, to live the rock and roll lifestyle, getting high, getting laid, getting paid. But if this is so, why do so many of these male stars get married so soon? For every Gene Simmons there are scores of stars who went on the road and came home and married their local sweetheart before leaving town again. You see the road is lonely. Sure, there’s sex, not for everyone, despite the legend, but human beings crave connection, intimacy, and the road is antithetical to this.

“You’ve been talking in circles

Since I’ve been able to cry

There’s never been any reason

For ever telling me why”

The lyrics are not clear, they don’t make complete sense, but that’s de rigueur for rock and roll. On one hand he’s longing in isolation, but you can also argue that they’ve had intimate relations. In any event, whatever has happened, or not, she’s not giving him what he wants. She’s elusive.

We’ve all been there. Even if there are moments of connection you’re never quite sure whether they’re into you. You can’t read the situation, and you can’t get any answers.

She’s so fine.

“Woman with the sweet lovin’, better than a white line”

But he’s holding the short end of the stick, if he’s holding it at all.

So he postures.

“There’s never been any reason

For me to think about you”

But he can’t hold that position.

“Save my life, I’m going down for the last time”

3

There’s a vulnerability in “Never Give Any Reason” that I didn’t catch until today.

And the truth is so many of the meat and potatoes rock tracks have unperceived depth.

But as the decades wore on…

MTV became about posturing, by the new wave of English bands.

And then Nirvana brought on the era of alienation. There’d always been alienation in rock, but this was the ethos of Kurt Cobain and the rest of the Seattle sound and then…

Hip-hop was all about posturing. Bragging.

Rock lost its way.

Pop gained inroads unseen since the sixties. Mariah Carey. The divas. The center of the universe moved from rock and roll to a blend of pop and hip-hop, and rock has never recovered.

Sure, we had Coldplay, but that band has a core of wimpiness, there’s no edge. And Dave Matthews is not about edge. And Radiohead is its own spacey thing, and more of a cult than mainstream.

And all those acts broke before the old paradigm evaporated. They were boosted by music television and terrestrial radio. And once that died…

So did rock and roll.

Today’s rock and roll is anti-internet. It’s far from vulnerable. It’s the uber-alienated playing for the uber-alienated. The rock audience used to be mainstream, but today’s “Active Rock” appeals to the downtrodden, the blue collar, the left out. It’s a bubble. It doesn’t stream. It doesn’t sync. It’s a narrow construct. As for mainstream rock and roll…

It’s dead.

This is what unregulated free speech looks like.

Unusable.

What did we lose with Steve Jobs? Simple user interfaces, a reduction in complication, leaving the past behind to go into the future. And with the loss of Twitter, we’ve given up instant news.

Used to be if you had a question about what was happening, the weather, a car accident, anything of the moment, you went on Twitter, where you would almost always find an explanation. But those days are through. Because the people posting these updates have left the platform.

You may not use Twitter, you may deplore Twitter, but the people who deliver your news, even opinion on the news, have historically been addicted to Twitter. That was where you went to find out information and take the temperature of a situation. It was an incredible resource.

That platform is gone.

And there is no replacement, and probably never will be. Apple eliminated USB-A on their Pro laptops in 2016. More than half a decade later, they released the Mac Studio with USB-A along with the now standard USB-C. How standard is USB-C? They even have it in automobiles, a slow moving industry if there ever was one. And all the new smartphones are USB-C, thanks to the European Union. But someone at Apple was afraid of angering pro consumers, who are on the bleeding edge. Jobs was all about perfecting the found item and then continuing to improve it. The first iPod had a moveable wheel, on the second one the wheel didn’t move, it was touch sensitive, and more usable. Jobs was a stickler for getting it right.

That is not Elon Musk. If anything, Elon is a visionary, and that has been undercut too… How responsible for Tesla was he really?

As for Twitter…

He took a household name brand and changed it to something that does not roll off the tongue, to the point that most people still call X Twitter.

And then he kept on adding new features that confused what the platform was even about. Maybe he’s trying to grow it into something bigger, but the problem is he lost a great deal of the user base along the way.

Now the two main ways to use Twitter are to follow individuals or have the algorithm render a feed by itself.

Unfortunately, many of the good posters have left Twitter. So if you go by following individuals, there’s less there than ever before. And if you go by the algorithmic feed…

You’re inundated with conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and a distinct right wing bias.

Meaning left wing people have abandoned the platform, making it less robust.

And the right wing people…

If Twitter is where you get your news, you have a totally skewed vision of the world, oftentimes, many times, inaccurate.

But even worse there’s the attitude. Sure, social media is laden with hate, but usually it’s a reaction to what someone has posted. Now the initial posts themselves are hate-filled. The attitude employed is one of holier-than-thou bullies. Mostly male. If you wanted to make sure a Democrat got elected for President you wouldn’t send money to Kamala, you’d go into business with dating apps, and get all these bros laid. They’re reactionary, angry, oftentimes detached from society. All they have is each other, egging them on.

And then there are conspiracy theorists like Laura Loomer. Who soon after the debate said Biden had a medical event on an airplane and we should be waiting with bated breath for the report, and when that didn’t come that proved the point, right?

And for the last couple of days, Elon Musk has been saying his child died as a result of transitioning genders. Sh*t happens, anything can be true. So I checked the Google News… Nothing. The kid didn’t die. Not at all. As a matter of fact, the kid will have nothing to do with their father, but unless you did research, you wouldn’t know this.

And then there are the people trying to appear balanced so they can convince you of their heinous viewpoints.

And this is all a result of the lack of content moderation, of at least creating an algorithm that stops feeding this looney stuff to those who don’t want to see it.

Free speech… Elon Musk doesn’t even understand the meaning of the term. A private enterprise can restrict speech all it wants. And we can debate whether falsehoods should be removed from platforms, but the solution is not to throw out the regulators all together.

So now Twitter/X is completely untrustworthy. How did this “free speech” benefit society? It didn’t, it hurt society.

We do not want a free for all.

You’ve got to obey the speed limit. You’ve got to have a license to drive. You can’t drive the wrong way on a freeway. As for the vaunted “freedom” the right wing talks about…if it doesn’t hurt anybody and you do it in your own home it should be all right, right? NO! They want to be able to say and do whatever they want to and restrict what you can say or do. Furthermore, if they don’t like what you’re saying they’re going to drown it out in tweets, just like an individual is wary of suing a corporation for fear the company will bury them in paper and bleed them dry.

Do I expect a Twitter replacement to take hold?

No, because no one cares that much and there’s not enough money in it. Threads is a C- level product, not in terms of raw usability, but its algorithm feeds stuff you like from Instagram, even though most people use the two platforms for completely different reasons. And although some lefties have defected to Threads, there are not enough people on the service to waste the time to go on it.

But it all comes down to one man. Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg…

Musk isn’t supporting Trump out of the goodness of his heart, he doesn’t believe in most of what Trump says, he just wants favorable business regulations. After Musk committed to Trump, the latter stopped excoriating electric cars. Not that anybody spewing hate and bile on X is aware of this. These are the same people who lost all that money on GameStop. They think they’re changing the world, but they’re not even playing in the real world.

So there’s no Twitter replacement. There’s nowhere to go for instant news. Apple News+ has a delay. Alexa’s delay can be a whole day. Instantaneous? Out the window.

This is akin to music. The lead singer leaves, a band breaks up, and you can’t fill that hole. If you want Led Zeppelin, that’s the only place you can get it, there’s been a few imitations, Kingdom Come and Greta Van Fleet, but even Greta moved on from that sound, if for no other reason than the backlash.

So we move forward and lose something in the process.

We can buy products online from Amazon, get them delivered overnight, but good luck finding what you want as a result of the ads. Never mind the ads you now see on Amazon Prime Video. Is there a single person who would get an Amazon logo tattoo? I can’t imagine it. But you want the products. With Twitter/X, the true believers have left. Most of the rightwing blowhards weren’t even on the platform before Musk bought it.

And whenever anybody criticizes Twitter/X, Musk blows back. Talk about a thin skin, this guy is responsible for so much internet hate but when the tables are turned on him he cries and wants to leave the game. As for his companies’ exit from California… This is the guy who wanted Tesla employees to work on the line in the heyday of Covid. This is the guy who has created noise pollution in Texas. This is a guy who wants to live in his own world with his own rules. Fine for him, as long as it doesn’t affect the rest of us, but it does!

I’ve about given up on MSNBC. The endless cheerleading is ridiculous. The Democrats are always right and the Republicans are always wrong. It’s not as bad as FOX, but the end result with both is you end up with a skewed view.

And the further result of all this Balkanization is that fewer and fewer people actually know what is going on, and the way they deal with their ignorance is to pledge fealty to the team. And if you’re not on their team, if you step outside the lines, if you question the orthodoxy, you’re the target of extreme derision, and this happens on both the left and the right.

And the right now owns so much of the internet. They were behind at first, still depending on talk radio, but it’s the right that has taken over the platforms, skewing reality. As for the left… It’s not organized and it would rather just react and hate on the right.

Used to be when I had a moment, when I wanted to know what was going on, I’d pull up Twitter. Now I do so less and when I do I find it unsatisfying and I wince.

TikTok? That’s a different thing. That’s not for up to the minute news.

Instagram? Still users falsely parading, saying that you’re better than us. The definition of curvy on Instagram is anorexic, talk about a skewed reality.

And if you speak out you’re a hater. And every platform is a pejorative. “New York Times”? Untrustworthy. And you get that from the far left as well as the right. And you know why these people usually take this position? BECAUSE THEY FEEL POWERLESS!

That’s why the bros are on Twitter/X, it’s the only place they have power. And that’s why the wealthy left wingers reject western medicine, because they don’t want to be subjected to anybody else’s judgment.

Last week both the “Wall Street Journal” and the “New York Times” printed stories about studies that say the unvaccinated have greater odds of getting long Covid. But we’re still debating the efficacy of vaccines.

And you’ve got Joe Rogan, who is a full-time rumor machine. I’d like to send that guy to college, have him learn something, have to deal with those of other opinions and wrestle with the concepts. Joe’s bros are such sycophants that Joe’s convinced he’s right when so often he’s wrong, right on the face.

It’s one thing to ask questions, it’s another thing to support conspiracies. And if I’m focusing a lot on the right it’s because in many cases the left has been somnambulant, in a bubble, thinking if your heart is in the right place others’ will be too. Hogwash.

My life without Twitter is less rich, I’ve lost something, that I cherished. All in the name of Elon Musk’s radical free speech.

IT’S INANE AND INSANE!

“This Summer’s Sleeper TV Hit: ‘Your Honor’ – Once again, a show with little following has become hugely popular once it starts streaming on Netflix.”

Free link: https://shorturl.at/KW6W0

It’s the same show, the only difference is it’s on Netflix, not Showtime.

That’s the power of the Netflix homepage, that’s the power of the Netflix algorithm.

And it’s not like it’s a new show.

How many records fit the same bill? How many records have surfaced as hits long after their initial release date?

Happens on a regular basis, but via streaming television and TikTok, not via conventional music streaming sites like Spotify, et al.

That’s right, it’s been in excess of a decade and the music business still hasn’t figured out how to expose the best music to the most people.

It used to be easy. Just get it on terrestrial radio. And if it worked on one station, you could leverage that to more, and ultimately might have a hit, known by all. Today even our hits aren’t known by all, but that’s another issue.

The streaming services must break records. That is their role, whether they are aware of it or not, because this will contribute to the health of the business, there will be more subscribers, more streams, more gigs…hits help the industry at large.

But all the streaming platforms are doing is putting out a plethora of playlists. Replicating the internet model, one in which there is plenty, but you can’t separate the good from the bad. If you’re listening to a playlist and not skipping incessantly you’re either brain dead or not really listening. Furthermore, Spotify statistics tell us the most active listeners don’t even listen to playlists, they pick and choose what they want to listen to. The goal is to reach these active listeners and have them spread the word. Instead, streaming platforms are focusing on the least active listeners with playlists.

And the problem with the Spotify Top 50 is never have the hits meant less, had less penetration. All the excitement is in the separate genres, where the creators are not constricted by the hit paradigm. How do we boost these tracks, of which there are many?

Well, you can wait for a sync or a spontaneous TikTok usage, but that leaves you with almost no control, it’s not an efficient method of getting the best music to the most people.

Of course, taste is subjective, but we need a focus on many fewer cuts.

Spotify needs a track of the week. Featured on its homepage, blasted to every subscriber. Or a track in five different genres every week. Or one track of the week and one sleeper, a surprise, not in the Top 50 mold.

In other words, we’ve got to build excitement in music.

The film business had success building excitement last summer with Barbenheimer, when was the last time we saw the equivalent thing in music? And don’t say Taylor Swift, because as large as her success is, and it is large, it’s pretty narrow. How do we get the populace at large excited about a track? And I don’t think it’s one of Swift’s, but there are plenty out there.

This is how people consume music these days, streaming. Vinyl gets all the press, but it’s a de minimis part of the business. The tail that isn’t even wagging the dog, it’s a feel good story easy for the media to latch on to. And as far as the weekly charts… They only mean something to the people on them and their associates. They’re not representative of what the public at large is listening to, if they’re listening at all.

We need to go back to the seventies, on steroids. When Warner Brothers signed a ton of acts, stayed with them and promoted them via their two-disc “Loss Leaders.” If it was on Warner, it was worth checking out.

We don’t have that ethos in the business today. Instead we’ve got remakes, no different from “Twisters.” There’s a business there, but the real excitement is in the brand new, and all we’re promoting to the public is me-too.

Can’t the industry focus on a track a week, to its benefit?

I’ll make it simple, easy. There are four slots in a month, and they rotate amongst the three major label groups and the indies, each one gets a pick.

No… The majors would promote dreck, the obvious stuff.

The above formula would work, but we need a tastemaker, a connoisseur, to choose the tracks that are exposed.

And then everybody can talk and write about these tracks.

And maybe have an online rating like in the old days of radio, picking the track of the month and then the track of the year, building excitement!

In England they’ve got the Christmas #1, in America we’ve got nothing.

There is innovation in music, but it’s too far off the radar screen, it’s not getting exposure, this could be fixed but no one wants to, everyone’s resting on their laurels.

All we hear is the majors can’t break a new act, no one has come up with a solution.

But it’s easy.

The streaming track of the week. Have you heard it? I did, I thought it was great or it sucks or…conversation will be engendered.

But it all depends on exposure, distribution. That’s where hits are made.