“Road Diary”: https://t.ly/7Zv8T

1

The highlight was “Nightshift,” the Commodores sans Lionel Richie number that speaks of what’s goin’ on with the recently passed Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye and the great music they’re playing up in heaven.

Now what struck me, what made such a big impression, is that I’ve never ever heard any rocker speak of this late soul nugget, never mind sing it. Not that I’m a Commodores expert, far from it, but “Nightshift” was a hit in 1985, when MTV engendered new Top Forty stations on FM radio, traditionally the bastion of AOR, the white rockers. And pushing the buttons on the Blaupunkt, I heard it, and liked it, it was a personal favorite. And when someone else loves one of your favorites, you feel good.

But the rest of the documentary is pure hagiography.

“Hagiography: the writing of the lives of saints.”

New Oxford American Dictionary

And the funny thing is all the commentary said otherwise. That this was the story of what Bruce had been going through, dealing with Patti’s illness, that you got to know the real Bruce.

Hogwash.

However the end, where Bruce ruminates on the death of an old bandmate, when he sings that he’s the last man standing from that band…that’s great, that’s what I wanted more of, elder rocker in context.

Otherwise, it was frozen in time. Could have been 1984, never mind 2024.

You watch this documentary and wince, it makes you feel that rock and roll is over.

I know, I know, now you’ve got your knickers in a twist. Just like the cats all over the world blowing back about my article re closing unprofitable clubs. You can’t challenge orthodoxy. If you do, you’re a pariah.

And that’s why Kamala Harris lost. The world had changed, but the Democratic party had not. They were totally oblivious.

Springsteen sticks out like a sore thumb, it’s pure nostalgia, it’s almost creepy.

Oh, by the end you’re in the mood, you’re in the groove. I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy a Springsteen show, I’m just saying it’s MEANINGLESS!

Rock used to represent danger, pushing the envelope. This is all about giving the public what it wants. A brain dead adoring audience. Akin to the Deadheads. What I say about both of these acts is I don’t hate the performers, I hate their fans.

Because the fans are like the Democrats. There’s unquestioning devotion, and if you don’t agree, you’re stupid.

Now Bruce tried to break free in the nineties. Canning the band and working with new players. And I’ve got to tell you, the cut “Human Touch” is one of my all time favorites from the man from the Jersey Shore.

But the public rejected it.

Sure, there were two albums released simultaneously. But mostly, they yearned for the E Street Band. Can’t we go back to where we once belonged, can’t everybody just get along?

Nope.

Time only marches in one direction. Not that there’s an inherent flaw in nostalgia, and that’s one of the flaws of MAGAworld, the false belief that there was a golden era in the past that we can return to, but the truth is we’re always looking for something new and exciting. And the greats don’t get stuck in their personas, they evolve.

Whether the audience stays along for the ride or not.

Bowie was out in the wilderness before he reconnected with “Let’s Dance.” And then he went BACK into the wilderness. Because it had to be interesting to him.

Ditto Neil Young.

Bob Dylan? He doesn’t seem to care what you think, he’s just going to do it his way.

But if you go to a Bruce Springsteen show you know exactly what you’re going to get, which may be the attraction, but that’s not the essence of rock and roll.

2

Haven’t we learned that the public connects, your image is enhanced, when you reveal your warts? I’d posit the Metallica movie “Some Kind of Monster” cemented the band’s place in the pantheon forever. Underground metal band breaks through to huge mainstream success and then…reveals it’s all f*cked up and is having trouble staying together. This we can relate to. Substance abuse, divorce. James Hetfield is still a rock star, but he’s also human, not purely iconic.

This film could have contained all those elements. Hell, there was low hanging fruit. How did Bruce decide to sell his rights to Sony? How does he feel about his kids…growing up, leaving the house, making their own way, inheriting his assets? How does he cope with Patti’s diagnosis? What responsibilities does he feel he has to her, to us?

But no, we’ve got arena rocker on a pedestal creating the set list of a lifetime while everybody who’s ever worked for him says what a god he is. What’s interesting about that? Not much. As for the performance footage, mostly in rehearsal…there’s a reason performance films have never resonated in the marketplace, they’re absent the key elements of a live show, you can’t feel it, you can’t smell it, you’re not involved in it.

Meanwhile, Bruce is singing about the same damn things he did in his twenties. And he’s lost when it comes to new material. Who gives a sh*t about “Mary’s Place.” Not that we need broad statements. We don’t need solutions to world affairs, we want the personal, we’re all people, including Bruce, what’s it like to be on the planet?

3

So I don’t see a future for rock and roll. Old people can’t sing about teenage life, adolescent romance, and young people don’t want to play rock.

Hell, we went through this once before, and the result was punk.

But then punk became a caricature of itself.

But it turned out Kurt Cobain could write great songs, irrelevant of the style in which they were performed, and Green Day could create catchy tunes with meaning and…

Now all we’ve got is smiling Dave Grohl. I can sleep in peace around Dave, he’s not going to steal my money or my car, whereas I’ve been around musicians that demand you keep one eye open, or…they might have too many beers and then lord knows what will happen.

Sure, I write a lot about old songs and how they resonate. But in truth, it’s always the new things that resonate most. The new and different is always more satisfying than the old and comfortable. And once you step out of your comfort zone, possibilities open up, there are new avenues to explore, whereas when you’re stuck in a rut…

Rock is stuck in a rut.

4

So I’m Debbie Downer. Sorry.

But I know it when I see it, when I hear it. And I’m always looking for it.

Everybody’s cutting everybody a break, everybody’s afraid to offend anybody. Then again, Donald Trump is more rock than the rock stars. The image of rockers was built on lies. Half the stories that are legend never happened. I didn’t want him elected, but I’ve got to say, Trump was so out of control the past few weeks that it was an amazing movie to watch. And the funny thing is people bought it! Just like they bought the rock stars of yore. They didn’t scratch their heads and wonder…if there are no taxes on tips, no taxes on social security, and my tax rate goes down…HOW EXACTLY DOES THAT WORK?

They bought the myth, the image.

Then again, Trump was three-dimensional, unlike Kamala, who was presented in 2-D.

Springsteen is 2-D in “Road Diary.” Massaged, handled, you learn almost nothing. You’re presented with a hard-working saint, someone who is better than us who must be adored.

Oh, don’t make me whip out my bona fides. I saw Bruce at the Bottom Line in 1974, the year before “Born to Run,” when the “Jungleland” he played had not yet been released on wax. I played “Candy’s Room” at full volume on my first date with my ex-wife. I told all those women in the AOL chat rooms I was looking for the human touch.

But I can question my heroes.

Bruce has been subsumed by his image. And his handlers are keeping him from reality.

There’s a business in delivering the old hits.

But it doesn’t change the world.

And once rock did.

Once Bruce Springsteen did. An album of demos that was mastered from a cassette? “Nebraska” was a risk, there’s no risk in “Road Diary,” and no buzz either, because who other than diehard fans needs to see it, and even they don’t need to see it. Why even put it out? We’re looking for art, not commerce.

Kitty is definitely not back in “Road Diary.”

But we’re still waiting for her to reappear.

But in this movie Bruce ain’t giving us much hope.

And he’s one of the last people standing.

I need to believe, I’m looking for belief, I’m looking for something new and different that touches my soul, illuminates the path forward.

And “Road Diary” ain’t it.

Majordomo of the Cornerstone Agency, Cornerstone Management, the Fader…

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jon-cohen/id1316200737?i=1000676048095

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

 

I guess music can’t change the world.

Or to put it another way, we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.

Yes, in the sixties, there was a youthquake, and who did you look to for answers? MUSICIANS! Even the Beatles sang about revolution, and the Jefferson Airplane asked for volunteers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sang about Ohio (although that was 1970…)

In other words, music doesn’t hold the same place in society. Doesn’t have the same meaning, the same power.

Even though everybody in the industry will claim otherwise, just like the press could not see the massive wave of support for Trump.

Sure, the “New York Times” could get rid of Biden, but it’s got no cultural impact. If anything, it’s more powerful in gaming! Then again, there’s a greater thrill in Wordle and Connections than there is in today’s music. And games are inherently participatory, the essence of today’s society. And give the “Times” credit for diversifying, people are even purchasing subscriptions to Cooking… Then again, food is so exciting that people shoot pictures of it.

How come nobody can admit things have changed?

Oh that Taylor Swift, she’s going to endorse Harris and it’s gonna be over, Trump is toast!

No, Taylor Swift is a niche act. A large niche, but she doesn’t reach everyone, not even close. But we keep being plied with story after story about her in the media. Then again, most of them are about money. Are you really going to take instruction from a billionaire? She’s going to be fine no matter who is president.

Ditto Bruce Springsteen. You sell your rights for in excess of $500 million and you want to be seen as a man of the people, shilling for Harris by playing a song that was a hit forty years ago, that had no meaning back then either? “Dancing in the Dark”? That’s where Democrats are today. Even Kamala couldn’t accept any responsibility today. Just hope and believe and put your head down and work, to quote Joni Mitchell, “where’s that at, if you want me I’ll be in the bar.”

Taylor Swift is not Joni Mitchell. Nor is Gracie Abrams. But if you pay attention to the media, you’d think otherwise. And you’re really going to believe that Swift has your best interests at heart when she releases dozens of versions of the same damn album just so she can say she’s number one? This isn’t a woman of the people, this is a NARCISSIST!

As for Beyonce… Don’t they call her “Queen Bey”? Maybe that’s all you’ve got to know.

One after another musician came out in support of Kamala and it didn’t move the needle whatsoever.

Then again, the middle class has been hollowed out. Those running the DNC ended up on the right side of the financial divide, and forgot about everybody on the wrong side.

Now you can take a stand in your songs, in your life, but chances are you’re going to forgo a good percentage of your possible audience if you do so. Almost no one will take this risk today, even though everybody is not going to like you anyway. Acts are behaving like business people, Bezos and Soon-Shiong, instead of telling those who disagree with them to stay home.

And back in the day, musicians were as rich as anybody in America.

Then again, nobody was that rich back then. Then Reagan unleashed greed and tax rates were lowered and one thing is for sure in today’s America, no one can take anything from anybody, rich or poor, so don’t expect any change. Hell, they can’t even get rid of the carried interest rule!

And if you don’t know that is… It shows you don’t know where the real money is. Which you aren’t required to be aware of, but if you want to foment change, go deep into business as opposed to listening to the non-speak of Kamala Harris, who is afraid of alienating anybody who is not a dyed-in-the-wool Trumper. Meanwhile, Trump has an edge and he emerges victorious. Doesn’t this tell you all you need to know?

Trump is more edgy, more out there, more in your face, MORE ENTERTAINING, than any musical act. So Taylor Swift sings and dances for hours, believe me, listening to Trump, however inane he might be, has more entertainment value.

Back in the sixties successful musicians were us. The hoi polloi. They even wore their jeans on stage, just like us. They didn’t demand coronation, we gave it to them because we believed they deserved it.

Musical acts haven’t had that power since the internet. Because their true identities have been revealed, and most have turned out to be uneducated nitwits. The rockers of yore quoted Hesse and Kafka, today’s acts just keep talking about the extensions of their brand, trying you to buy more crap so they can get richer. What has this got to do with politics, belief? NOTHING!

We only care what you say if you’re living that life 24/7. If you later just tell us to do what I say… Why? You can’t even understand ticketing! That’s what I loved about the Oasis kerfuffle, they didn’t even understand the landscape they were operating in, do you expect me, or anyone, to take political advice from the Gallagher brothers? OF COURSE NOT!

But all we heard in left wing media was adulation for people who can sell tickets but can’t sell their ideas.

People see today’s music as entertainment.

And what is purveyed by the majors is anything but new and edgy.

And all the wankers believing Spotify’s the problem. Do you think Trump voters believe if you declare yourself a musician you’re entitled to earn a living playing music? Where is truth, where is reality?

The musicians abdicated their power long ago. The same media telling you to put down your smartphone is telling you musicians can move the needle, when they can’t.

Then again, if you’re Elon Musk or Joe Rogan… Their fans BELIEVE IN THEM! And it’s all about who they are and what they stand for, and their impact and financial success!

Whereas all musicians can do is whine. It’s always somebody’s else’s fault.

God, the entire Democratic party is made up of whiners.

It’s always somebody else’s fault. The system is rigged against them.

And the funny thing is the bleeding heart liberals standing up for minorities who ultimately disagree with them. Latin people? They don’t like Latinx. The most feminist blowback I get is from white males. We live in a no offense world. God, that school in New York taking a day off so its students could cope with the election results? Jerry Seinfeld stood up to that. We can’t get a musician to stand up for anything unless everybody in the industry signs their name, which almost never happens anyway.

The musicians are complaining about Spotify and AI and meanwhile, I don’t know where my next meal is coming from, my car was repossessed and I can’t get to work. You say you understand but then you keep telling me I’m wrong. You’ll tell me the economy is booming and maybe give me a handout, but address the underlying issues? OF COURSE NOT!

It’s simple but the Democrats make it complicated.

And the musicians will only show up if it makes them look good, burnishes their image. Take a stand outside the norm? Then again, we live in an industry rife with sexual abuse and no one will take a stand against it, companies just pay and have the abused sign an NDA.

I don’t want to be one of those right wing bloviators telling you not to pay attention to mainstream media. Then again, I’m separating fact from opinion. Only the big time media has boots on the ground. But their heads are up their ass. Reporters think they’re doing god’s work and they can’t be wrong. After all, they’re underpaid! But the right is not sympathetic, they’d tell the writers to go where the money is, just like Sam Kinison told starving Africans to go where the food is!

So let’s recap. The music industry lost control of the hearts and minds of the public decades ago. And put the knife in its own heart with Napster. It not only wouldn’t give the public what it wanted, IT SUED THEM!

Then labels would only sign acts that sounded just like the ones already successful, in fewer genres than ever before. You’re not giving me what I want and I should pay attention? This is why Netflix is so successful. Sure, they’ve got some brain dead shows appealing to many, but I keep up my subscription because of the quality niche shows, which have a fraction of the viewership.

And the acts… Anybody with money and a brain doesn’t become a musician. Odds of success are too low. So we’re left with the lower classes, who’ll do anything their handlers want them to, unlike the acts of yore who needed to do it their way.

So let’s get off our high horse and admit that Taylor Swift, BTS, even BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, do not represent what once was. It’s apples and oranges. Don’t tell me about chart positions and Grammy awards, there’s no ubiquity, certainly for almost all twenty first century acts.

What do you stand for?

I can’t even tell you who Kamala Harris is, and most people agreed with me, and that’s why she lost.

If you stand for something that means you’re willing to leave money on the table…in an era where no one leaves money on the table. The musicians used to be different, now they’re just like all the rest of America, money-grubbers.

So, I’m not a Republican, I’m not switching sides, I don’t endorse Trump or sexual abuse, I believe everybody is entitled to a roof over their head and food on their plate, and health care too!

But to succeed in life you have to take your lumps, lose sometimes. Today’s coddled progeny of the upper middle class and beyond can’t handle the truth. There are trigger warnings, if you get their pronouns wrong they lose their sh*t. Yes, I believe you should be entitled to your abortion, but that does not mean everything you believe is true, that you can’t look yourself in the mirror and see your flaws. And if you can’t admit your flaws, you can’t improve. And improvement leads to success.

Life in America is hard. The road to the top in music is longer with worse odds than ever before. So most people don’t even get started.

It takes a special kind of person to change the world, and Taylor Swift is not it.

And I dare say at this point Bruce Springsteen is not it either.

And most people in Nashville are afraid to choose sides, won’t venture an opinion in public, but at least they make the most honest music, that is palatable to and understood by many.

And to bring it up one more time…

The biggest act in recorded music is not Taylor Swift, but Morgan Wallen. But seemingly every Democrat cannot forgive him for uttering a word that’s in so many rap records that were sold to him by the industry. Furthermore, HE WAS DRUINK! Whenever I write about him…

People bring up this incident. Call Morgan a dumb hick.

There’s some evidence right there why Trump won. Do you think all the people paying good bread to see Wallen in stadiums think they’re ignorant? I’m sure not. But the Democrats keep telling so many Americans over and over again how they’re wrong and have their heads up their rear ends.

Then there are the people making fun of the Trump voters all over my computer today. Seems like even in the wake of this loss Democrats can’t learn anything.

Things are not the same as they always were.

Time to wake up.

It should not be this close.

Not that it’s over. We must remember 2018, when we went to bed and thought the Democrats had done poorly, but in the ensuing days found out the opposite.

But if Harris loses…

We have to blame Joe Biden, and the DNC.

When Joe Biden announced that he was stepping down, I instantly took to my computer and wrote that Kamala Harris should not be the candidate. My inbox went BERSERK! I have never seen so much vitriol in response to any piece I have ever written.

Now when I wrote it, I didn’t know that the selection of Kamala Harris was a fait accompli, I held out hope for a runoff process, a shortened campaign, amongst all those who wanted to throw their hat in the ring. As did James Carville and Ezra Klein. I was not out on the precipice alone.

But instantly there was a tsunami of support for Harris. And, once again, I couldn’t say a negative thing about her, whether it be in print or conversation. I was taking all the air out of the bubble, I was Debbie Downer, can’t we just enjoy it, she’s so fabulous, she’s going to win.

And if you go back to that July 21st article, and you can right here…

“”No to Kamala”: https://t.ly/M40Kq

You’ll find that I had three main points:

1. How poorly Harris did in 2020.

2. She’s cold.

3. She’s tarred by Biden’s record.

I thought it should be Whitmer or Shapiro. They’d be fresh meat, they wouldn’t be blasted on immigration, accused of doing little. There would not be talk of the national economy… It would be a fresh slate.

BUT NO!

Everybody on the inside knew better, and their minions agreed with them.

God, it reminds me of nothing so much as Napster. The record industry was disrupted and didn’t see it coming and wouldn’t admit internet distribution of music was the future. The industry kicked and screamed, sued its own customers, until Spotify came along fifteen years ago to save the industry from a death spiral.

Interesting. Shawn Fanning and Daniel Ek. Both considered pariahs by musicians today.

Let’s see… There was a great story in “The New Yorker” a few years back about how ideas are in the air. Darwin had a competitor. And that person could have been the household name. Music was coming to the internet, Napster was just the first step.

But if you listen to the Democrats, the internet is the enemy. You don’t hear Donald Trump and Elon Musk telling people to put down their smartphone. And while the Democrats kept saying it was about the ground game, Trump had little and as of this writing he’s winning.

Not that the losing team will accept any blame. Will endure a postmortem. I don’t expect a Capitol riot by the Democrats, a denial of the results, but I do expect them to blame Trump’s voters for their ignorance, exculpating themselves from any and all blame.

When in truth they’re the enemy, they’re the problem, they’re the fault.

Let’s be clear, if Trump succeeds, it will not be about his winning strategy, but the Democrats’ losing one. They handed it to him on a platter.

They kept on telling struggling Americans that the economy was good. Despite the entire nation being hurt by inflation.

And Trump may lie 24/7, but at least he knows it’s all about perception. The truth is secondary.

So what happens now?

I live in the excoriated California. Which most of the nation has been convinced is a hellhole, with swarms of homeless people. Think about that, the homeless people got SMART! They left New York and Chicago and their bitter winters, they escaped the heat and humidity of the south to come to a place where the weather is always good. The fact that all the homeless came to L.A. is an indication of the health, the bona fides, the sheer greatness of the city. Is homelessness a problem, does it need to be addressed? Absolutely! But our nation has flipped. Everybody’s out for themselves. And, if you don’t obey the orthodoxy of the left, you’re done for.

So we can get abortions in California. Unlike in North Carolina, builders didn’t lobby elected officials to build on floodplains. We keep hearing about all those damn regulations. Believe me, you want those regs during an earthquake.

The pronouns. The trigger warnings. The pro-Palestinian nonsense.

John Oliver did a whole piece on Sunday trying to convince Muslims to vote for Harris, even though she had a different vision for the Middle East than the one they wanted. How myopic, and how antisemitic. What about speaking to all the Jews who voted for Trump because he was strong on Israel?

Don’t go tit for tat, don’t tell me about Trump’s position on Ukraine.

But if you’re working hard to make ends meet do you want to listen to college graduates who make more money telling you how to live your life? Not accepting that things aren’t fantastic, despite the market soaring and soaring?

I’m just angering the same people convinced Harris was the one.

As for Walz… Turned out to be the biggest boondoggle of the campaign. Sure, he was warm and fuzzy, but watching the debate you could never say you wanted this guy a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Not that Kamala has shown a ton of leadership experience, which Whitmer and Shapiro have done.

Now in the coming days there’s going to be a lot of analysis of Kamala’s projected loss. And one thing is for sure, those involved won’t accept blame. They just can’t believe that they are the problem.

But they are.

We were told we had it in the bag because of women, who would come out in droves because of abortion.

That hasn’t happened. Just like no one seems to vote for a Democrat for fear of having a new Republican Supreme Court justice. And now RBG’s entire legacy has been tainted, she was selfish. Politics is a team sport. And Biden? He was one step into the grave right in front of our eyes, but he and his team still thought he should continue running. Don’t tell me to deny what I see with my own vision.

So what happens now?

I don’t want to fathom it.

But I’m angry at the holier-than-thou people who keep shutting me down and who refuse to address the underlying issues. And Joe Rogan agreed to interview Harris, but she couldn’t go to Austin to see him, she’d rather spend time in Bucks County. Didn’t they realize how many people Rogan speaks to? This again is the fallacy. That it’s all about retail politics, one on one, but that went out with the last century. Once again, we live in a digital world, and you exploit online. Hell, X/Twitter has become Trump central. Democrats just complained. Republicans can get their minions not to drink Bud Light, but the left can’t even get all their people to go to Threads, or some other social media platform.

The problem is you. Yup, you. You thought you knew better. People can’t make it on minimum wage, all the manufacturing jobs were shipped abroad and these workers are now doing service jobs, and I’m not saying Clinton shouldn’t have signed NAFTA, but there was no provision for the people who were squeezed by it, no way to bring them back into the economy with good jobs.

The Democrats remind me of all those people who can’t stop bitching about Ticketmaster, even though the tickets are expensive because that’s how the acts like them, and you’re paying the freight. If people can’t get it straight about this simple concept, understand where the fees go, what are the odds they can truly understand why Trump can win? No, they’ll just assign blame and wash their hands.

The future keeps rolling down the pike. You must adjust for it.

The Democrats are living in a fantasyland, whether Harris wins or not.