And now Jimmy Iovine?

Innocent until proven guilty. Then again, it seems the court of public opinion is everything. As for that settlement with Puffy/Diddy… Makes it look like it was about money. Well, what I mean is if someone is guilty, you should play it out to the end, to court, to a verdict. Having said that, it’s very expensive and the opposition can bury you in paper. However… Until we have more admissions or convictions of guilt, change will be impaired.

Yet this is a turning point.

It goes back to Tommy Mottola. What I mean by that is Mottola flipped the script, to where the executive was more important than the talent. Of course this was always the case with Clive Davis, however he lived in his own pop backwater, and we all knew the credible stuff was put out by the other labels, certainly after Clive left CBS, which was fifty years ago.

So…

Many music executives are failed musicians. They’re envious of the musicians. The stars can be lame, not showing up on time, bad with their money, substance abusers, but they are still treated like royalty, they can still get laid whenever they want to.

Walter Yetnikoff got into the substance abuse game, then again, those were the cocaine years, not inexcusable, but you didn’t have to be an artist to snort the drug.

But in the late sixties and seventies, things were different. The artists had complete control. They recorded where they wanted to, cut what they wanted to, and the label had to put it out, as it was. Kinda like the movie business in the seventies if you think about it.

But then came the money. 

In the movie business it was the blockbusters, it was “Jaws” and “Star Wars.” We always had blockbusters in the music business, even though the business never got any respect, even though it was more profitable than movies for a long time, even though Warner Brothers’ music division built the Warner cable system, but the twin towers of the overpriced CD with low royalties and the worldwide impact of MTV rained down so much money that the theft-prone labels, whose whole business model is based on taking the lion’s share, started to rain down money, a lot of money. 

So… The artists were getting screwed, getting vinyl/cassette rates on CDs, having agreed to supposedly help the new technology get a foothold, but then rates never went up, and the labels were making more and more money. And when Napster, et al, put a dent in revenues, the labels decided to horn in on the live action, they had to preserve their business model, they had to make money, and supposedly the execs were responsible for all this and rather than cutting their pay, they just got rid of all the little people.

And now the Big Three companies are publicly owned, no one has skin in the game. So the execs are paid so much… Lucian Grainge, triple-digit millions to take the company public? I’m not criticizing the job Lucian did, but I am criticizing the pay. And with that pay comes…

A whole new bunch of friends, all flying private, oftentimes on their own planes, sometimes with yachts, you’re keeping up with a whole new level of Joneses, and you need the money to do so, and you convince the board you’re indispensable and your compensation package… Good luck making that as an artist.

And with that money comes…

You’ve got to know, it’s rare that the football captain becomes head of the multinational corporation. It’s a different breed of people. In straight life, those who jumped through hoops, in the music business…hustlers, and the successful are very smart, and since the business gets no respect, no one is doing a deep dive into the activities of the brass.

So you were a nerd once, you couldn’t get the time of day from the desirable women, but now you’ve got all this money and power and that buys a lot of action, but even worse, people with these assets start to believe they’re entitled to this action. And that they’re above the law, no one is going to get them.

And like I said above, it’s a dark business. The artists are indentured slaves, independent contractors who get no benefits, and most don’t make much, they get the advances but no more, and those who do hit have to pay for all the losers. As for all the talk about Spotify royalties, the truth is most acts of the past didn’t even go into royalties. And now the executives decided whether you needed a cowrite, a hit single, whether to put the album out at all.

So we had #MeToo. But somehow the music business escaped. What’s the phrase, “sex, drugs and rock & roll?” What part of that do people not understand? Sex comes first, it always comes first. Didn’t so many of the male acts say they played music to meet women?

So…

Now these executives labor at a high price nearly unsupervised. Make the company money and you keep your job. Used to be the labels shuffled executives every few years, but that was back when there were six of them, now you don’t work your way up from the bottom so much as enter in the middle and go to the top, and those who did start from the bottom, they believe they’re entitled to their success, they believe they paid their dues, just like the artists.

As for the artists… Prior to cellphone cameras… Let’s just say they used to rape and pillage. And no one is as hot and sexy as a rock star, no billionaire, not even a movie star, people are lining up to make contact with the artist, sometimes even sex, but even so, many men took it past the limit, into raw abuse.

But now there are cameras in every phone and it has completely changed life on the road. Forever.

And now these lawsuits are going to change the behavior of executives too.

As for lone wolves, like managers…they too are going to feel the heat.

Don’t ask me to draw the line, what is abuse and what is not. But let’s be clear, many men took advantage of women, period. And when this is all done, that behavior will be impacted.

Some women may be making bogus claims, but… This is like shooting fish in a barrel, sex is the essence of the business.

As for the defamation lawsuits in response… Some of these claims are outright false, but if you’re guilty… This seems to be the only way to fight back and hopefully keep your reputation intact. But after this, boards will become more sensitive to this behavior, won’t tolerate it, despite the profits.

It’s a whole new world.

If you don’t know where the line is…

You’re oblivious, you’re not looking. Because the line is always obvious. Just because everybody else does it that does not mean you can too. And if someone is intoxicated and you have sex with them…beware. Oftentimes there’s an inherent power difference.

We don’t need to remove the sex from rock and roll. Only the abuse.

And it’s about time.

P.S. This is ultimately a mediocre article in the “Los Angeles Times,” but it was right there on the front page of the Calendar section today, and the photos look like mugshots, talk about a chilling effect, hopefully…

“The music industry is finally having its #MeToo moment”: https://tinyurl.com/ykbn45rh

“Is Chris Stapleton the One Thing That America Can Agree On? – How did a songwriter who never cared much for being famous transcend country music to become one of today’s most popular stars? Ahead of a new album, GQ’s Brett Martin goes road-tripping with one of the most reliable hit makers in music.”: https://www.gq.com/story/chris-stapleton-gq-hype

What kind of crazy, f*cked up world do we live in where the best music article of the year is in “GQ”?

I missed it. I can now read “GQ” with my Apple News+ subscription, but style is not my thing, at least off the slopes, and too often in fashion magazines the writing is just filler between the pictures. But my sister Wendy sent this to me and I was wowed.

It starts off as the usual construct, faceless writer up close and personal with the artist, but over time certain details are revealed…

That Stapleton played baseball, football and basketball and was his high school’s valedictorian.  You’d be surprised how many successful people are smart, whether they be educated or uneducated. And sure, you can be a grind and be number one, but then you wouldn’t have time to play all those sports, making Stapleton a regular guy.

Just as fascinating is the fact that Bon Jovi was Stapleton’s first concert. We’re too often set in stone, thinking the past is still the present, that our roots need to come from the sixties or seventies. Bon Jovi can be seen as a joke, but during the “Slippery When Wet” era… Bon Jovi was everywhere because the band and the material were great. And the band and material were great because Jon Bongiovi needed it, this success, and was willing to work hard to make it.

So Stapleton goes to Vanderbilt, but drops out. And then goes back to Nashville to be a writer, whereupon he does three writing sessions a day. A bit of this is hagiography, but it shows dedication, a willingness to work harder than anybody else. Talent only gets you so far. And Stapleton does not put down this artificial songwriting construct, because it hones his chops, and chops are everything. In order to be great, to do great work, you need to be able to ride the edge, continuously.

Not that inspiration is not key, after losing a great song to supposed memory, Stapleton records everything.

And the more you read, the more Stapleton seems regular.

Oh, believe me, none of these stars are regular. They’re different. Otherwise they wouldn’t be so successful. Especially if you write the damn songs, that’s really hard to do, the way they used to do it, which is why they call it “classic rock.”

But Stapleton is classic in his own way. He’d fit in perfectly in the first half of the seventies. You’d mention his name along with the greats. But today he stands alone, because of his standing outside the system. Yes, the system ultimately embraced him, but he seems to exist outside it, to not kowtow to it.

And then he talks about not being able to even get on stage on Bluebird open mic night. The road to success is paved with disappointment and disillusionment. If you haven’t lost, you haven’t won.

But even more interesting than the article, or just as interesting, is the video, a “GQ” routine, “10 Essentials.” Check it out here:

“10 Things Chris Stapleton Can’t Live Without”: https://tinyurl.com/mv3h9n6c

I’ve seen this guy live twice, once in a club, pretty close to the stage, yet he’s completely different from who I thought he was. You know, you get a picture in your mind, based on photos you’ve seen, even video, but that’s not the person they are.

The way Chris talks, how he talks, what’s important to him, you get to see the real him, and realize he’s just a person, and you probably wouldn’t connect with him one on one, because everybody is different, unique, not your best friend. Chris evidences a personality, that is not manufactured, that makes him come alive. I know this guy from school, albeit sans a southern accent, we might have even had some conversations, even done something with each other, but we are not best friends. This is where modern technology depicts a more accurate picture of the artist than the old.

You come to the end of the article and video believing you’ve learned something about Stapleton, and it’s not all sheen, not all filtered for the public. It’s not exactly raw, but an element of authenticity seeps out.

Read it!

(And watch it!)

Who exactly do the Democrats represent?

Let’s see, the college educated, the liberals who think they know better, those who have benefited from the tech boom, those who’ve worked very hard to be successful, who believe they’ve earned every penny and might have a little compassion for the poor folk but don’t want to lose their status and comfort for this bunch of losers who pooh-poohed education, didn’t get on the ladder of the corporation, who didn’t become an entrepreneur..

Wait a second, isn’t this supposed to be the Republicans?

It’s income inequality, come home to roost. And I do blame St. Reagan. Turns out greed is not good. And after four decades the proletariat is mad as hell and just won’t take it anymore.

It’s analogous to what is happening on college campuses. You might have just become aware of BDS. But the Palestinians have been playing a long game, akin to the Republicans and the Federalist Society. Yes, the Republicans realized they were getting beaten judicially and they organized, supported right wing jurists, and voila, decades later we’ve got a right wing Supreme Court. You don’t need no stinking right to an abortion, that’s for the gerrymandered states to decide! And you sit at home saying it’s unfair. And now you realize the vaunted Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a power drunk narcissist just like Joe Biden. How do you think they got this far? Do you think you’re sitting at home and the President calls you to sit on the Supreme Court and you say “Who, me?” No, you plan for this role, you lobby for this role, you enter the game, few survive, few make it, but those who do are far from the rank and file. They won this game and they’re not about to give up power.

So the Palestinians were sick of losing to the Israelis. They wanted the Jews gone. And then they realized the only way to win was to foment dissent. Yes, BDS was not formed spontaneously on campuses, that’s a Palestinian construct. As for bringing students and liberal thinkers to Palestinian encampments, that was not serendipitous either, no that was a choice, an effort by the Palestinians, to get the bleeding heart liberals over to see how the Palestinians are living, how they’re being abused by the Jews. You’re a compassionate person, aren’t you? How could you not take these people’s side! They’re just people, like you and me. And they’ve been held back and…

David Krebs has been bugging me about this for decades. BDS and intersectionality. He’d get me on the phone and start ranting and raving and I listened, but I thought he was overboard. But it turned out Krebs was tuned in, he knew what was going on, he was waving the flag and I ignored it. And it was someone else’s battle, someone else’s lift, right? And now antisemitism is rampant, it’s come down to me, and I graduated from college back in the seventies!

But we’ve got Bidenomics! The country is flourishing! I mean look at Europe, with worse inflation, Biden’s done an incredible job!

For the same elite Democrats.

Have you been to the grocery store? I started to notice it myself. The bill went from the two hundred dollar range to the three hundred dollar range, and I was buying the exact same stuff. As for gas at seven dollars a gallon… It was unfathomable, nearly a joke. Must be anomalous. Just like the California blackouts at the turn of the century, which turned out to be caused by Enron in Texas. That’s not what the news told us, we heard some cockamamie explanation about the power grid and capacity. The newspapers were clueless, until after the fact. Enron collapsed, there was some prosecution, but employees walked away with handsome compensation, just like the self-centered Wall Street bozos after the crash they created back in 2008/9.

So there was that poll in the “New York Times” a couple of weeks back, talking about Biden losing in the only states that count. And what did Democrats do? Say the poll was flawed. That it couldn’t be true. It didn’t feel like it to them. Everybody they knew was doing well, supporting Biden, and you’d better shut up and do the same.

Thank god the media is not as stupid as the Democrats.

“Bidenomics Has a Mortal Enemy, and It Isn’t Trump”: https://tinyurl.com/m45we2tw

That’s a free link and you should at least scan this article, there are charts and everything, it’s easy!

Bottom line? The spoils have gone to the wealthy. Not only Elon Musk and the billionaires, but you, with your 401k and two late model cars in the driveway. The average person doesn’t own stock. The average person lost their good-paying job when it was shipped overseas. They can’t make ends meet. But they should realize that by the statistics, the economy is raging. How could Biden and the Democrats be so out of touch?

And all you can do is laugh at the Trumpers. I certainly do. There are some great TikToks with people saying inane things. But based on their speech, their education can’t have been great, they can’t be making much money, they’ve been screwed for decades, been left behind, and they’re supposed to listen to the college graduates who did it to them say that they know better? It’s laughable!

And these same college graduates… They blame religion, school laws, they’ve got a million reasons why this is so. But it can’t be them, they’re blameless, they donate to charity, they’re immune!

And talk about living in bizarroland… This was on the Opinion page of the “Wall Street Journal” on Monday:

“A New Approach to Taxes That Pays Its Own Way – Two decades of unpaid-for tax cuts have eroded the federal government’s revenue base.”: https://tinyurl.com/3evwudhw

That’s another free link. But in truth, the headline says it all. And of course we have to blame Bush II and Trump, but as the article states, the Democrats were complicit in a deal that made over 80% of the tax cuts permanent.

Of course the devil is in the details. But the bottom line is the rank and file got screwed. They were told to have confidence in the American Dream that George Carlin said you have to be asleep to believe in.

Life is hard for most people. But you say it can’t be that hard, because they’ve got flat screens and smartphones.

And it’s not only the Democratic elite, it’s the Republican elite too. Talk about being out of touch. The Republican elite has completely lost control of the party, it’s become all MAGA all the time, Trump’s party.

And I could rail against Trump for days, but in truth he gives people something to believe in, because economic prosperity certainly ain’t happening. Trump gives them hope. Biden promises what Hillary did, more of the same, and that ain’t working for them.

But it’s not only the Trump-lovers, it’s the youth. Here’s one of the money quotes from the above-referenced “New York Times” article:

“Zero — yes, zero — respondents under 30 in three of the swing states said they considered the economy ‘excellent.'”

Try convincing them they’re wrong. Whip out all that Bidenomics nonsense. Don’t you get it, perception is more important than facts, and the perception of these people is it’s not going in the right direction for them. But you know better.

It’s a long con. Just like with the Palestinians. While you were asleep, savoring the fruits of your labor. Accumulating capital. Going on vacation on a whim. Sending your kid to private school… The left behind were falling further behind.

Hell, I don’t recognize the country anymore. I was taught if you worked hard you had a chance of triumphing. What a bunch of b.s. that turned out to be. In a nation where the writers are on strike for bread crumbs and Zaslav and Iger make triple-digit millions. Even worse, they’re not responsible. That’s right, the corporation will roll on, they’ll end up on the sidelines, but they’ll have all that money! It’s not like even you or me can sit down and say Zaslav is making good product. Hell, the story on Zaslav is he’s not making any product at all, just whittling down debt. It’s kind of like Biden… We need a leader, we need someone to believe in.

That’s Trump.

WHAT?

Come on, that’s what he is, a leader. Maybe not your leader, maybe not where you want to go, but where is your leader? Biden is so old he came of age before the days of handheld calculators. He remembers when there was no color TV. Digitally native? How in the hell do you expect young people to relate to this guy? Oh, just tell them it’s good for them, like Hillary. And how did that work out?

There’s a generation gap, as wide as the one in the sixties. But those who were challenging the status quo yesterday are the establishment today, and they just can’t accept it. They’re skinny as a result of Ozempic, they’ve got smartphones, they’re hip!

Then again, social media is the enemy, TikTok is the devil. Ask one of these boomers or Gen-X’ers if they’ve been on TikTok. Of course not, they’re bloviating on that which they’re unfamiliar with. But that doesn’t stop them, as they post family photos on Facebook, or look at static images on Instagram. In a world of video, they’re still focused on stills, photos that is.

The world keeps turning, keeps changing, you’re supposed to question your suppositions, or else you’re left behind. But that’s all we hear about from the oldsters, we need less time with the smartphone, we have to return to yesterday…

Now even the kids won’t go to the movies. Yes, we hated the high concept superhero flicks, but at least the kids went to see them. Not anymore, now they stiff. And Pixar? Those movies are for Disney+. No, to get someone to go out to the theatre, it must be an event. But it turns out there are far fewer event pictures than we thought. I mean look at the cost… Enough already.

Everything’s being challenged, everything’s up for grabs, and all we get from Biden and the Democrats is trust us, we’re doing a good job.

But instead we’re living in “Groundhog Day.” We’ve seen this movie before, back in 2016. Sure, Biden got rid of Trump, but he didn’t reach the poor, the great morass, the youth, those who voted for Trump to turn over the table to begin with. Yes, Biden is Hillary. And don’t tell me Hillary would have been a better president than Trump, anyone who argues otherwise is a fool, but Hillary wasn’t going to address the problems of the poor, the underclass, those living from paycheck to paycheck either. Oh, there might have been some photo ops, some lip service, but Hillary’s backers wouldn’t have allowed her to screw them. Government is a business, and they’re profiting.

Just like they are under Biden.

Trump is larger than life. It’s like believing in a heavy metal band that everybody else hates. It gives you an identity. And what do those on the left say? You’re dumb and delusional and we know better. Guess how much that resonates…not at all!

But I can’t write the above. Because I’ve got to shut up and support Biden and no one I know wants to give up a single thing they believe they’ve earned. They’ve been living in income inequality land for so long they think it’s de rigueur, unstoppable. Just like Jews in America believed antisemitism was a minor distraction.

Fighting antisemitism? God, I thought last week that worst case scenario I can move to Israel. Unfathomable previously, a realistic option today.

But what about all those who’ve been left with the short end of the stick in the continuing divide between the rich and the poor? Where are they gonna go?

Fascists promise to make the trains run on time, in a world where they do not. And you might not think that’s the most important thing, but people have to get to work, they’re sick of the chaos. They don’t believe things are getting better, but worse.

But you bring out your spreadsheets and try to convince them otherwise. But it’s a losing proposition. Because whatever you say, it doesn’t feel that way, that they’ve just go to hang in there and things will work out for them. They haven’t! And they see Trump as an outsider, not beholden to the system. Oh, don’t try to dissuade me with the truth, it’s not about the truth, this is what people feel. And what do we give them in the alternative? A doddering old man who believes in incremental change, if there’s change at all. That’s no longer enough for people. Don’t tell me about what Trump will do. Biden now has a record. He got rid of Trump, but to the average person…they can’t see that much more of a benefit. And they’re hurting. They’re not only seeing how celebrities live, but how you live, and they want to take you down a peg, and that’s not by voting for Joe Biden. Come on, haven’t you ever done something drastic, something dramatic, knowing it might hurt you a bit, but it has a chance of delivering a better future? Take this job and shove it?

Unions are flourishing. For all the MBA blowback, the WGA got essentially everything it asked for. And what do the professors say? Well, the writers didn’t work for x number of months, and they’ll never recapture that income… But that’s not what it was about. It was about standing up to the man, saying they weren’t going to take it anymore, and the victory feels so good, it’s almost better than money.

And Shawn Fain triumphs over the three car companies and… The rank and file see that the Big Three had the money, that it’s not going to put them out of business. Yes, the rich can sacrifice and still be rich. But they don’t want to. Like the overcompensated CEOs. Well, since this guy is making so much, I should too, McKinsey told me so!

Wow. I find these facts self-evident. But too many can’t see them.

Don’t you get it, the revolution has come, it is here. When we were told to be calm, that it could never arrive. Every Jew in America is frightened, and everybody who got screwed, who’s been sitting on the sideline watching seemingly everybody but them get rich? They’ve had enough.

It’s not hard to trace the path. We can see how we got here. And we got here because those with something to lose were asleep, they thought nothing would ever change.

But it did.

Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/ykd4szxd

“I Thank You” – Sam & Dave and ZZ Top

“Thank You” – Dido

“My Thanksgiving” – Don Henley

“Thank U” – Alanis Morissette

“Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” – Sly & the Family Stone

“Thank You” – Led Zeppelin and Tori Amos

“Thank You Girl” – the Beatles

“Thank You for Being a Friend” – Andrew Gold

“Thank You Song” – Livingston Taylor

“Thanks” – James Gang

“Thank God I’m a Country Boy” – John Denver

“Thank God I’m a Jewish Boy” – Allan Lieberman

“Thank You” – Bonnie Raitt

“Thank You Love” – Doobie Brothers

“Thank You Friends” – Big Star

“Thank You for Sending Me an Angel” – Talking Heads

“Thank U, Next” – Ariana Grande

“Thanksgiving” – George Winston

“Thank You Mr. Churchill” – Peter Frampton

“Thanks for the Pepperoni” – George Harrison

“Thank You” – Celine Dion