Tune in Saturday December 30th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Writer for “Rolling Stone” and executive producer for “The Sopranos” Robin Green wrote a great memoir, “The Only Girl.” We discuss just that, being the only girl on the masthead at “Rolling Stone,” and her path from Rhode Island to Hollywood and more.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robin-green/id1316200737?i=1000639906884

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/382b6f01-ebba-4bff-b7b4-0424c5a9302c/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-robin-green

This is what is going to disappear. Along with gasoline automobiles and so much more. A variety show with dancing and singing? They’re already gone from regular network TV, the idea of appealing to everybody went by the wayside not only with cable TV, but with the internet and streaming no one watches what they do not want to. As a matter of fact, I skipped Queen Latifah and Rénee Fleming, I just don’t have time for over the top hagiography in today’s earthy world where we’re looking to pierce hearts and minds viscerally as opposed to platitudes written by calcified writers operating under a dead construct.

And speaking of dead…

Joe Biden is the Democrats’ 1/6. As in we can see it with our own eyes and the man’s acolytes keep telling us we’re wrong. Man, this guy is OLD! And stiff. He needs the Tin Man to give his body some oil. And when he speaks… There’s little power and you start to wince. Complain to me all you want, that’s just the point, you can’t admit that the guy is too old and we need someone new. These are the same people who believe the Kennedy Center Honors appeal to anyone who isn’t nearly dead themselves. The brain might work, he might have done good things in office, but this dude is over the hill. Don’t talk to me about Trump being only four years younger, as you keep telling us people age at different speeds, and Trump, at least physically, is aging much more slowly than Biden. As for his mind…

If you’re following the polls, you know that Nikki Haley is within four points of Trump in New Hampshire. That’s the headline, the truth is just a bit different. It’s eight points and with the margin of error being four, the headline is four. In any event, that’s close. And I’d say Nikki Haley has a chance, but after the Honors I picked up my phone to find out Nikki wouldn’t admit that slavery was the cause of the Civil War. I mean talk about a layup. And it’s a bad look no matter how you spin it. You’re afraid of offending white nationalists so you won’t admit a truth over a century and a half old? Then again, maybe these states are turning into Gaza, with their book bans and rewriting of education, have you seen the clip where they delineate what is taught to these kids? Check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/5963mfd8 And while you’re at it, say it’s wrong. That’s today’s world, everything is up for grabs, there is no accepted truth, and there are no universal stars.

That’s right, fifty years from now they’ll be honoring social media influencers, who’ve got more reach than streaming stars. Did you see the article that today’s young kids watch programming on YouTube, not paid streaming outlets? Disney thought this was their ace in the hole, you’ve got to pay for the history of cartoon fare. But kids are satisfied with what’s on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/mr25rdps Wait long enough and the world turns in unexpected ways. YouTube tried original production and failed. Turns out it’s not about company-produced stuff, just like Amazon is really eBay under a different moniker. That’s where the company makes its money, on third party products.

So first they honored Dionne Warwick.

Well, first we had Gloria Estefan with a song and dance intro, so lame I couldn’t wait for it to end. Maybe tell a  few jokes. Like Robert DeNiro, who turned out to be the biggest comedian on stage. He took a potshot at Biden’s age. He came up to the line of taboo. Everybody else was stuck in the sixties, if not the fifties.

And I like “Walk on By,” but as good as Dionne is, Burt Bacharach and Hal David were better. All the money’s in the songs, never sell yours, you’ll regret it, as Daryl Hall has now publicly said.

But watching Warwick all I could think of was the Psychic Friends Network. Bacharach and David never had to do this. And it made me wonder about tarnishing the legacy, then again if you live long enough you know the truth is there is no legacy, almost everybody they honor will be forgotten not long after they die, if it takes that long. Jay Leno? He used to be on TV every night? Looked like they reeled him out of the casket. Young people have no idea who he is. But I’ve got to give him credit for losing weight and not dyeing his hair. Yes, there was a lot of white hair, if there was hair at all. Because this was an old audience, the kind that is not passionate, they should have protested the appearance of Justice Roberts, the lack of the right to an abortion is more important than any of the talent honored last night.

But it was civilized, like honoring the nerds in high school, you know, the National Honor Society. Talk about meaningless. Kids today might have gotten a trophy for participating, but maybe that’s why they know awards, trophies, are a joke.

And to have a totally faux Spinners sing “Then Came You”… My body had to stretch like a rubberband man to cope with that.

And there was a plethora of B-level talent throughout the show. You mean you couldn’t get anybody better?

And they wheeled out old Clive Davis, who can’t miss an opportunity for self-promotion even though his eyesight is so bad he had to read off an iPad right in front of him. Never mind that Dionne’s big hits were not on his labels. Let’s honor Florence Greenberg of Scepter Records. I remember that logo spinning on the record player. But she’s already dead and forgotten. And even Mica is gone, Ahmet didn’t have to sit through travesties like this. Ahmet had a sense of humor, he knew false when he experienced it. If you knew him, if you hung with him just a little bit, you know this was true.

Queen Latifah? I’ve got nothing against the woman, but she’s definitely a B-level artist. Fiftieth year of hip-hop and this was all you could come up with? Afraid of someone a little more dangerous?

I respect Rénee Fleming, but it’s not really my bag.

As for Billy Crystal. Heartfelt and heartwarming. Even though Crystal himself is a bit bland. It’s the edgy comedians we ultimately respect. It’s taking a very long time for Richard Pryor to leave our consciousness. Then again, Pryor never won a Kennedy Center Honor, showing its long term effectiveness in honoring talent. And while I’m raging, couldn’t they come up with a better necklace/ribbon?

DeNiro was the highlight of the night.

And Bob Costas was great too. A professional, you couldn’t tell that he was reading from the teleprompter, like too much famous talent.

As for Barry Gibb…

I liked Little Big Town’s rendition of “Lonely Days,” if for no other reason than I love that song, I thought the tribute would be all disco.

“Good morning, Mr. Sunshine…”

From slow to fast, a great record, and a hit to boot.

As much as I like “Lonely Days,” that’s how much I dislike “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.” But Michael Bublé changed it just enough so I got it. Kudos. Ben Platt doing “Nights on Broadway”… Okay, but I don’t love that song and it’s more of a record than a song anyway, hard to reproduce live.

As for Ariana DeBose singing the disco hits… Do you even know who that is? She won an Oscar on a show no one watches and no one remembers who won. She was lame, the whole bit was underwhelming, I’m surprised Barry Gibb didn’t stand up like the Nazi during “Springtime for Hitler” and scream to shut it down.

Oh, so you’re pissed I just can’t accept this dreck and say something nice. But that’s a passé paradigm. Gimme some truth.

But one of the main reasons I’m writing this is to remind you that ten years ago live-tweeting a show like this was a national pastime. Now you don’t even watch, never mind tweet.

The world has changed and it’s not only the right that refuses to admit it. Which is why we rely on youngsters to push progress, to move the nation forward. And you’re serving up ancient Joe Biden for these youngsters to believe in? Don’t tell them you know better, you’re the same people who proffered this lame show they didn’t watch.

Then again, if you speak the truth in America you’re excoriated for not prefacing it with a trigger warning.

The brave break norms. And in truth, not a single person honored last night broke norms, they were all strictly within the mainstream. Those aren’t our heroes, it’s the ones who make our jaws drop, who we can’t stop talking about, who are.

But the oldsters think they’re too dangerous for mainstream consumption. Which is how recently passed Tommy Smothers lost his Sunday night show.

But at least Tommy Smothers tried. That makes a better obit than kissing ass.

Welcome to America today, where there is no consensus, where we’re living in a Tower of Babel society, yet old media keeps telling us it’s all the same.

It’s not.

STAGE DOLLS??

19 feet of Norwegian rock! (the 3 of them were all over 6 feet tall)

I haven’t seen their name for decades.  We spent a FORTUNE trying to break them.

Mike Bone

__________________________________

I was the head of rock radio, alternative radio and video promotion at Chrysalis when this album came out.   This album wasn’t easy to promote, but the one thing I remember well, was that these were really great guys.  I fondly remember some crazy stunts we pulled at MTV, with my buddy Rick Krim, to get their attention.  Sadly it never stuck but it sure was fun to try and get them noticed.  Thanks for the memories!

Steve Schnur

__________________________________

I loved these guys.
Worked together when I was at chrysalis I used to take them to conventions have them hang out in our suite and watch them make all the radio guys drink some Norwegian liquor that just knocked everybody on their butt
Very nice guys.
Music was great , the world changed underneath their feet.

Best
Greg Thompson

__________________________________

“Love Cries” was the track I remember most from Stage Dolls. I remember seeing a clip of it on Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 10 TV show, I think it was a ‘future hit’ or something like that, and I was hooked. I NEEDED to find that album. Living in small town Saskatchewan, Canada. That was a lot harder than you think, but I remember when I finally found the cassette in a used record store. Like you, I assumed this was their only release. Say what you will about the evils of the internet and it’s ‘impact’ on the music industry, it’s thanks to the internet that I discovered some other great releases from Stage Dolls and why I’m able to take multiple trips down memory lane listening to music that I thought was lost to the ages.

Danny Fournier

__________________________________

Hey Bob, long time reader. I absolutely LOVE this record! One of my prized CD’s. I was working indie promotion with independent record promoter Tony Muscolo in Granada Hills, CA in the late 80’s. He asked me to listen to this album (cd) and tell him what I thought. Told him I thought it was great and as good as anything getting added at radio at the time.  Too bad Chrysalis didn’t really get behind this band.

P.S. Got to keep the CD also.

David Wolnik
Muscolo Promotion

__________________________________

Wow. Stage Dolls. That was the first real record release party I attended. At The Rainbow, if memory serves. I hadn’t heard that name or thought about the band in decades. When I saw your subject line in my inbox, the memories instantly flooded back. That was a night of good debauchery. Glad to hear the Dolls are still at it!

Pat Kraus

__________________________________

The emphasis AOR song off that Stage Dolls record was “Love Cries.”

Still holds up pretty well today in a Bryan Adams kinda way.

It was released as a single and mid-charted.

Fun Fact: The B-side was one of the songs you also mentioned—“Ammunition.”

Marty Bender Sobolewski

__________________________________

Wow!!! I had no idea you even knew them.

I bought that CD for the track Love Cries – it was on many of my playlists.

Love your writing. Keep it coming.

Have a great holiday! Stay safe.

Miguel d’Escoto

__________________________________

Love Cries by the Stage Dolls is dynamite.  The guitar tone hits a sweet spot and the vocal hook is perfect.  Pure 1980s gold.

 

-Steve Coscia

__________________________________

I’ve been a Stage Dolls fan for decades, since that record first came out. “Love Don’t Bother Me” is a MONSTER track. Great ear, as always, Bob!

Jer Gervasi

__________________________________

Great piece on the Stage Dolls. I was involved with their later effort, “Stripped”. If you want to hear a song that deserved to be a hit, check out Love Don’t Bother Me – Stage Dolls: http://tinyurl.com/ykcdm9cz

This is one of the songs I look back on and lament “Why didn’t we break this one?”

Sky Daniels

__________________________________

Agree with you about Stage Dolls. They also had an Album called Commandos with similar song called Magic worth mentioning. Sorry to say they never broke in Scandinavia. Another Norwegian  guy worth listening to is Morton Abel!
Kind regards from Sweden.

Reidar Erlandsson

__________________________________

I am beyond ecstatic that you wrote about Stage Dolls. I lived in Norway for 10 years as a kid from ‘88-‘98.

Being a jazz head heavily into the ECM world and GRP recordings, rock wasn’t really in my focus. But I remember Stage Dolls on the radio.

Now imagine my surprise here in Hollywood when I came across a cassette tape at Counterpoint in Franklin Village. I bought it because my Volvo still has a tape deck.

Torstein Flakne had something else than the other rockers and frontmen in Norway had. His melodies, chords and songwriting would pique any music lovers interest, if they ever dared to venture into rock, as it did mine.

I revisited the music after reading your mail today, and yes, it still holds up and was not nostalgia. It was simply enjoying good old songs beyond peering over the shoulder with rose tinted glasses.

Thank you for writing about them and yes, they do have a power ballad: “Love Don’t Bother Me”.

Alexander Andresen

__________________________________

When I saw the subject heading of this email, I chuckled to myself and thought “imagine if Bob was talking about that killer Norwegian rock band”. I then ignored it for a few hours before coming back and…

“…he IS talking about THAT band!”

You were there at the time, it makes more sense that you would have had these guys on your radar. For me, younger, I came across the song “Love Cries” as a late teen when i started to become obsessed with those more polished mid-late 80s AOR-esque bands. The power of the internet, eh?

Norway seemed like such an unusual origin for a band playing this type of music, kind of like Strangeways from Scotland, however there has been such a huge resurgence of this polished AOR/melodic rock sound coming out of Scandinavia in particular over the last 15 or so years that it doesn’t seem as weird now. No doubt bands like Stage Dolls played a key part in that.

I’m so happy to read your thoughts on what i think is an incredible album and is no doubt underrated in every corner of the planet. Probably even in Norway as well!

I made a super cheesy AOR (loosely defined) playlist on Spotify which has everything from Stage Dolls, Treat, Jaded Heart and Talisman, through to Jimmy Barnes (that ONE album!), Boulevard, Harem Scarem, Work of Art and more. Many successful tracks, but a lot of underrated gems. I just hope more of those forgotten ones make it onto stream (Unruly Child’s self titled in particular!).

I absolutely love your newsletter, but this one really made my day.

Thanks and happy holidays.

Andy Dowling
Sydney, Australia