1

He produced “Give It Up.”

And on Saturday, he died.

I heard about Bonnie Raitt from the son of one of my mother’s college friends. My mother went to a reunion, and after a couple of decades of no contact, she reconnected with her B.U. buddies and in this case, they came to Vermont to ski. And we were sitting in the lounge of the Equinox Hotel, which had just reopened, and this guy who went to Penn started testifying about Bonnie Raitt, whom I’d never heard of. Or maybe I had, there were many fewer record releases back then, but I certainly hadn’t heard her music.

Now the first Bonnie Raitt album was produced by Willie Murphy on a four track machine at a summer camp in Minnesota. Bonnie wanted it raw and spontaneous, and although I bought 1971’s “Bonnie Raitt” after being infected by “Give It Up,” almost no one else did.

Now that first album has got a cover of Stephen Stills’s “Bluebird,” but the best cut is “I Ain’t Blue,” which was written by Willie Murphy and Spider John Koerner.”

“Sit around the house

Readin’ magazines”

As a magazine hound those lines resonated, and still do. “I Ain’t Blue” is quiet and intimate, with Bonnie picking and singing about her state of mind, from back when you didn’t play to the last row, but those in the building leaned in to pierce your space, to get into your head.

Hell, check out “I Ain’t Blue” here:

Spotify: https://t.ly/qD-Zd

YouTube: https://t.ly/OFeS1

But I started with “Give It Up.”

Before I went back to college for winter term, I went to the store and bought it, based on the way this guy testified. I trusted him, this was not the only album he spoke of, we could talk music, and I was willing to take a flyer, I was a big consumer of records, the best customer at so many stores.

Now at this point I was a junior. I’d woken up sometime in the first semester of the year and realized I had to get out of there. This was after this red-haired woman knocked on my door unexpectedly to talk about class… She was cool, the fact that she tracked me down makes me feel all good inside right now, even more back then, but she promptly dropped out and that’s the last time I ever saw her. And dropping out at Middlebury was rare.

But I’d burned out on the school, just not soon enough. I checked into transferring and found out I’d have to go to college an extra year, and that was never going to happen.

This all goes to state of mind, as they say in the courtroom. Because mine was not good, but it was the records that got me through. “For the Roses” at the end of the year, and “Give It Up” in January.

So what I did was go to class in the morning, and go skiing in the afternoon. I’d come back to my room, drop the needle on a record, pull on my long johns, cotton Duofolds, back before the synthetic revolution, and when I was finally dressed I’d journey down to the Mobil station to hitch a ride up to the Bowl. But before I left Painter Hall, I’d listen to “Too Long at the Fair.”

“Jesus cried, he wept and died

I guess he went up to heaven”

The guitar playing was just a bit imperfect, like it is live. And then Freebo’s bass came in and ultimately Bonnie with the above lyrics.

“Won’t you come and take me home

I’ve been too long at the fair

And lord I just can’t stand it anymore”

Now you’ve got to know in the early seventies we were licking our wounds from Vietnam. There was the so-called “Back to the Land” movement. A retreat into the hills, to rebuild, it was personal, and so was “Too Long at the Fair.”

Now sometimes I lifted the needle on the Dual turntable to hear it again. And sometimes I let it play through, to Bonnie’s rollicking cover of Jackson Browne’s “Under the Falling Sky.” And then came a cover of the Sippie Wallace/Jack Viertel tune, “You Got to Know How.” Which I knew, but it shattered the mood, and if I’d gotten this far, sometimes I lifted the needle to hear what came after, the Raitt original “You Told Me Baby.”

“Told me baby

You were just too tired to try

There was nothing left for you to give

And no more tears to cry”

There was tape hiss at the beginning of the track. From back in the era when music wasn’t background, but foreground, when we bought good stereos to get ever closer. And I always wondered about it, always think of it when “You Told Me Baby” comes to mind, and that is relatively frequently. What happened? Was this one take so perfect they had to keep it? Had they rerecorded too many times on the tape?

And then came the first cover of “Love Has No Pride” I ever heard. Long before Linda Ronstadt recorded it.

But back to “You Told Me Baby”… Bonnie’s personality shined through. You see there was no one like her. Not a girly girl, not a girl’s girl, but a man’s girl. Someone who leaned in as opposed to leaned out, someone who could hold her own, who was “tough” as we said in the seventies. Tough as in “cool.”

“Told me baby

To find somebody new

Do you really think that I’d come this far

Just to lose a man like you”

That’s the second side, but all the hype, whatever stories there were, were about the first side. Mostly Chris Smither’s “Love Me Like a Man,” which speaks to the attitude I was talking about in “You Told Me Baby.”

And then there’s the slow burner “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” which was good, but not exactly my kind of track. And the opener was a tear, the title cut, with slide guitar, once again written by Raitt, “Give It Up or Let Me Go.” But the song on the first side that reached me, that equaled what I loved on the second, was another Raitt original, “Nothing Seems to Matter.”

“Seems like such a long time since I held you in my arms

And felt you close and warm beside me

Another night is getting late, and I’m alone with just the ache

And the memory of you beside me”

But it gets better:

“Last time I saw you

There was nothing we could say

And we knew it was a time for a change

‘A time to think,’ you said that night

But I lied and said ‘Alright’

And I left you in the morning

I watched you in the window

And Mexico will never be the same”

Ah, you play along. You don’t want to appear desperate. You don’t know that this is a turning point, either save the relationship now or it’s gone forever.

“It was time to be apart

But somehow it seems this heart of mine

Will never find a way to live without you

And now I’m out here on the road

And I’m feeling bought and sold

And tonight I just can’t help but think about you”

Heartache. Bonnie conveys it better than all the melisma masters on the hit parade. She’s real, and therefore you connect.

2

Now the 1973 follow-up, “Takin’ My Time,” was highly anticipated, Bonnie was poised for a breakthrough, and the cover of the aforementioned Smither’s “I Feel the Same,” with its slide guitar/chicken pickin’, was amazing.

But the sound of the album just wasn’t right. It was less immediate than “Give It Up,” the album was just a bit more polished, a bit more slick, and therefore it couldn’t be penetrated as much, there was a wall between Bonnie and the listener, unlike on “Give It Up.

“Streetlights” is the album that contains Bonnie’s iconic version of John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery,” and it opens with an overlooked cover of Joni Mitchell’s “That Song About the Midway” that is better than the original. But “Streetlights” was produced by Jerry Ragavoy, and it was just too slick.

Then came “Home Plate” and “Sweet Forgiveness,” which have some absolutely great songs, but Paul Rothchild’s production… Hell, the albums are produced, you can see the cats in the studio creating it, it’s serious business, which is very different from “Give It Up.”

And Bonnie seemed to know this, so for her next album she worked with the king of singer-songwriter producers, Peter Asher. But Raitt wasn’t like the rest of Asher’s clients, Bonnie had an edge, she was the tough chick, and the rough edges on “The Glow” were smoothed off.

“Green Light” was produced by Rob Fraboni, and it was rougher, but the material wasn’t equal to that on “Give It Up,” and it sounds like it was a good time party making the album, but it was a party the listener wasn’t invited to, you felt like you were outside the door, looking in, whereas with “Give It Up” you were in the room, right next to Bonnie and the band.

Ultimately Bonnie lost her Warner deal and ended up on Capitol, and surprised the entire community with “Nick of Time.” The dearly departed engineer Ed Cherney recorded most of the tracks live, and you could tell the difference.

But as good as some of the peaks were, the piece-de-resistance is the album that followed it, “Luck of the Draw.” It was utterly amazing, just as good as “Give It Up,” and almost never does an act hit that height twice, usually they peak and never get close again. Credit Don Was, who let Bonnie be Bonnie, who didn’t try to remake her, turn her into something she was not. Cuscuna’s album was even more raw, but they were both authentic, human and alive in a way most albums are not.

3

Now when “Give It Up” was released in 1972 it was not seen as a triumph, not seen as the victory lap of “Cowboy Carter.” Sure, there was advertising, but there was no big push, the album penetrated the consciousness via word of mouth, and it only got so far.

But the record still exists.

Now when you broke the shrinkwrap you read the credits. And if you loved an album, you read them again and again. You wanted to know who was responsible, you needed to know who was responsible. Therefore I knew the producer of “Give It Up” was Michael Cuscuna.

But I never saw his name again.

Usually when you nail it, you get more work, you become more famous, but Cuscuna seemed to disappear after “Give It Up.”

Until the internet hit with its troves of information and I found out Cuscuna was very successful in the jazz world, which made me feel good, because if you do work this good you deserve a future, you deserve a place in the music firmament.

But jazz isn’t really my thing.

But “Give It Up”? It’s one of my favorite albums of all time. One of the first CDs I ever bought, needing to get even closer to the music than the vinyl.

And now Michael Cuscuna is dead. I found out on the “New York Times” website, I check the obituaries at least once a day, usually twice.

“Michael Cuscuna, Who Unearthed Hidden Jazz Gems, Dies at 75 – Possibly the most prolific archival record producer in history, he was a founder of the Mosaic label, which became the gold standard of jazz reissues.”

https://t.ly/0HWjz

I was stunned he was 75, I thought he was older. And that he grew up in Stamford and lived there when he died, just down the turnpike from where I grew up.

Now you’ve got to be somebody to get a “Times” obit. But I never saw Cuscuna’s name on TMZ. I didn’t see hosannas on X/Twitter. I Googled and found some more obits, and I’m sure the people in the jazz world know, but if you were a fan of “Give It Up”…

Records aren’t made the same way anymore. They’re polished, the goal is to get them right. Which is why it was such a departure for “Nick of Time” to be recorded live, as a group.

When I first met Ed Cherney I testified about “Luck of the Draw.” And multiple times thereafter, to the point where it was a thing between us, bedrock as we became much closer friends, got tight not long before he got the Big C and passed.

And the way I testified to Ed about “Luck of the Draw” is the same way I feel about “Give It Up,” but I didn’t know Michael Cuscuna, I couldn’t testify to him.

Now some people only do one thing in their life. As per the obit, Cuscuna did a lot more than “Give It Up,” and I don’t know if he even thought about it anymore, if he was still proud of it, after all it never made a big breakthrough commercially, and no ever talks about it today other than maybe me.

But there are a few records… Sometimes they’re the biggies, the ones everybody knows and loves, but oftentimes they’re in the nooks and crannies, you stumbled on to them for odd reasons, it’s not like you were turned on by the radio, and they became personal favorites.

I can play every note of “Give It Up” in my head. I love hearing “Too Long at the Fair,” but I can play it in my mind, and I do, all the time.

Lots of other people produced Bonnie Raitt, but only Don Was equaled the work of Michael Cuscuna, and Was went on to produce the Stones, Cuscuna didn’t ride the artistic success of “Give It Up” anyplace in the rock firmament.

Cuscuna had to be hands-on, had to add something to “Give It Up” to get it so right. Other than Was, no one else ever came close. And I own those songs, they’re personal, they were never banged on the radio. “Give It Up” was made when radio was secondary, when you didn’t try to have a hit, but just to get it right, believing if you did people would get it, and spread the word.

For a minute there, I thought the obits wouldn’t even mention “Give It Up,” because ultimately Cuscuna made his name elsewhere. But they all did. Because the work was just that important, it lasts. “Give It Up” could not be easily categorized back in ’72, nothing else sounded like it, and therefore it sounds just as fresh fifty years later, like an old blues record.

It’s so hard to get it right. Talk to anybody who’s tried in the studio. You go in with good intentions, but usually you miss, not by a mile, but the tracks don’t have that magic you were searching for.

But that magnetism, that lightning in a bottle feel…

Michael Cuscuna was in the room where it happened. Steering. Whatever he did and said, it’s hard to quantify the work of a producer, made a difference, he and Bonnie didn’t create good work, they created TRANSCENDENT WORK!

Just listen.

Steve Poltz is a national treasure. Known for co-writing “You Were Meant for Me” with Jewel, Poltz is one exposure away from becoming a ubiquitous star. You’ll be riveted and entertained from the very beginning.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-poltz/id1316200737?i=1000653566319

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/be2b3778-117d-4b18-82a5-5bd7f174477b/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-steve-poltz

They’re playing Madison Square Garden.

The first thing I do when a band I’ve never heard of, or only know the name of, has outsized success is check the Spotify numbers.

“Apocalypse” has 1,233,307237 streams. How did this happen?

Well that’s when you go to Wikipedia.

This is what I read about “Apocalypse” while I was listening to the track:

“It did not chart internationally until 2022, following its use in TikTok trends.”

“Apocalypse” was included in the act’s debut album, it was the second single, back in 2017!

The record didn’t change, only the exposure did.

Now you’ve got to know that Madison Square Garden is a prestige play, despite being America’s most famous arena you can’t really make any money there, what with the unions… But you can say you played Madison Square Garden. You can win a Grammy, even in one of the top categories, and not be able to play Madison Square Garden. In other words, playing Madison Square Garden is the pinnacle of success, and now, more than ever, bands most people have never heard of are doing so.

Like Wallows. I’ve literally never heard of the band. But their Wikipedia page says the music video for “Are You Bored Yet?” was nominated for a VMA in the “Best Push Performance of the Year” category. What exactly is that?

I remember when the VMAs were a ritual. When you had to go, and if it wasn’t in your city you got together in a group to watch it, it was a cultural rite.

We don’t have any of these rites anymore.

Now Wallows is on Atlantic. But Cigarettes After Sex is on Partisan. Which is distributed by ADA, but it’s not the same thing. If you’re on a major label they employ all their relationships to get you on SiriusXM, to get you noticed by MTV, that’s what you sign for. But when you’re on an indie, even distributed by a major, those services are not lavished upon you.

Now the strangest thing about “Apocalypse” is it’s really good. Wikipedia calls it “dream pop,” which is not a term I’ve heard before, but it’s accurate. And this is not usually the case. Normally something flies on the radar screen and you check it out and dismiss it, but not “Apocalypse,” not even the rest of the work of Cigarettes After Sex, which has nine tracks beyond “Apocalypse” that have triple digit million streams on Spotify, and I’m not talking about de minimis streams, “Cry” has 457,140,733 and “K.” has 600,943,764 and “Sunsetz” has 569,852,354.

I’m betting most readers have never even heard of Cigarettes After Sex. Yet so many with anemic streams are complaining they can’t get paid.

Cigarettes After Sex was formed in 2008, when its leader Greg Gonzalez was already twenty six. The band has been in existence for sixteen years, its first album wasn’t released until 2017. And you’re expecting immediate success?

In other words, more acts are having success than ever before but it’s taking a longer time to get there, at a point in the past where the act would have been dropped and everybody would be back at their day job, a footnote in history.

“Apocalypse” didn’t change, it was the same song for five years after release before it blew up on TikTok.

Now I don’t know how this happened, but I’m sure someone will e-mail and tell me, at the same time they insult me for being out of the loop, but that’s the modern paradigm, one of narrow verticals, each of which are very deep, with dedicated fans.

Maybe there was a push on “Apocalypse,” but I highly doubt it, five years after release. It was probably serendipitous, some TikTokker used it and then it went viral. In other words, the crowd was responsible. And this is exactly the opposite of the way it used to be.

Used to be the major labels were in control. They signed acts, picked priorities, got them press, radio and video play and they either connected or they didn’t. Sure, there are some stories of tracks played years after the fact by some deejay that blew up, but those stories are rare, whereas they’re de rigueur today.

Forget all the brouhaha in D.C. about TikTok. If it is closed down another platform will replace it. We’ve learned this over the past two decades, it’s not like everybody’s going to shrug their shoulders and move on. Turns out people want to create, and people want to see what the hoi polloi are creating. It’s a completely different world from Netflix. Yes, Netflix’s big competition is TikTok and YouTube, that’s where the younger people are, for hours, every day! Its a Sargasso Sea of product, but if you rise above…you may not be known by everybody, but enough to have a career.

Then again, Cigarettes After Sex released the single “Dark Vacay” on April 16th and it only has 2,137,844 streams, indicating that the hard core base for the act is not huge and/or that most people don’t even know the track is out. Cracks me up, trade papers will promote new releases, but the information never gets to the public, it’s a circle jerk. The majors are still operating on an old paradigm. You don’t convince the intermediary, you convince the end user, the public. And it’s not about world domination, just finding your audience. And it’s slower than ever before.

Everything above is hated by the powers-that-be. They hate that an indie has success. They hate that something was successful outside their purview. They hate that something succeeded organically. They hate that something is successful outside of the realm of music that they sign, which is extremely narrow.

Used to be record labels released a cornucopia of music. Today they release fewer albums than ever and it all sounds like stuff that’s already been successful. That might work in a controlled market, but there’s no control anymore, anybody can play, and the old avenues of exposure mean little.

This is classic disruption. And it’s only going to get bigger. Almost all the major can dangle is money. And they can’t make you successful, actually you have to prove your success before they’ll even sign you! Which means we will have more and more outside successes. Furthermore, the major labels are categorically unable to break new artists, it’s been the story of the past eighteen months. Because they want it fast when today it happens slow. Today everything is organic. The hard core music business, the active users that sustain it, seek credibility. I don’t expect to see Greg Gonzalez on TMZ.

So we know less. No, we know more than we ever have, but there’s so much more to know, and nobody can know all of it.

And music is not like television, where the amount of production is falling because the economics don’t work. We keep getting more and more music, music is cheap, and exposure is cheap, but gaining traction in such a vast world? That’s nearly impossible.

“Apocalypse”:

Spotify: https://shorturl.at/lGT17

YouTube: https://rb.gy/sasl6v

A long overdue column.

Long on the cusp of sensory overload, Taylor’s carpet bombing marketing started with the massive Eras Tour which, amazingly, still has seven months to go—with no surcease on the horizon.

Let’s review:1). The re-recording of old catalogue has been a complete artistic failure. Cynically marketed as an “artist rights” triumph, it was never more than a money grab.

These re-records did nothing for her artistic growth and, in fact, retarded it.

2) This, in turn, lead to a glut of her product in the marketplace and ridiculous palaver about her business acumen.

3) So, the tour gets rolling and we can’t escape daily updates about every record set; it’s even more ridiculous than those bogus ESPN stats, e.g., most bunt singles by a DH in a day game at Wrigley field.

4) This train starts to get derailed during the Kelsey romance—the ultimate marriage of the NFL and the world’s biggest superstar.

5). Taylor goes off the rails at the Grammys.  She makes a grand entrance after the monologue starts, walking an entire semi-circle to her table with the entire posse in tow!  The nadir comes when she wins the award for the Best Album, music’s highest honor, and sashays to the stage to announce the release date of her next album, more than two months away AND announces that she needs to go back stage to post the artwork!!!

6). Finally the release of the bloated 31  song album showing no artistic growth whatever, in fact, a step backward with too much repetition.

It’s more than fatigue, it’s simply too much at every level.

Best,
Lance Grode

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My 21 year old daughter, who has been a Taylor fan, has told me she is “over it”.

She also thinks she’s using AI to write. Interesting theory.

Ed Toth

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Bob this is rubbish. Get over yourself.

Mark Lafond

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I saw this coming a mile away. Last year there was endless 24/7 round the clock coverage of the Eras tour combined non-stop coverage of her relationship with Travis Kelce. It was inescapable. Every conceivable news and music outlet I follow on social media would bombard people with an endless barrage of all things Taylor Swift. As it stands right now, it’s far too soon for another album. Her tonedeaf album announcement at the Grammy’s was also cringe. She clearly doesn’t know how to read the room and her and her people have grossly overplayed their hand here. The last thing the world needed right now is more Taylor Swift. I’m happy to that there are dents in the armor and some mixed reviews are coming in. This one needed a reality check.

-Jake Dibiase

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Make me miss you.  That was my first thought when she announced the album.  And when she dropped two versions… 30 tracks within hours, I thought “pretty self indulgent.”  And I’m a fan.  Her Folklore and Evermore albums weren’t for me, but she won me back with Midnights and the Eras tour.  I’ve listened twice to Poets.  I’m unmoved.  Oh, you broke-up again? Great.  Too whiny, repetitive melodies, seems she’s writing with a dictionary at hand.  The word “Impropriety” is used in a song.  She rhymes Aristotle with Grand Theft Auto. Forcibly, IMO.  And the whole vibe seems to be ripped from her BFF Lana Del Ray.  An editor was needed but she’s reached the “Yes Taylor” stage of anything she proposes.  And yet, I still admire her.  There are levels of genius. And she is kind to her fans.  Sometimes too much is too much.

Jerry J. Sharell

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Her intentional efforts to oversaturate the marketplace makes this double album a bit too self-indulgent and unneeded for my likes.

I most definitely have Taylor fatigue and I acutally enjoy a good chunk of these 31 songs.

Greg Robson

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Bob, I understand where the author is coming from but from a record store’s perspective, we haven’t seen any backlash on Taylor Swift. The buzz was in full effect last weekend and her fans, especially younger teens, have maybe multiplied since the last album.

Scott Farrell

Down In The Valley Records

Minneapolis MN

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Don’t let go of the handlebars just yet, Bob. First of all, you personally inspired a hit song by Taylor Swift. Take a look at your rare company. You’re standing among a couple of rock/pop stars and a Super Bowl champion.

Secondly, maybe review the material first? Courtney Love is thankful that a media outlet will pick up the phone these days and Hole was never, ever interesting.

Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff are producing incredible and interesting music, whether it’s their own work or collaborations with others like Taylor. Take her songwriting magic, which she has whether anyone likes it or not, combined with that level of production brilliance and you’re going to have some killer tracks. Fortnight, TTPD and loml are a few. Listen to the record, write about the record and then complain about the dyed vinyl, okay?

Aubrey Parker

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I’m not a fan, but I listened to the album (at least the first drop.) and it just wasn’t that good. Bland, repetitive. Case closed for me.

Mitchell Manasse

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Yes.

“Let the farmland lay fallow”.

Meg Griffin

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Yes, didn’t she just have the biggest tour, and the biggest movie, and the biggest public romance and was seen at the biggest sporting event and now she has the biggest album with the most streams ever?…damn, that’s a lot!

Who else could render Trump mysterious by comparison? And the words tortured and poet in her album’s title just sound out of place to me. But hey I’m your age.

Shepherd Stevenson

L.A.

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Mark me down for over T Swift. Actually was over it during football season. Well really never a fan. When everyone around you tells you you’re great, you are. Suffering from TSTSD.

B Chapin

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With you on this. Her oversatuation/marketing ploys have gotten to such extremes it has turned me off her.

I have enjoyed her music but literally can’t listen to the new album, skipped through it, just a rehash.

Too much of even a good thing IS too much.

Guess showing her true egomaniacal/vengeful stripes, or perhaps the billionare status has gone to her head. Likely a combination but regardless, sad, actually.

DG

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There would be no negative Taylor Swift writings if the songs on this album were better.  There is no saturation for good new music.

Frederick Licciardi, M.D.

Reproductive Endocrinology Fellowship Director

Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology

New York University Langone Health

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Hi Bob. Not a Swiftie, can’t even name or identify any of her music (though I passively followed her “feud” with you while it lasted). Enjoyed your take here and thought you might enjoy Marsha’s take in the Globe.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/a190b54233b6b220747b2f5e5cbe3f73677b764a365e39107e7b2850357a7ae7/75CN4G5YGJCGTOL7NIGTEIMKRA/

Cheers!

Michael Craig

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I’m from Syracuse and there were some empty seats at his show on the 18th. But he is playing the Dome: 30K plus for concerts–unlike the basketball-sized arenas he played in Albany and Columbus before and after Syracuse. The empties were in the back of the dome and in the upper decks.  The sound is famously lousy in the Dome too–but it was a great show.  I’ve seen the promo videos he made for a couple of the shows–not on Tik Tok which I don’t use, but reposts on the fansite Blogness on the Edge of Town–the go to site for set lists/videos etc. for the tour now that Backstreets shut down. His video for Syracuse was him and Garry W. Tallent–the only two folks at his very first Syracuse show in 1973 (opening for Chicago). Funny–and a little ballsy with the use of the f-word.

I’m a huge Bruce fan, amazed that he can do these energetic 3 hr. shows at 74 years old. I’m 64 and starting to hobble around.

Phil Prehn

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She has been putting out new versions of past albums. So, this is all new material? Swifties want a piece of everything she does. For RSD last weekend, who beat out the usual people first in line? Swifties. To get a reproduction of a letter she wrote. There was no RSD limited vinyl. She has more power than any other woman in the world. Can anybody else sellout the Superdome for three nights in a couple of hours? A Pink Floyd reunion, maybe?

The young people need a hero and they have chosen her. Post Covid, etc. Let them have their hero. It also helps with parent/child bonding. The last few RSD”s involving Swifties,  the same mother brings her daughter and stays overnight with her. She told me she is taking her to Europe to TS,  She buys her all the variants, too. Good mother. Good medicine in these times.

That said, I think people should be able to give their honest opinion. As long  as it is not done out of meaness.

John Kauchick

Mississippi

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Great read, but I hope you tackle the “the thanK you, aIMee” song… the ultimate retribution and “FU” to Kim Kardashian for going after her.  Made me have a whole new level of respect for her.

Will Ward

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Truer words, maestro.

Between the ginormous tours, the tour movie, the NFL/Kelcie soap opera, the nonstop posting and perceived attempts to dominate the news cycles, and, now what I think really feels like a cash grab with the re-recordings (and why would this pop star ever need any more money?), and that’s coming also from some hard core swifties I know and am fond of, I have felt, before this article and your post, like she’s blowing it. It’s the old adage: “how can I miss you if you don’t go away?”

She’s far from the first pop star who miscalculated this way, and/or can’t get out of her own narcissistic shadow, and almost surely won’t be the last.

Steve Jones

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One of my father’s favorite retorts whenever I criticized a popular artist I couldn’t give a sh*t about (Barry Manilow comes to mind) was, “All the way to the bank.” Taylor Swift is literally a billionaire.  She has a huge fan base who loves everything she does and no amount of “think pieces” in mainstream publications (or Paste, whoever the f*ck reads that) is going to change their minds. So I guess like most sons, I’ve become my dad. Plus I like a lot of her music and thought The Eras Tour movie was pretty incredible.

Neil Krupnick

Expat Boomer in Portugal

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At the Atlanta concert she (Madonna) did show up at 10:04PM for 8:30PM show. But THAT”S NOT WHAT PISSED ME OFF! As we arrived, on time, for the show and sat in our $450.00 seats I immediately notice how f*cking hot it was. So I go to one of the ushers in our section and ask if he can crank up the AC? He says ” Too bad you didn’t get the memo. I’m wearing this short sleeve polo because they warned all the venue staff that Madonna wanted it HOT.” Well, I was schvitzing until the show ended at 12:30AM.”

And THAT’S the part of the class action that the Material Girl may have trouble wiggling out of.

Eron Epstein

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I am not a Swiftie, but I listened to Taylor’s album because I like some of her songs and I heard the hype. (I haven’t heard them all, in fact I’ve never heard one of her albums all the way through before.)

I found it boring.  All the music is around the same midtempo plodding speed, with vocals that mostly sound like they were recorded when she was half asleep.  All the drums and keyboards backing her sound like they are from the same off-the-shelf AI-generator do-it-yourself-band program.  (Are all of her records this way? If so, then I can’t understand her massive success.)

If I was a mom, I’d be upset with all the foul language in the album. For someone who has such a nice-girl image, there sure are a lot of F-bombs .  I’d hate to have my young daughter walking around singing:

‘Cause f*ck it, I was in love
So f*ck you if I can’t have us

Language aside, many of the lyrics are pretty deep and cool, I guess, but I think more fans are into hooks than the lyrics, but maybe I’m wrong about that.  But a good album makes me want to start over and listen to it again.  This album made me want to skip to the next song, repeatedly.

If I was her manager I’d have suggested an edit.  Just because you can put out an endless amount of music doesn’t mean you should.  We learned that with all those over-stuffed 80 minute CDs in the ’90s, didn’t we?

Mike Blakesley

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My two centimes: I’ve thought Swift is talented and not doing the same old sh*t. (adult here–not bracelet Swiftie). However, in this group of songs (disclaimer: didn’t buy it, though I have a turntable. Heard on YT.)… possibly because of the number released I started to see a formula. I also hear a formula in the beats.

Any group of work created in a short time is going to reflect that time… hence, it’s a lot of 4pm.

Take Cezanne’s apples… If you see thirty paintings of them, as great as the artist may be there is a saturation point. And, I doubt Cezanne would drop thirty apple paintings. Ms. Swift needs an editor.

I don’t understand this release. Swift is more than huge.. it can’t be about the money… drop this after the Eras tour and the fans will buy anything. As a prolific artist she must be concerned with her body of work and her legacy. I don’t think if Beethoven released all 32 piano sonate (one more than Swift song on the album) it would be a good idea. (probably bad analogy– he composed them during about 45  years)… but, even so… say in a boxed set they invite comparison. To have your work compete with your work doesn’t seem like a good idea for Ludwig or for Taylor.

Best wishes,

Elisabetta di Cagno

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Don’t know how much backlash there is…

Backlash only matters in 2024 to the people doing the backlashing.

The fans don’t care. Taylor doesn’t care as she fuels up her jet. But the haters do.

This is just the beginning of the new future that you’ve talked about for so long. No need for her to STFU, she won’t.

Stephen Tatton

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Taylor Swift is her own worst ex and we’re her sounding board. That said, I’ll take more Taylor over the next four years if it means less Trump, and I’m not even in her demographic. But after all the media hype, maybe I am the demographic. Love her new video, the music can take it or leave it. Commercial pop is commercial pop, suck it like a lollipop and toss the wrapper into the slush pile for the next sucker to contend with.

Stephen Gordon

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How dare you Bob! Take it back!
Seriously though, our entire family are Taylor Swift fans and even our 10 year old is saying “she’s starting to repeat herself” or “doesn’t she sing that melody on 3 or 4 other songs?”

I even noticed more Swifties actually complaining during the presale process because they don’t have the money for all of the variants and editions being offered with only one new bonus track on each one. If you are on her mailing list you also know that her team is always promoting scarcity. It’s always “available for 48 hours only!!!”… and of course just a week or so before the album came out she made all of the different versions become available ‘one more time for only 48 hours’.

And now we have the 31 song version which for sure will be available to buy and hardcopy as well at some point with probably at least four variants.

More re-invention and less scarcity and oversaturation I say…

Jemal Jalal Hines

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Great article again Bob. It is certainly about the marketing but I DO think it’s about Taylor Swift. She obviously controls EVERYTHING including the marketing AND how many of the same albums are released and when. No , I am not a TS hater but I’m not blind or deaf either. In fact I thought she had talent and potential when she was her original self. That went to the wayside light years ago and as we know – sooner or later it all catches up with you.  That’s entertainment.  Peace & Love, Jeff Booth

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Couldn’t agree more. My household though is a testament to both sides…

I am a longtime producer / writer and have mega respect (duh) for Taylor. Love a lot of her stuff. Have been enjoying for the most part my 12 year olds obsession with her. I liked Midnights a lot. Have been trying to get reasonable tickets for my daughter (haha good luck) She was OVER the moon excited for this album.

It came out, I started listening last friday to all 31 tracks, and it immediately hit me within the first or two tracks… this is too much, it’s not that good, it sounds like everything else she’s done the last few years, but just, not as good. I couldn’t get through it. I tried again, and again. Just, feels to me like an artist surrounded by yes people, with nobody telling her “hey, the lyrics may be very meaningful, but the songs themselves, the chords, the melodies, the vibe… NOT GOOD… over cooked”

My daughter… LOVES IT. She’s a super fan. Obsessed with the lyrics. And I keep hearing from other swifties… they kinda love that it’s a record “for them”, not for the rest. We’ll see how long that attitude lasts.

But personally I agree. It has completely turned me off of her older music now too, and I’m leaning towards not shilling out for the concert. I”m just kinda turned off big time. She had an opportunity to DO SOMETHING NEW and really special here… biggest audience in the world. Biggest moment. She could afford to take some risks, try something radical… This feels like mailed in content to max out streaming numbers… that’s it.

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Tell me about it, Bob. How would you like to be mistaken for her manager? I get messages on LinkedIn and FB all the time from people who want tickets for their daughter or some charity event that wants Taylor’s time. I got one a couple of week’s ago from someone making a documentary in Germany and wanted me to set up an interview with Taylor for broadcast on National German TV. I have to tell them I’m not THAT Robert Allen. lol

This goes back a number of years, but I used to think the industry people in Nashville were super nice. When I’d call some manager or label, they would put me right through to the person I was calling. I’m thinking, that’s unusual but maybe that’s Nashville. Then I started getting the emails for Taylor Swift’s attention and it dawns on me that my name has something to do with it. Now it makes sense because when I’d call Nashville, a receptionist would ask who’s calling and I would say my name and there would be this 1-2 second pause and then they would put me right through. Good luck getting a receptionist since Covid. lol

So I look up who’s managing Taylor and it’s her parents, which doesn’t make sense to me why people are contacting me. Finally I saw that there was a Robert Allen who was her Tour Manager at the time. He’s now become her full-time manager as head of her management company. But that hasn’t stopped people from contacting me for TS.

Peace,

Robert Allen

Sha-La Music Inc.

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Great email.

I was in correspondence with the manager of another of the world’s biggest stars about their being a guest on my podcast. I was told they’d consider it when they came back from their “off cycle.”

debbie millman

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I still couldn’t name a single Taylor Swift song if you put a gun to my head (and I’m so dulled by her uber-ubiquity you’d probably have to), but the thought of a double album containing thirty one songs just makes me feel like Trump in that courtroom.

Best, as always,

Dave King

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She is a talentless hack who can’t sing. Followed by a bunch of social media-obsessed female age 11 teenyboppers who rely on their “peers” to help them decide what they like since they don’t know what they like. I was over TS from day one. May the fatigue be permanent. All the media shills who write about her have never heard one of her sh*tty songs. This includes Kara Swisher. A brilliant tech analyst but musically clueless.

Derek Morris

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“Always leave them asking for more.”  – P.T. Barnum

Mark Maheu
Barrie, Ontario

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I wonder if Swift adding that additional album to the release was an unforced error?  I note that the Spotify numbers for the second album are a third to a fourth of the numbers for the first several tracks.  Her fans, who seem to be consumers of albums, aren’t making it all the way through the two hours of music.  She would have done better to hold the second album and release it later in the year.

 

Don Friedman

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Let’s not forget to include Pearl Jam in this onslaught of multiple editions of records.  There are 12 different color variations of their latest ‘Dark Matter,’ retailing for around $50 each.  Limited pressings of each, but as I understand it, most of the variants have not sold out as of today.  At least they tried to do something interesting with this, by having them be specifically region-exclusive and certain independent record stores would be selling them online (Easy Street Records in Seattle, Newbury Comics in Boston, etc).

However, as a fan, the thought of dropping $600 or more to collect all of them (that’s the only reason you would do it if you were hardcore about having everything) is too much for me.  I like the new record a lot and feel like it’s their best since ‘Yield’ in 1998.  But if Pearl Jam is embracing the cash grab of limited edition vinyl, it’s going to happen for every band eventually.

-Nathan Lind

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I agree with Courtney.

This nails it:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Charlene Kaye (@charlenekaye)

EveAnna Manley

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“But does that mean I can never comment about her again?”

Yes. It is perceived as possibly  disingenuous and/or based on a personal agenda. Classic conflict of interest.

Micah Sheveloff

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Excellent viewpoint on this Bob . She’s not the first one to commit this faux pas . BTW hooray to the plaintiffs participating in the class action against Madonna . Like really who does she think she is ?

Chris

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Drake and Swift actually seem to have the same problems. The act is stale and they’re too old for their stances in their own songs. They’re insulated for now by their money and the rubber stamp they have with fans.

I also think both of them can survive passing their peak and still break interesting ground, maybe even more interesting, as long as they admit it happened and dig into their artistic cores. They’re successful for good, sustainable reasons.

Gregg DeMammos

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This can also be compared to “Trump burnout”. He’s on every network and cable news channel every day all day. He’s on the front page of the WSJ today and in at least one article every day.

He’s a common criminal, pigs have better personalities, a modern day Al Capone minus the Tommy gun, but uggh, he is the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee. Make this stop too.

Jim Gilmore

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It’s an open secret that Taylor can’t sing live. I worked a video crew at a trade show where she performed with her incredible band when she was still country and sweet as can be.

The brand spent a lot of time and money on post production and the engineer who cut the live audio tried to make it feel “live” by leaving a few clams in Final Cut.

The brand sent the videos to management and management they wouldn’t agree to release the “live” videos until her entire vocal track got pitch corrected.

But fans in the audience had already recorded and shared the songs online exposing her clam sandwich of a performance. Remember when Milli Vanilli got pilloried for being phony?  Well, looks like Tay Tay gets a new jet.

Shane Roeschlein

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I think what is very frustrating to us fans of Swift and you is that you just never have anything positive to say. I can’t remember the last time you actually delved into the actual quality of her music. It’s always a negative take.

It doesn’t really matter what you or other critics say though. The connection she has now with her people is just too strong. The total honesty on this new album is astounding, and she has not made it for the masses. She knows that it’s only the most hardcore of fans that will pore over the dense lyrics to 31 songs. There’s only one hit single contender (Down Bad).

But for those of us who have grown up with her it’s pure gold. We now know so much more about  what’s she’s been going through for the past decade, and for a rich global superstar to admit she chose the wrong partner, or that the guy who she thought was the one ghosted and left her high and dry is astounding. It’s all so relatable, even after all these years.

So keep on hoping she’ll make a misstep, because this is the thing; she never will. Because she is ultimately just plainly perhaps the greatest and truest artist that has ever lived (thus far).

Imagine the stories you could be writing if you accepted the enormity of her talent and success. You’re alive during the reign of possibly the greatest artist in history and you don’t see it. It’s actually quite bewildering.

Sincerely,
John Paterson

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I love what Taylor Swift does now, but you were right: her performance with Stevie Nicks at The Grammies was out of tune and terrible.  And for all the pre performance hype it had, it seemed even worse than it was, which was pretty bad.

Colin Boyd

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“How can I miss you if you won’t go away?”

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Same album as the immortal “I Scare Myself.” Great stuff.

I think Taylor may have finally jumped the shark but then again my daughter was quick to order a “Tortured Poets” sweater for her mom. It is starting to feel a bit like KISS.

Regarding Bruce I have to assume that all the social media hype is to get butts in seats after he had to reschedule all the shows. I couldn’t go to the rescheduled show in Columbus but I managed to sell my two tickets for $1000. So it seems there is still some demand among the boomer elite.

Keep up the great work. Somehow you made even the guy from Loverboy sound interesting.

Best

David Vawter

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When you make bad music, you can make it all day long.

Luke Joerger

Hastings Digital Studios LLC

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Put me in the “Swiftie column”

Mike Bone

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You are getting hard to read. Ailsa Morozow