Re: The Syd Barrett Movie

The most-played recording in my entire collection (which ain’t tiny) is Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Sheer genius.

A few months after Barrett departed, we did a TV show with Pink Floyd, who were in the US for the Philadelphia Music Festival at JFK Stadium in July 1968. We were opening for Ray Charles and Nina Simone, they were opening for the Troggs and the Who. There was a massive downpour in the middle of Pink Floyd’s set. I was really concerned someone would get electrocuted, but the promoters stopped the show. It was subsequently cancelled when lightning hit the stage (!).

In the 80s, I ran into Nick Mason in Frankfurt. He remembered the Philadelphia Floyd concert for the obvious reasons, and also remembered us from the TV show. I asked him if he had any idea where I could find the single “Point Me at the Sky,” which was never released in the US. It didn’t even chart in the UK, and was seemingly impossible to find. Written by Gilmour/Waters and produced by Piper alumnus Norman Smith, it was sonically very much a bridge between the Barrett era and what was to follow.

When Nick returned to England, he was kind enough to copy his record on tape, and send it to me. It was quite cool to hear the needle from his record player drop on the record. (It’s so true that many times, the musicians who are highest up on the food chain will bend over backwards for fellow musicians. Joe Walsh, George Martin, and Howard Jones have all written forewords for my books. All I had to do was ask. Think that would happen in 2023?)

This was a little under 40 years ago and we didn’t have smartphones back then to immortalize our existences, but IIRC in Frankfurt Mason was playing in a one-off band with David Torn and Jack Bruce. But don’t quote me on that. I may have been in an altered state at the time 🙂

Craig Anderton

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Re: SAG-AFTRA Strike

As a music industry vet turned television writer, I can’t stand hearing musicians complain about Daniel Ek. They have no idea how lucky they are that he is the one in charge of the big platform in their business. Imagine if it was Disney or some other corporate enterprise. Ek gives a higher percentage of profits to artists than anything else in music’s entire history, and anyone can upload their material to the platform, with all the exact same advantages and tools as Taylor Swift. Watch Bob Iger say that we writers and actors are ridiculous for just asking not to be replaced by AI, all while being worth nearly half a billion dollars personally, and tell me you’d rather have him in charge of music.

Trevor Risk

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Re: SAG-AFTRA Strike

Spot on Bob. I’ve been working in media for 17 years as a programmer, in media operations, and as content strategist across linear and digital media with stints at Comedy Central, Conde Nast, and Red Bull Media to name a few. I have many friends in both SAG and WGA though I’m not I’m not in either. There is a truth about the media industry that needs to be said: there are no “liberal” owners in Hollywood. There are corporations that care about profit margins and stock price. An example of this is that mid level executive positions are being filled by people with investment banking background not by people who have experiences building audiences and developing content. Why? They are looking for acquisitions and focusing on the stock price. Audiences and content come last.

When I started at MTV Networks none of the executives had MBAs – they just had experience. Now, MBAs run the show. Why are streamers like Mr Beast killing it with eyeballs? He’s grown an authentic community. Same with right wing media. Say what you will about Ben Shapiro, and I’ve said lots, he’s built an engaged fan base over at the Daily Wire without relying on Wall Street. Don’t know what it’ll take to change things other than breaking the vertical integration models or investors willing to wait a bit longer to see a return on investment.

One last note. I think Netflix going into originals will go down in history as the beginning of the end. Netflix turned from being a partner (like Blockbuster was) to another competitor. It started this arms race in the streaming world and created this false reality backed by Wall Street that you needed a streaming service to survive and juice the stock. But here’s the thing that anyone with experience knows yet Zaslav and Iger seem so surprised about. Streaming is f*cking expensive. As someone who has operated OTT and streaming channels, I know this, why didn’t the MBAs see it? Maybe they need to get their eyes off the ticker and care about the consumer.

There are no movie moguls, only corporate stooges. Sorry for the long reply.

Regards,

Jonathan Smith

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Re: SAG-AFTRA Strike

You’re spot on; at least in my case. I signed up for Threads specifically because I hate Musk. I won’t buy his cars either.

Regards,
Mark Feldman

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Re: The Wham! Movie

Hi Bob

I absolutely loved the movie !!!

I was lucky enough to be in the top of the pops audience at 15 with my best friend Sophie whose Dad worked at the BBC.

We stood right at the foot of the stage and were blown away by this new band Wham singing their song Young Guns and we fell in love with George immediately!!!!

It was a perfect moment in time I’ll never forget it.

I still think “everything she wants” is one of the best pop songs ever written .

God Bless George and his incredible talent !

Lauren Christy

Re: The Wham! Movie

As someone who worked for CBS Records UK in the early 80s I found this movie delightful, bringing back loads of memories of being a 20 year old A&R guy.

However, before I joined the record company I worked as a writer for the Daily Mirror at a time that tabloids were just beginning to cover “pop music.” My boss wanted me to identify the new acts that were on the cusp of breaking big. I identified Wham and interviewed George and their label, Innerrvision Records.

Imagine my surprise when I was watching the movie to see my article had made it to Andrew Ridgley’s Mum’s scrapbook and I could just see my name at the bottom of the page.

The smile I already had on my face watching this film grew even wider. Glad you liked it too Bob.

Gordon Charlton

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Re: The Wham! Movie

That movie was amazing but for me what was the MOST amazing was Andrew Ridgeley!

For a partner to not have a massive ego and to allow and support his friend to grow and leave him behind is unheard of.

In 1987 when the great Jamie Cohen was at Columbia he called me to talk about working with Andrew and I thought whaaaat??

Andrew he said was wanting to make a funk rock style record but I wasn’t too excited. We all thought Andrew was Fredo from The Godfather BUT was I wrong. After I watched that film I had so much respect for him that I wanted to write him a letter telling him so.

As for George this is a story most don’t know. I was on the set of Top Of The Pops with Was (Not Was) in 1987 ( I played on Top Of The Pops many times or should I say lip synched on…with Was (Not Was) and Terrence Trent Darby) but one day on set at sound check a stage manager said out loud in front of everyone…Stevie Salas there is a call for you from George Michael’s office. I was like Whaaat? Don Was pulled me aside and encouraged me to get back in touch with them which I did.

That’s my Wham connection…and truth be told I hated Wham in the 80s but I fell in love with them after seeing this film.

Stevie Salas

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Re: The Wham! Movie

Young women never felt so confident, clever and shining as in London in the eighties. It was probably like the 20s for sheer fabulous girl drive. Never mind all that feminist griping- we were going places and insisting on it!  Maggie Thatcher wasn’t one of us – not even like our mums –  she was practically a housewife herself locked into a ancient stale class-ridden world and horrendous tan tights. We were going to invent a whole new Britain (ha Tony Blair!) and the gorgeous, forthright American goddesses like Tina Turner and Farrah Fawcett were our guides.  We didn’t care what school you went to or what your accent was, just what you were wearing, what you were drinking or snorting, and your record collection (a first date must was perusing their vinyl for egregious LPs like Crystal Gayle or Joan Baez).

I worked for J17, Smash Hits, and Looks magazine and wore long Amish style Laura Ashley dresses with a massive petticoat billowing out and a picnic hamper handbag one day, and what would be considered deep goth today. All the blokes stole our makeup and you could never find your black eyeliner. No one really talked about being gay, because people mixed it up a lot, but if you were 100% you kept it mostly quiet from your bosses.

And Young hip London was small and very accessible. For example, of my best friends from university one worked in PR for Peter Gabriel and the other married a fine artist whose main client was Simon Le Bon. We even wangled a pass to pose on Simon’s sailing yacht right after the Live Aid Marathon. We were professionals not groupies but still – it was hard not to plant a huge kiss right on the back of Sting’s still sweaty neck. We thought about Trudy even though she seemed ancient and weird. Everybody was part of the same club and we all belonged so long as you dressed up, were interesting and entertaining, and mostly upbeat and alive. It was the opposite of Morrisey and his wingeing.

However, a very small moment stays with me for its incongruity in that time. Top down motoring across Piccadilly one day in my sweet white golf cabriolet ( a convertible which was rare then in London) I pulled up next to Andrew Ridgley and wouldn’t you know he was driving his convertible red Ferrari at the traffic we were side by side at the long light outside Simpsons and could practically touch each other with our tops down.

He didn’t even take a glance and I was crushed – not that he didn’t fancy me, even peripherally, or that girls weren’t his thing, just that he was so serious and unlike his playful image which was so rendolent of the times. As with Starsky and Hutch all my friends were either in one camp or the other – super hairy wide boy rough masculine true ‘men’ (George) or sweet wimpy cute semi posh ‘boys’ like Andrew Ridgeley, Rick Astley, and even Hugh Grant wannabe Rupert Everett. And everyone came to play.

Johanna Santer

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Re: My Hometown

Bob,

My band formed in 1981 in Jamestown, NY – western, western, NY State. Thirty miles from the shores of Lake Erie. We started with local shows to small crowds most of whom had no idea what we were doing (neither did we!), then we finally played the Big Town, Buffalo, NY and kept going from there. We’ve been everywhere, man, including Fairfield, CT at FTC. What a cool town and a great venue!

My family arrived in Jamestown in 1875. Furniture makers and undertakers from the motherland, Sweden. My great grandfather had a band called The Ideal Mandolin Orchestra. I have a photo of them from 1903. I grew up in the house my paternal grandfather build. I walked to the same schools my mother did. Like many rustbelt towns, Jamestown fell on hard times during the 70s urban renewal. They built a mall 3 miles out of town in 1970 and that was the death of downtown. Now the Mall is kaput and it’s a constant struggle for business downtown but we’re doing okay. It’s my town. I love it. The worst weather disaster we get is 3 yards of snowfall over a weekend in January. But it’s beautiful, quiet and you can ski! 4×4 baby.

I own 70 acres of mostly wooden land 15 miles outside of town that I paid $450 per acre in 1992. I built my house on that land and it’s heaven except for deer season when the shooting starts. Freaks my dogs out something terrible.

I enjoy visiting LA, SF, NYC, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Denver, Honolulu, Seattle, Sao Paulo, London for gigs, but would never want to live anywhere but in my hometown.

Steven Gustafson

10,000 Maniacs

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Re: Bridgeport

Bob, I grew up in Bridgeport, lived there until I was 18, then New York for a decade, now have been in CA for 10 years.

I had to stop and start while reading your dispatch because I found it brought up so much for me – such complicated feelings about my hometown! My grandparents owned a liquor store on the West Side for 47 years. I went to Notre Dame in Fairfield. I, too, just went back east for two weeks (the humidity was real) and every time I’m there I try to imagine moving back east, roll it around in my brain for a bit, feel the pull from both coasts. But then I get back to CA and get back to work and feel like this is home, too.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Going to go back and read it in full and absorb.

Lauren Goode

@laurengoode

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Re: Mailbag

The podcast with Dwight! Just immense! His empathy for all things is palpable and kudos to you for letting him find his way in sharing the stories about his family and his music-discovering youth. Not sure if folks can fully appreciate the mind blowing event of a kid from eastern Kentucky / southern Ohio betting all his chips on moving to California and then achieving the level of success that Dwight has. I listened to all 4 hours TWICE. Awaiting the follow up…

Damon

DAMON JOHNSON

(Brother Cane / Lynyrd Skynyrd)

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Subject: RE: Mailbag

James Montgomery the real deal.

 

Duke and the Drivers simply your average bar band.

 

“Check Your Bucket” indeed. Why punk happened.

 

Oedipus

 

Tune in Saturday July 15th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

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

“‘Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd’ (Trailer)”: https://tinyurl.com/2k99mp63

Now this will change your mood. It and the music of Pink Floyd are the antithesis of Wham! Anything but obvious and simple. This film and Pink Floyd have an ethereal quality, there’s no context, they exist on their own and you can either buy in or reject them. But if you dive in…beware, you might not end up where you started.

This film does not delineate what happened with Syd Barrett. Oh, there are facts, but what was going on in Syd’s head? That remains elusive. Psychosis usually arrives in one’s late teens to mid-twenties. But although there are doctors in this film, that element is never addressed. There were people who burned out from LSD, acid casualties. They indulged regularly and never came back from where they went. Is that what happened to Syd? This film does not tell you.

But it does tell you about the psychedelic sixties.

At the turn of the last century the script flipped. There was more action at home than there was out. A deeper, more scintillating experience. And the oldsters denied this, pooh-poohed it, saw screens as vapid addictions, the same way their parents judged the youth and their music in the sixties.

It’s hard to describe the sixties if you didn’t live through them. You can listen to oldies radio, 60s on 6, and think it was just one continuous thread of hits, first American and then British and…it wasn’t really that way at all. The Beatles incited a revolution. It went beyond the music. You were told to think for yourself, by these blokes who were unrestricted by society, who were pied-pipers for the younger generation. And they caused so many to pick up instruments and play.

And by the latter half of the sixties there was a confluence of art, music and movies, all swirled into one, like an ice cream cone at Carvel. A veritable candy shop, with too many offerings to consume, but you wanted to taste them all.

But to gain the full experience you had to be out of school and living in the city. We knew we were one step removed. We couldn’t wait to grow up and partake. To live in the city free from our parents and experience all life could deliver, pushing the envelope into new territory. This was back when living was cheap and you were urged to love everybody, very different from today.

So if you were in the city and you went out…

You could not capture the scene on wax or film. You had to be there and experience it. The Acid Tests, the noodling music, the underground films and the emergence of cutting edge above ground movies.

And not everybody was hip. Some were afraid. Others lived too far away. But if you got the memo, you searched out information, pieced together the story from newspapers and magazines. It required work to be hip, but it wasn’t work at all.

So Syd Barrett went to art school. That paradigm seems to have died with the Talking Heads. And it’s why David Byrne is still revered today. That view from one step removed, not begging for acceptance, constantly challenging the audience, that is art.

So the people who changed the world back when were middle class. They weren’t starving. They wouldn’t do what they were told just for a buck. They weren’t building brands. As Bill Graham so famously said when he managed the Airplane, whenever the band made money they wanted to stay home and smoke dope, they didn’t want to work. It was your life and you wanted to live it.

So Syd came from a culture of exploration, commercialism was not paramount. You didn’t want to sell out, you didn’t want to be burdened by the audience, you wanted to do your own thing and be recognized for it. You wanted to lead people into your own private universe, not to control them, but to open them up to the possibilities.

So Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd were the paragon of psychedelia in London. You had to go to their show to experience it. And it was not locked down, synched to hard drive, it was different every night, experimental. There was a light show and no dance steps.

And all of this is in the movie.

As well as all the people who had contact with Syd. Roger, Dave and Nick. And Storm Thorgerson, who he grew up with. And other childhood and adult friends. They’re still alive, somewhat worse for wear, and they’re testifying. Well, some died before the film was finished, but the amazing thing is they don’t seem to have sold out, they seem to have made lives pursuing their dreams. These are not has-beens working at the 7-11, but thinking people.

So you’ve got to know “See Emily Play” didn’t break through in America. As a matter of fact, the first time I remember hearing it was on David Bowie’s “Pinups” album. You see, it influenced Bowie.

And the Pink Floyd of today is very different from Syd’s era. Everyone acknowledges that there’d be no Pink Floyd without Syd, but once he was gone the band was no longer burdened, and inspired by Syd’s ethos, they became one of the biggest bands of all time.

Syd Barrett was an enigma in America. And although this film sheds some light on his story, he still is. We knew “The Madcap Laughs,” by 1970 we knew who Pink Floyd were, Syd’s previous membership in the group, and I already owned “Ummagumma.” There was not a news blackout, Syd was referenced, but he never came back like Peter Green, and then he died. Not from abuse, but pancreatic cancer, which was a death sentence back then and mostly still is.

And his sister is somewhat resentful, which is understandable after caring for him for the last decades of his life. And Syd was around, but nobody visited him and then he died.

So what did we learn?

That we have more questions than answers.

And you’ll have so many questions that you’ll want to watch this movie again.

Will this movie influence younger generations the way we were influenced by so much of the past, from W.C. Fields to the Marx Brothers to the bluesmeisters…

Well, you’re either a member of the club or not, on the bus or off.

This film opens doors. Where you go once you pass through is up to you. That’s what our music delivered, a starting point, an instruction booklet, and then we were on our own.

This is a weird movie. It’s not that it’s not for everybody, but more that not everybody is interested. Today too much is surface. If you have money you’re not only rich, but intelligent, you know better. We didn’t used to feel this way. And just because you had hits that did not mean we placed our faith in you. We were looking for something more, something three-dimensional that we could believe in.

This is a peek into what once was.

You know whether you have to take a look.

But those who do not… That’s evidence of who you are. And we’re judging you just like we did in the sixties. It’s about more than long hair, it’s about what’s inside your brain, how you think. People were hungry for knowledge, wanted to be in the know. To be conservative was to be dead. Change was embraced.

I’m sorry if you didn’t live through it. But this film will give you a glimpse of the way it used to be.

People don’t like the streamers. The only company with any good will left is Netflix, which even I am less than enthusiastic about since it canned the woman who made the highbrow halo productions for someone green-lighting middle of the road, dumbed-down fare, the kind that caused the networks to lose market share to the cable companies, especially pay cable, like HBO. AND WE’RE PAYING FOR STREAMING!

At first cable providers were the most hated corporations in America. Then the major record labels. I won’t say that streamers are number three, but they’ve been hurt by focusing on what Wall Street wants as opposed to what their customers want. But it’s even worse. The people who run these outlets are grossly overpaid. Tell me how Zaslav makes triple-digit millions while cutting production and telling HBO viewers they’re second class citizens. Does he think we don’t know all this? Following entertainment is like following sports, people know the players and their maneuvers, and the end result does not look pretty.

Amazon… People hate the company anyway. But if you sign up for a streaming outlet via the Prime app…good luck figuring out how to cancel. Re the FTC lawsuit, the response has been that if companies make it too easy to cancel, people might cancel by accident. This is the kind of insane gobbledygook that turns customers against companies. Furthermore, it’s not that hard to ask again if the subscriber wants to cancel, that’s normally how computers work. You go to delete and it asks you if you’re sure. But Amazon, et al, know better? Give me a break.

Apple… Highbrow product dripped-out over months. And they just raised the price. I won’t pay. It’s an insult, no matter how much I love and am part of the Apple ecosystem.

Disney? A dearth of new product. It’s child fare and “Star Wars” stuff. I mean really?

Paramount and Peacock… Really? You want me to pay for this stuff? I’ve got to be the most avid TV addict to pony up. These outlets are like auto dealerships filled with old cars with crank windows and no A/C. There’s no there there.

Furthermore, it’s all Balkanized. Like being pecked to death by ducks. Quote me an overall price, for everything. This is what saved the music business. Certainly not the major labels, but Daniel Ek, who wouldn’t even launch in America until he had all three majors on board. He was worried about the customer first. And you can naysay all you want, but Daniel Ek single-handedly saved the recorded music business. The majors certainly couldn’t do it. They were inured to the past. Ek incentivized the labels with stock, which in some cases was promptly sold. Think about that…you don’t even believe in the future of your distributor. You’re so myopic, it’s about today’s bottom line as opposed to the future’s.

As for hating the major record labels… This has stopped, because everybody can play. The tools of creation and distribution are in the hands of the consumer, and marketing is too. As for online promotional outlets like TikTok…that’s where the youth spend their time, that’s the main competition for streamers. But the elements of TikTok that adhere it to its audience? The big swinging dicks in streaming don’t want to employ them: honest, authenticity, credibility… Mindless escapism? There’s an audience for that, but that’s not what’s propping up TikTok, humanity and creativity are propping up TikTok.

As for unions…

There’s a renaissance.

Apple and Amazon fighting unionization is a bad look. Especially when Apple is worth three trillion. The little people should be left out? But it’s the little people who sustain your business, the customer. Ignore the customer at your peril. And working at the Amazon warehouse is like being in prison. Amazon is on the verge of running out of available workers who have not already worked for the company. It’s like today’s “Wall Street Journal,” the pompous writer who said Florida’s anti-immigration law problems will be solved by the market. Yeah, when you pay farm and service workers twenty or thirty dollars an hour, which they’re never going to do, hell, the minimum wage in the Sunshine State is eleven bucks. Truth is so many of these jobs the immigrants do American citizens don’t want to. The work is too dirty, too intense and too poorly-paid for them to be incentivized. Ever pick crops? I have, it’s back-breaking, almost any job is better.

So what we have here is an elite that believe their sh*t doesn’t stink and they’re better than us. That they earned their status and their riches. Rubbish, it’s all on the back of us, the public, the consumers, and you constantly want to screw us in the process.

Bankers… What exactly do they add?

Private equity. You buy, lay debt on the company and frequently it crashes under said debt, even though you made money! People lose their jobs, but you come out smelling like a rose. This is the story of Warner Bros. Discovery. The company is loaded up with tens of billions in debt. Which didn’t exist until AT&T decided to buy Warner Bros. and… You must pay. Wall Street must be served. Zaslav cut foreign TV production. Meaning you won’t see no “Squid Game” on Max.

The tide has turned. Income inequality… We’ve felt powerless for years. Give us an opportunity and we take action.

That reporter saying Threads is the new Google+… Yes, this was said in the “New York Times,” how ignorant can you be? People didn’t have a problem with Facebook, they didn’t need Google+, thus it failed. But people HATE Elon Musk and his Twitter experience, otherwise triple-digit millions wouldn’t have signed up for Threads. Sans Musk’s purchase of Twitter, Threads is dead on arrival. But that guy…

Doesn’t matter if you feel differently. Believe me, my inbox is filled with people citing the Twitter Files and all kinds of b.s. to defend Twitter and Musk. I won’t even bother going into the details, but the truth is in the number of Threads signups, people were dissatisfied with Twitter. And the truth is users want content moderation. And if you look into the Twitter Files you’ll find no smoking gun, Twitter’s regulators were dealing with both Democrats and Republicans looking for moderation, and wrestling with what to do. But no, we must have FREEDUMB!

You don’t have the freedom to yell FIRE! in a crowded auditorium.

No one has unlimited freedom, even though these rich bozo elites think they do, that they’re above the law.

What Musk and his minions want is chaos, so the truth can’t out, and so they can control the narrative.

So just like with Twitter you’ve got all these anti-union people with loud voices. But the average citizen… They’re on the other side. They wish they were a member of a union. That they had greater pay and protection. And sure, you can  point out flaws in past unions, but… This is another thing that drives me crazy, the bad apples in the Democratic party are held up as evidence that the whole party must be thrown out with the bathwater. There are bad actors everywhere. Even you have made mistakes. But politicians can’t even admit them, for fear of being excoriated by the party police. Just like we can’t have new taxes.

Of course the streamers have costs. But should the actors pay for the streamers’ overproduction? What a concept, we overspend and then we’re rescued. Everybody in America would sign up for that, but it’s not offered. We’re supposed to be responsible. But when corporations screw up? It’s our money that bails them out! Keeping the airlines in business. The subsidies to oil and gas companies. Carried interest benefits for billionaire hedge funders. But nothing can change, that’s the America we now live in. Gridlock. While in other countries they build roads and other infrastructure and… You want the fire department to show up, the police too. You want to drive on the roads. But you shouldn’t have to pay for it? That’s what taxes pay for. As for waste… Even you waste. You’ve purchased products you haven’t used. But the government should be held to a higher standard?

America is angry. And as James Carville famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Everybody is worried about their finances. We’re dying to stick it to the man. And when we get the option, we salivate and act. That’s what the migration to Threads was all about.

Should SAG-AFTRA get everything it wants? The WGA? Of course not. There should be honest negotiation, which has yet to happen. The landscape changed. There are buyouts, no residuals, shorter production schedules. But it’s all dependent on the workers at the bottom of the pyramid. The streamers can’t excise them, they’re the fuel that makes the operation run. 

I mean really.

As for the public being unwilling to forgo Hollywood, and therefore being on the streamers’/producers’ side? There’s tons of entertainment out there already. People are not willing to throw everybody under the bus to get momentary satisfaction. Hell, jobs were shipped overseas… This is what the blue collar backlash is all about. The left helped eliminate their jobs but did not protect them for the future. As for the right, their solution is to own the libs, which is no solution at all. We all need progress. We all need to come to the table. All this hogwash about everyone needing to be self-reliant is just that, hogwash. Shi*t happens, which is why you need the government. Which is why you need health insurance, but you think you’re immune. Same deal with car insurance. Everybody thinks the problem won’t happen to them, and then it does.

You’ll want more pay. You’ll want more job security. These union fights are for you, don’t ever forget it.