Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/3ahvs5ru

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/3rk57ykn

It was not a hit. As a matter of fact, the entire album was a stiff.

Donna Summer was part of David Geffen’s trifecta, launching his new, eponymous label with three superstars, Donna Summer, Elton John and John Lennon. And all three of their albums stiffed, although subsequent to his tragic and untimely assassination Lennon’s album was resuscitated, “(Just Like) Starting Over” was played incessantly, and one can argue quite strongly that “Double Fantasy” contains the most well-known Lennon solo cuts, the ones the audience knows best, other than “Imagine,” and the album is the one that has been embraced by the public.

But this is not about John Lennon.

Donna Summer was a superstar. Seen as a disco sideshow, the sound she helped pioneer became dominant and she was the scene’s queen. Still derided by many, but then came “Bad Girls,” suddenly it was clear Donna Summer could rock, that she was testing limits while the corporate rockers were repeating themselves.

That’s where I came along. Someone my boss represented was in the band. Actually, two people. And they came in one day with the double “Bad Girls” album and I dropped the needle and was stunned, it was good! “Hot Stuff” started with a driving beat, with more energy than you heard on the rock stations. “Bad Girls” had a breezy feel that epitomized the ethos of the late seventies, and then there were those extraneous, background sounds, the beep beeps, and then Summer started to toss off the lyrics, as if she ruled the world and didn’t care at the same time. And “Dim All the Lights,” had a swinging, swaying feeling like the last dance at your high school, it captured the zeitgeist better than the rock stuff. And the closer, “Sunset People,” which captured the feel of the Boulevard back when you had to be here to experience it.

So I bought the 1982 Geffen album “Donna Summer” the day it was released. The initial single, the opening cut, “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger),” had everything but the kitchen sink, but underneath the production was a substandard song. This was a new sound, nowhere near as good as the Giorgio Moroder sound. It was Michael Jacksonized Donna Summer.

Yes, they shared the same producer, Q, Quincy Jones, this was going to be a revelation, an apotheosis, Summer was going to be as big as the man with the one white glove, only she wasn’t. “Donna Summer” was a dud.

Now, in truth, decades later I cottoned to “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger),” especially the breakdown, what happens starting at 2:42 is magical, but what are the odds something can be a hit, can become legendary if it takes years to get it? Zero.

Track 2 was even worse, “Mystery of Love.” God, the whole album featured incredible production, incredible playing, incredible singing, just substandard material. The record existed in a nowheresville, this was not the Donna Summer of yore, it was too slick, too mainstream, it wasn’t hip.

But Donna Summer still owed one album to Mercury, from her old deal, which she had to deliver as part of her contract with Geffen. And funnily enough, just like with Linda Ronstadt and Asylum a decade before, the album sans Geffen was gigantic, the one that broke through. Donna Summer was singing “She Works Hard for the Money” in her waitress uniform on MTV. She was back. But then she disappeared again, she never had anything resembling a true hit thereafter. Well, that’s not completely true, Summer decamped to Atlantic, worked with Stock Aitken Waterman and produced “This Time I Know It’s for Real” in 1989, but despite the chart numbers listed on the song’s Wikipedia page, I don’t remember a video in constant rotation on MTV. And I don’t remember it being on the radio, it eluded me completely. Then again, I’d given up on Donna Summer at this point, there’d been too much disappointment.

But on that Geffen album “Donna Summer,” there were two tracks, and I continued to go back to them, again and again.

The first was “State of Independence,” a Jon and Vangelis composition whose recording had gotten radio airplay, that I knew, that was built on the magic of Jon Anderson’s voice before he went back to Yes for the monster “90215,” a sorely overlooked album today, sure “Owner of a Lonely Heart” is still heard occasionally, but go back and listen to “It Can Happen,” Hold On,” “Changes and “Leave It,” maybe the younger generations will discover the album in the future, it’s right there on streaming services, it’s unique, requires no prior listening or understanding, and it delivers.

But the best iteration of “State of Independence” does not, exist on streaming services that is. Whoa, wait a second, after decades, it’s finally appeared, an album I played incessantly back in the nineties, Moodswings’s “Moodfood”!

Talk about a magical album, one that almost no one knows…

The entry point is “Skinthieves,” with an astounding Jeff Beck guitar solo at the end. And then there’s “Rainsong”… I could pull up what I wrote about this ethereal, meaningful number back in the nineties, but I don’t want to bring up chiaroscuro memories. I’ll just leave you with these lyrics:

“I was thinking about our life together

Knowing it must be now or never

To get back to you

Now I’ve just got to get out of this rain”

The vocal is by Linda Muriel, someone neither you nor I know, but the delivery is from deep inside her soul.

But the piece-de-resistance on “Moodfood” is “Spiritual High (State of Independence), Pt. 2.” Actually, there are three parts to “Spiritual High,” they start the album, and you should listen to them all, but Pt. 2 has got a driving club beat and the vocal is by none other than Chrissie Hynde! Yes, with a voice somewhere between Jon Anderson and Donna Summer, and for some reason her thinner vocal adds even more meaning. But the version on “Donna Summer”…

Q throws in everything, including the kitchen sink, but this time the underlying song is worthy of the production. It features the essence of Toto, David Paich, Steve Porcaro and Steve Lukather, as well as backup vocals by Bill Champlin, Steve George, Richard Page and one Pamela Quinlan. Well, there’s also an all-star chorus featuring everybody from Michaels Jackson and McDonald and James Ingram, Stevie Wonder, Christopher Cross, Dionne Warwick, and even Dyan Cannon, and that’s not everybody! Yes, only Q does this, but here it works. But this nearly six minute version of “State of Independence” isn’t a single, not what they play on pop radio, although it did go to number one in the Netherlands, but in the U.S. they played this kind of stuff on FM rock stations, but this was not rock, but it was great.

But not as great as “The Woman in Me.”

“You know baby

I’m so happy to be here

With you tonight

And I just wanna let you know

That I’d follow you to the end of the world

Just to show you that I care

And I want you to know that

If you need me

I’ll always be there”

That’s all sotto voce, before the main vocal begins. It’s so intimate.

Unlike U2 at the Sphere. I was reading about that earlier today, that’s spectacle, U2 performing “Achtung Baby” and other hits, “The Woman in Me” was never a hit, and never will be. It was released as a single, but barely made a dent, it’s just an album track on an album that was a stiff, that is not going to have a renaissance, because it was a misfire, not that good, Donna didn’t need all that production, she was enough, but on this cut Q’s production techniques work.

“Dancing close

Feeling restless

It’s a slow sultry night”

Sultry is the word. For the entire song. It’s the aural equivalent of “Body Heat.” And it’s personal. You feel like you’re the only one listening, unless you’re living the life delineated in the song, with your honey, sharing a private moment.

Private. So much of today’s music is public. Meant to be shared with the assembled multitude, to party. And some of that stuff is great, but what really reaches me is the opposite, the stuff made for just me, alone in my bedroom, when my spirits are low, when I need the music to soothe me, to make me feel like there’s a reason to continue to live, just to hear this sound, to experience this bond with the sound.

So I dropped the needle on “Donna Summer” the day I bought it and was disappointed until I got to cut 3, “The Woman in Me.” It immediately registered. And I wasn’t listening to it on earbuds, it didn’t emanate from a small speaker in the dash of an automobile, rather it was coming out of the speakers of my state of the art stereo with enough power to wake up the neighbors (and, unfortunately, I once did this).

We need an entry point to an album. And back when records were shorter, with two sides, it was easier to do this. We’d play them through once, then concentrate on one side, then the other, waiting for a track to speak to us. And “The Woman in Me” spoke to me, immediately.

And for some reason, in a fog this morning, reading the newspaper, eating coffee skyr with walnuts and blueberries, “The Woman in Me” started playing in my head. I could have called out to Alexa to play it, but it was better in my mind, more personal.

It’s not like I was in a bad mood, but I can’t say I was in a good one. I had nothing on my day’s plate that was disturbing, then again, there was nothing exciting scheduled. And the news was fascinating, but it was at arm’s length, I was not in the paper, but “The Woman in Me” was in my head.

And I started to think… Of that old house, listening to “The Woman in Me.” About all my moods, all my feelings, back when. And how “The Woman in Me” is primary to me, but seemingly no one else. It was a commercial misfire. You’re not hearing it on the radio. All that effort went into its production, its recording, but it’s really only known to a select few, those who purchased the album and played it, and those who might have heard it on one of its occasional radio spins. But it’s a hit. To me. On my own personal parade. Donna Summer is alive when I hear “The Woman in Me,” and so am I. When I hear the right song in my head my life is complete, I can conquer all comers, I feel powerful. 

And today “The Woman in Me” is that song.

Drummer extraordinaire Keith Carlock has been Steely Dan’s man on the skins for decades. Hear the story of how he made it from Mississippi to the big time!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-carlock/id1316200737?i=1000631849077

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/475e0f43-391f-4260-a31d-66fd0a18488a/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-keith-carlock

“The Only Girl – My Life and Times on the Masthead of Rolling Stone”: https://tinyurl.com/5xcn4xum

I’d never heard of this book, never mind its author, Robin Green.

Then again, I had. I saw her credit for years, as a writer and executive producer on “The Sopranos.” What? That’s quite a career!

Now this is not a self-published tome, it was put out by Little Brown. But it flew under my radar, and whether or not I read these rock books, I’m certainly aware of them. But in the brouhaha after Jann Wenner’s unfortunate remarks, an article I read went through the various books about “Rolling Stone” and said this was the best. Huh? I immediately reserved it at the library, I wasn’t going to buy it, what were the odds I’d even read it.

But I did. I finished it in less than 24 hours. Primarily because Robin Green delineates the era better than any book written by a person in music.

Yes, the sixties… They’re fading. But if you were alive and kicking, it was the opposite of today, it was an era of possibilities. And you certainly didn’t live your life by rote. Green graduated from Pembroke, which was to Brown as Radcliffe was to Harvard, and then…tried to fly straight in New York City, but on a whim moved to California with an old boyfriend.

Come on, do you know anybody who graduates from an Ivy and makes career decisions on a whim today? Hell, people have their careers planned out before they even take a class. And the goal is to make money. To set the world on fire. Personal fulfillment? That’s way down the list. But in the sixties and early seventies, that was everything.

And you could afford to meander. You could live on minimum wage. And not only did people do this, they were itinerant, as in moving from place to place. You didn’t fly across the country, you drove. You didn’t just see places on the internet, you went and experienced them up close and personal. And if a friend was going somewhere, even hundreds of miles away, you might decide to accompany them, and it might change your entire life.

So Robin is in Berkeley working a day job, and then she finds out she has a connection at “Rolling Stone,” so she borrows a car and drives over the bridge for a meeting with this bloke where she offers herself up as a secretary, a low level employee, she just wants to get in the building, to be close to the action.

But this guy doesn’t understand it. Why would she want such a lowly gig, didn’t she have more ambition, why didn’t she want to write for the magazine?

It had never occurred to her.

But she had a meeting with Jann, who found out she was an assistant to Stan Lee at Marvel during her brief tenure in New York, and he said if she wrote an article about Marvel and he liked it, he’d pay her five cents a word, if he didn’t, he’d kill it and pay her half. And seeing as how she was going to the east coast anyway, she took the gig.

And it became a cover story.

And from there…

I remember Robin’s story about Dennis Hopper and “The Last Movie,” it was in one of the early issues after my subscription to the magazine took hold. And its creation is retold in this book, and Hopper doesn’t look good. So many don’t look good, not even David Chase, Robin lays it down straight.

And you may not actually like Robin, but she was there, she lived it.

She had sex with many men. One night stands. She wouldn’t submit her story about the Kennedy children to “Rolling Stone” because…

But these were the days. Before AIDS. During women’s liberation. When women were demanding and living with the same power as men.

Green is far from subservient, she was one of the boys, but she maintained her female identity.

Green writes about the legendary “Rolling Stone” conference at Esalen. About Hunter Thompson. About the trials and tribulations of the “Rolling Stone” staff. It didn’t play out pleasantly for so many of them. But they were bedding each other, even if they were married to other people.

As for this focus on sex… You’ve got to know, at this point sex before marriage was seen as taboo, even divorce was. But the birth control pill came along and everything changed. There was freedom.

Green ultimately is demoted from the masthead of “Rolling Stone” after refusing to deliver that Kennedy piece and she went to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and then moved to Los Angeles and once again worked at a low level until she caught fire in TV. And this ultimately led to “The Sopranos,” and more.

This is not a typical tell-all. It’s more than the facts. And Green can certainly write. But it’s like it never came out, no one ever talked to me about “The Only Girl.” That’s what Robin was, again and again, the only girl amongst a group of men.

You’ll have a hard time putting “The Only Girl” down, especially if you lived through that era, the years have been bastardized and pooh-poohed, but if you read Green’s book, you’ll learn how it all really went down, from a perspective you don’t usually find. You’ve got men writing about the era, and you’ve got people who weren’t there writing about the era, but Robin Green was there, and she holds nothing back.

There’s just something about this book. It’s not like it’s hot or sexy, yet it’s far from dry. It’s kinda like a peek into Robin Green’s brain, her inner world. A perspective you don’t get too often, especially without judgment and a moral.

When looking for the Amazon link I saw that right now they’re selling the Kindle version for $3.99. That’s not much of a commitment. But if you do buy it, I know you’ll read it, I know you’ll finish it. Because you want this perspective. You want a book that is more than I did this and that, met this person and that. You’re thinking all the time, and so is Robin Green, but she laid her inner feelings down.

A big thumb’s up! 

P.S. This book is not only about “Rolling Stone,” actually the best parts are about her family and friends and growing up in Providence. And it does go into “The Sopranos” and…just wanted to let you know.

It’s happening again. What my parents warned me about. Anti-Semitism.

My inbox is overflowing. Overwhelmingly in support of what I wrote about Gaza. But you know what so many of those e-mailers said? DON’T USE MY NAME!

And there you have it in a nutshell. Yes, I blame the Jews. Not Israel, but the assimilated Jews in America who stood by during the heyday of BDS, during the rise of pro-Palestinian sentiment, while the perception changed, from poor Israel to poor Palestinians.

“Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a briefing early Wednesday morning that no Israeli strike, either by air, land or sea occurred near the hospital at the time of the deadly explosion. He said the Israeli military would soon publish the radar information, footage and a recording of militants in Gaza assigning blame to Islamic Jihad, a group aligned with Hamas.

“Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour accused Israel of carrying out the strike and lying. ‘Now they change the story to try to blame the Palestinians. It is a lie,’ Mansour said during a press conference at the U.N. headquarters.”

https://tinyurl.com/5u626rkd

That’s from the “Wall Street Journal,” you could read it if you wanted to but you won’t. Because the truth is irrelevant today, now it’s only about perception.

I mean who are you going to believe? One of the most technically developed militaries of the world? Or the terrorist group in Palestine?

It’s easy. Of course the Israelis are guilty.

And none of this would have happened if the Israelis hadn’t decided to retaliate, right? I mean even if it was a wayward, failed Palestinian rocket, would they be shooting off rockets if Israel didn’t threaten to invade? Get it straight, Israel is the aggressor here. The poor Palestinians have just been trying to live their lives quietly and those damn Jews upset the apple cart. They’ve got no compassion. They want to see every Palestinian desiring to return to their homeland dead. If only they wanted peace, a two state solution…

WHAT?

My inbox says all that. And I’ve never had this many people unsubscribe in one day, never. And after posting this I’m sure I’ll lose the same number, if not more. But I’m not writing for those people, I’m not writing for those taking the side of the poor Palestinians, I’m writing this for you silent Jews, afraid of suffering individually. I mean haven’t we seen this movie already? Never mind the Nazis, but in Charlottesville, never mind terrorism in Pittsburgh?

Yes, I’ve gotten e-mail from people keeping their kids home from school, because they’re Jewish. Others afraid to go to synagogue, even though there are armed guards at the temple.

But you sit there silently, trying to stay out of the fray. Fearful of blowback. Yes, you who let the pendulum swing, who got fat and happy, seeing Israel as a safe technological juggernaut. You thought you were assimilated. But you haven’t gotten those e-mails I have, talking about anti-Semitism in this supposedly Jewish dominated business.

But you don’t want to get involved. You don’t want people angry with you. You don’t want to lose friends.

Forget the wimpy executives, who are only concerned about their paycheck, where are the Jewish artists? You can’t take a stand? You are who people listen to, if not now, when?

But the executives need to stand up too. I’m imploring you. If I can take the risk, you can too. We have each other, and we need each other, but now we are divided.

That’s right, whatever and if ever the truth about the hospital bombing comes out one thing is for sure, the image of Israel and the Jews will continue to decline, and it will only get worse.

As for those Jews at colleges and universities… They’re complacent, they didn’t live through the ’67 and ’73 wars, never mind Munich in ’72. They align with their Palestinian brothers, knowing nothing of the history of the region, only knowing that the Palestinians have a good case, and they do, BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

I’m not going to sit here and say Israel is perfect. But one thing I will say is it’s our last best hope if we are Jewish, it’s the only place we can go and not be persecuted. And if it goes by the wayside, it’s just a matter of time before they come for you.

I mean have you studied history? Again and again the Jews have been the scapegoat, and been exiled and limited in business and killed and you think just because we have the internet it can’t happen again? IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN!

Think of authoritarianism… We thought those days were through. And Poland just turned left, but what about Italy? Never mind Hungary? This was not supposed to happen, democracy was supposed to gain momentum and rule, but just the opposite seems to be happening.

So on my birthday a few years back I went to the Holocaust museum in Los Angeles. And they had reprints from the L.A. “Times.” And contrary to conventional wisdom, people knew! Yes, the repression of the Jews, their ghettoization, the stripping of their rights, their need to wear Jewish stars… WE KNEW! And what did we do? Nothing, not for a long while. And after the war the truth of the concentration camps was revealed, but now we find out the Holocaust didn’t really happen. And the Jews need to shut up anyway, because other people died too. It’s kind of like saying there’s no more racism, get the Blacks to agree with you on that one. But even the Blacks hate the Jews. Don’t tell me you don’t, do you think I’m polling each and every African-American? But the facts are there. Jews are the enemy, just ask Kanye.

Yes, Jews are the cause of all the world’s problems, don’t you know? And if they’d just let those damn Palestinians live in peace… And give them back their country while they’re at it, everything would be groovy. Iran would be happy and Lebanon would be happy and…ARE YOU DREAMING?

But you are asleep. Because you’re afraid to get in the fray.

But I don’t care if you’re mother’s mother was Jewish and nobody else, when they come looking, you’re going to be considered Jewish, there’s no getting away from it. You think you’re immune, but you’re not.

So can all you wusses out there, afraid of having your names revealed, stand up and be proud to be a Jew? Stand up to the misinformation?

Of course it’s a thorny issue. And the Israelis haven’t always been right, but they haven’t been celebrating the death of Palestinians, whereas it’s vice versa on the other side.

I won’t even talk about all the times the Palestinians were offered their own country as part of a two state solution..,

That’s another type of e-mail that drives me wild. The “risk-takers” who tell me that everybody just needs to believe in peace. That if we all sat down the problem could be solved. That we need a two-state solution. Don’t you get it, Israel has agreed to all that, it’s the Palestinians who are holding us back, who will only be happy when Israel ceases to exist, when the Jews are driven into the sea. Don’t think those are metaphors, that’s Hamas’s charter!

This is only the beginning. As this war progresses, Israel is going to look worse and worse, just you wait. It’s going to be even harder to be a Jew. The right has turned on Ukraine, what are the odds every American is going to side with Israel? And yes, there are Christians who support Israel because that’s where Jesus lived, but if you think this means they’re sympathetic to the Jews…

It is happening. Right now. We Jews are losing purchase, we’re losing power, we’re losing the argument, it’s going in the wrong direction. But you think it’s all happening over there, that it doesn’t affect you.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

WAKE UP!

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

From: Michael Fisher

Subject: Re: Gaza

“But that’s the society we live in. Where money, your job, triumphs. Tell me how that works for you when you’re rounded-up and put in a ghetto.”

Exactly. You should’ve added “and dragged off and murdered”. I’m African-American and German. My mother was German. I was born in Germany and grew up among plenty of “Ex-Nazis” and their children.  I grew up hearing what they said. To this day when I’m in Germany (I was there in the beginning of the year) I keep hearing “Well, you’re half black, but at least you’re not a Jew”. I’ll hear that from Germans who will usually present themselves as completely pro-jewish. So, don’t get it twisted. Anti-semitism is still around, rising and virulent. And it’s deadly. Anti-Black racism is about “keeping Blacks in their place”. Anti-Jewish racism (Anti-semitism) is straight up about genocide.

Michael 

_______________________________________

From: Jason Hess

Subject: Re: Gaza

A few years ago, My daughter was bullied in high school for being Jewish by pro Palestinian students. You know what the administration did? They said they were trying to have honest conversations about the issues. This is response to my daughter getting pictures of Hitler and being told that all Jews are racist animals. So you know what I did? I sued them in federal court at tremendous personal and emotional expense. I took a stand. I am no hero but almost everyone told me to let it go. But I could not do it Bob. We settled and received an apology. I hope I had an impact but I doubt it. They all hate us. But we must keep fighting.

Jason

_______________________________________

Subject: Re: Gaza

Bob, 

I read your news letter daily. Sometimes it’s too long. But today u got it right. I have lived as a Jew with anti semitism my entire life. From having pennies thrown at me in middle school to being ridiculed because I am a female JEWISH lawyer. I remain a proud Jew, maybe not religious, but I know I am a Jew. Each day at my previous job, now retired, I tried to have a Holocaust moment and explain to my associates that every day I say NEVER AGAIN. You got it right. We killed innocent people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With war comes consequences. Hamas started it. Let Israel and the US if necessary finish it. Those hostages are goners their lives are done even if saved. They will forever suffer. The time is now. So shut up and stop crying for innocent people. Let’s get this job done the way we should have when people walked my relatives to ovens. It’s time. 

Thanks for reading

Gail LEVINE

A proud Jew

_______________________________________

From: Ronli Tzour

Subject: Re: Gaza

Thank you for speaking out, Bob.

It’s nauseating to see fellow jews say nothing.

It’s nauseating to see non-jews say nothing.

It’s nauseating to see people I called friends, people I still have to work with, people that were in my home liking and sharing posts that are riddled with misinformation.

And it’s nauseating when I reach out to explain why what they’re engaging with is straight propaganda or incorrect and they simply, don’t respond.

Our babies are beheaded. Our women raped then butchered. Our families erased. Our college kids mourn our slaughtered, behind them is a group of pro-Palestinian students screaming at them how it’s justice. Our houses are being marked with ‘Jew’ or Magen Davids to indicate jews live there. Our businesses are being trashed either physically or accounts are being unfollowed or spammed with hate. Our flags are being burned in the name of another statehood and there are chants of our genocide and yet in Israeli marches – we sing about how we just want peace for Israel and dance around together. There is video evidence of all of this.

People don’t want to see what’s happening. They want to blindly hate Israel and jewish people. They want to believe we’re evil, no matter what we do.

We are seeing the 1930s play out in front of our eyes. People watching our Instagram stories but won’t say anything to us or on their own socials is the equivalent of their not-so-distant ancestors just watching jews thru their windows being rounded up..

Thank god we have our own defense force to help us in 2023. Never again is now. And truly (and I mean this from the bottom of my soul and from my long line of actual resistance fighter ancestors), f*ck anyone that believes any differently. Too harsh? Too bad.

In multiple jewish group chats I am, we are discussing: Removing our mezzuzahs from our doors. (We dont want to.)

Is it safe to wear our Magen David necklaces? (No, but we’ve dusted them off and are now constantly wearing them.)

Do people need security to walk them to synagogue? (Yes, in LA there is a volunteer group that walks families to synagogue whenever they need – let alone the amped up security at synagogues to begin with.)

Amongst many, many other things but these barely just scratch the surface.

May peace be with us soon, may all of our families stay safe, may the 150+ hostages make it back to us alive and unharmed, may we never know this kind of terror again, and may Hamas be eliminated forever.

Our hearts are so broken and also so angry. I will never understand this level of hate that has been unleashed.

Thanks again for speaking out, Bob. We need more people to use their voices, too.

Am yisrael chai –

Ronli Tzour

_______________________________________

From: Gary Lucas

Subject: Re: Gaza

Thank you for this Bob. We’ve all been there—even in a supposedly Jewish-dominated music biz.

Years ago when I was a copywriter at CBS Records, I really wanted to get into A&R, but found it to be a closed shop (especially for a guy who had played with Captain Beefheart).

After much badgering, the Jewish head of A&R at Columbia told me:

“Bring me a hit first, and then we can talk about hiring you.”

So in 1986, I’m in the UK with my English-Jewish wife visiting her family, and while there ventured forth into UK record company-land in search of a hit for Columbia.

I lined up a meeting with the head of A&R at London Records, who was a very affable fellow.

I told him Columbia had just done a licensing deal with Geoff Travis’s  Rough Trade Records—and did he have any potential hits for us to license?

He proceeded to play me the soon to be released new single by The Communards, a cover of Thelma Houston’s smash “Don’t Leave Me This Way”.

This new version had “hit” written all over it.

He told me they are about to make a deal for America, but that if Columbia wants in…

He gives me a cassette to take back and play for my guy. His parting words as I leave his office are :

“What’s the matter with Columbia—do they just want to do a deal with a bunch of Jews??” (Geoff Travis is Jewish).

I don’t know if he knew that I was Jewish or not. Perhaps he just thought he was being funny–but I was seriously offended.

Nevertheless, as I wanted an A&R gig, I swallowed my pride and said nothing–which I regret to this day.

When I got back to NYC, I duly delivered the cassette to my “rabbi”, and gave him a big pitch on The Communards—and he duly threw the tape in a drawer…next!

A few months later this song is #1 on the Billboard Dance Charts. I felt more than vindicated re my A&R instincts, but whatever.

A few years later, partially out of frustration with the record biz, I left my day-job of 13 years to become a full-time artist.

And I did a collaboration in London with Alabama 3—huge Beefheart fans who had recently been schmeckled vis a vis their song “Woke Up This Morning”–part of the very warp and woof of “The Sopranos”—

which their manager licensed away forever for a pittance in a one-time buy-out with HBO.

While doing this session for their new song about the Great Train Robbery, “Have You Seen Bruce Richards Reynolds”

(you can hear it here, I’m on National steel bottleneck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QbmRgKuWa8 ),

they played me another new track entitled “Hello I’m Johnny Cash”, whose lyrics consisted of lines from various Johnny Cash songs.

In settling up on the phone with their manager for the session the next morning, I mentioned how much I enjoyed their Johnny Cash pastiche, and he said:

“I’m sure some Jew lawyer from New York will try and sue us for that”.

Ouch!  I should have said something right there again, but as I wanted to get paid…

Anyway, you could say maybe it’s just a UK thing. Maybe it was just crass Jew-baiting.

But we all know too well that anti-semitism is worldwide, it sucks, it ain’t going away—and we should call it out for what it is whenever it rears its ugly head.

Gary Lucas

NYC

_______________________________________

From: Lynn Crosswaite

Subject: Re: Gaza

Yes! Right on! I’m losing my mind over the pro-Palestinian marches. We need Doron!  Send in Doron and his crew to obliterate Hamas off the face of the earth! 

Lynn