Who does this guy think he is and why does he believe his sh*t doesn’t stink?

RFK, Jr.’s performance yesterday is an indictment of the idle rich, the class system wherein those with a pedigree and wealth think they’re above the rest of us.

I don’t care what you think about vaccines, one thing we can agree on, or at least I thought we could agree on, is how to behave.

But NO!

Maybe it started with Trump interrupting people at debates. But whatever your thoughts, CAN YOU LET ME COMPLETE MINE?

We were watching this series “Confession” on BritBox, the true story of a killer of two women and without giving away too much of the story, the investigating detective is called on the carpet for not giving a PACE warning, which is akin to a Miranda warning.

So, there is a disciplinary action. When the complaint is first filed the officer confronts the detective with the charge and the detective says he’s kidding and gives his perspective. But then…

Said detective is brought in front of the big boss and told he is being suspended. And what does the detective say in response, when he is asked if he has anything to say? NOTHING! Because he realizes there is no upside, all he can do is piss off the boss, it’s not going to advance his case, the boss has already decided.

And when there’s the ultimate hearing the detective answers questions briefly sans passion, because this is how you behave.

A lawyer knows that with a tribunal of experts it comes down to the law (let’s forget about juries), that’s how the case will be decided, on the law, not histrionics. Which is why these hearings are relatively dry.

BUT NOT IN CONGRESS YESTERDAY!

It’s not like RFK, Jr. is going to lose his job. He was confirmed and it’s Trump’s decision. The hearing yesterday was just an exercise. But rather than sit there and listen to what the senators had to say, RFK, Jr. kept interrupting, attacking them, asking the interlocutors themselves questions. A performance so combative and out of control that the only person who can right the situation is Jon Stewart, who famously questioned the combative nature of “Crossfire,” said it accomplished nothing, and then the program was canceled.

Do you think you’re endearing yourself to us by arguing to the point where you look like a jerk?

And if you’re going to be so pugilistic, at least have your ducks in a row. As pointed out by a senator, RFK, Jr. seemed to know a lot about certain things and very little about others. Facts when they supported his anti-vaccine agenda, nothing when numbers were contrary to his beliefs.

I mean let the senators have their say. It’s kind of like being called on the carpet by your parents. You’re going to get slapped on the wrist or hit and anything you say in your defense will only make matters worse.

Then again, unlike in the fifties and sixties not only do parents not hit their kids, the kids have rights and standing and can argue back. How did it come to this? I’m against corporal punishment, but the kid is the kid and the parent is the parent.

And RFK, Jr. tragically grew up without a father in a very large family. Who was teaching him right and wrong, how to behave? The Kennedys of this generation have a long history of heinous behavior. As for going to Harvard…like he would have gotten into the college if his last name was different.

Then he trades on his name to make his money, unlike those with unknown monikers, and he even gets hooked on heroin but since he’s a Kennedy, HE GETS A PASS!

Unlike RFK, Jr., the senators were elected. And it ain’t easy to do so. But RFK, Jr. couldn’t make it as a candidate and was appointed by Trump to his position and is skating just like he has his whole life.

You can put the boy in a suit but that does not mean he knows how to behave.

If RFK, Jr. had just STFU yesterday’s hearing wouldn’t have dominated the news, with video after video illustrating his bad behavior. And it wasn’t only major news outlets, these videos were all over TikTok. And what conclusion should viewers take from them?

RFK, Jr. is a fighter. But like a six year old. He’s going to battle everything that doesn’t go his way, irrelevant of the truth. He’s going to say his accusers are wrong.

This is why criminals have attorneys in court, so they don’t behave like this.

But we live in a world of no consequences. Nothing will happen as a result of RFK, Jr.’s bad behavior. Yes, Trump may cut him loose, that’s his style, when things get too hot he takes action with no forewarning, but we haven’t reached that point yet, not even close. Furthermore, by arguing like this and making news, raising his head, giving oxygen to the issues, RFK, Jr. is doing nothing for his cause. Trump doesn’t want the Epstein files out so he creates diversions, he doesn’t want attention drawn to that which is not a winning strategy.

Maybe you don’t believe in vaccines, maybe you don’t believe in science. Maybe you believe more people were killed by the covid vaccine than were saved. Maybe you even believe the mRNA vaccine was not tested enough. Factually, all of the preceding are false, but good luck trying to convince believers otherwise. And it’s not only right wingers, but people on the educated left too. Like Kennedy, they believe if they just eat right they’ll be immune, read the analysis in today’s “Wall Street Journal.”

“RFK Jr. Is Dismantling Public Health. A Fringe Theory May Explain Why. – The Health and Human Services secretary has long embraced anti-scientific ideas that run counter to germ theory, the basis of treating infectious diseases”

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/health/rfk-jr-what-is-terrain-theory-66b4c660?st=ZGyGPS&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

But this has nothing to do with how you behave in public. The decorum of a hearing. RFK, Jr. should have sat there and taken it. And responded quietly, if at all. The senators have no real power over him at this point. Why is he adding fuel to the fire, evidencing emotion and a lack of grasp of the issues and facts all the while. You don’t help your cause by appearing emotional and uninformed.

It was like he was being personally attacked, like he was on trial for his life. RFK, Jr. was so emotional, so out of control, that all you could do was cringe and then laugh. Has this guy never played at this level before? Does he really not know how the game is played?

Just because others are out of control and have no sense of decorum that does not mean you should too. We live in a society, if called on the carpet you take your lumps and if a defense is required you do so straightforwardly with facts, not emotions, and you don’t attack those in charge.

But that’s America today.

But really, it’s an indictment of the rich and privileged. This is how RFK, Jr. grew up, believing the rules don’t apply to him, that if he just yelled loud enough things would go his way.

How sad. For both him and our country.

Can’t we have a little dignity?

1

I never knew Warren Haynes covered this, never mind INXS, both live, the work of a band that famously had left the road, whose songs were thought to be unperformable. You can only find the INXS version on YouTube, and I don’t really recommend it, but the Haynes version?

Actually, my favorite Haynes cover is also live, in this case “Wasted Time,” performed back at Bonnaroo in 2003 and released to the general public in 2004. I remember looking at the track listing when I received the CD in the mail… Really? “Wasted Time”? As in the song that follows “Life in the Fast Lane” and ends side one of “Hotel California,” the one that doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia page despite containing some of Henley’s best lyrics of all time? The entire song is genius, but it’s the final words that are the most memorable.

“So you can get on with your search, baby

And I can get on with mine

And maybe someday we will find

That it wasn’t really wasted time”

Dating is different from the seventies. Boys and girls are supposedly friends, people hang in groups and a date is just a click away online. But back then…you had to go out, you had to mingle, you had to search and then you found someone but then you ultimately discovered they were not the one. This was being a twentysomething boomer.

But that breakup… It was so hard to cope with.

“And you’re back out on the street

And you’re trying to remember, oh

How do you start it over

You don’t know if you can

You don’t care much for a stranger’s touch

But you can’t hold your man”

The irony is this applies to so many boomers today. On the other side of marriage. They’ve been hurt, can they really risk diving back into the pool…seems to me most don’t.

But we’re talking about the title track of Steely Dan’s third album here.

2

No one was anticipating the “Pretzel Logic” album, after all the second LP sans David Palmer’s vocals was a commercial disappointment, despite being considered by the cognoscenti to be the best work Steely Dan ever did. But I never heard a single song from “Countdown to Ecstasy” on the radio.

Then again, FM couldn’t quite make heads nor tails of Steely Dan. Despite its ethereal feel, “Do It Again” was an immediate smash on AM radio. And then its follow-up, the upbeat, bouncy “Reelin’ in the Years,” also broke on AM, but it had elements closer to the hits on that format and as a result traditional rock fans and rock radio stayed away. Actually, years later “Dirty Work” was a staple on L.A.’s soft rock station, KNX, but if a rock programmer listened to this…

No.

But the funny thing is “Can’t Buy a Thrill” is my favorite Steely Dan album, even though I didn’t really hear it for four years, when I moved to Los Angeles and found it in my sister’s record collection. There’s a song on the second side that positively slays me, “Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me).” Don’t ask me to explain it, although now you can read an explanation about a downstairs neighbor online, but there was that sweet chorus…

“A tower room at Eden Roc

His golf at noon for free

Brooklyn owes the charmer under me

Brooklyn owes the charmer under me”

There’s the almost carnivalesque intro and ultimately the backup singers come in on the chorus and the electric guitar solo with a bite and rhythm not heard on conventional rock songs…”Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)” stands alone, fits no hole…this is not the kind of cut the meat and potatoes AOR fan wants to drive his Camaro to.

And then came “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which broke right away on AM and was not a great opening salvo for AOR adoption. But compared to the stuff on AM at that point…this was not simple, pop that could be consumed and discarded, anything but fluff…it seemed like intellectuals cryptically telling a tale, which the two leaders of the band turned out to be. And when you bought the album…

“Pretzel Logic” had eleven songs, only one longer than four minutes, the aforementioned “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” and there was only a bit over thirty three minutes of music compared to the north of forty of the previous two LPs. What was going on?

Steely Dan was on a lame label, ABC, which despite having Joe Walsh and other hit acts was considered a black hole to fans who were enamored of the Mo and Joe show over at Warner.

And the music… What was “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”? Certainly not traditional rock in any way. And when you got the album you found jazz influences, which were anathema at the time. But if you played “Pretzel Logic” it quickly started to penetrate. The songs were not so obtuse that they could not be comprehended musically, but they were definitely different from what we’d been exposed to. There were verses and choruses, but they were just posts to hang the trimmings.

“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” opened the album and was followed up by the more dynamic, driving “Night by Night”…this was not Led Zeppelin, but it was definitely not wimpy.

Then came “Any Major Dude Will Tell You,” incorporating the vernacular in its title and intimate in a buddy telling his story in your college dorm room way. There was sweetness without verging on saccharine.

“Barrytown” was upbeat, and lodged itself in your brain after only two listens. Maybe the up and down melody and where exactly was Barrytown?

The first side finished with a cover of Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo,” years before Joni Mitchell made “Mingus,” when most rock fans had no idea who Duke was, never mind his legend, they couldn’t really understand “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” but they came to know it, because it finished off the first side and that’s how you played your albums, the whole side through.

As for the second side…

3

“Parker’s Band” seemed to align with “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo,” and you didn’t have to know much to know that they were singing about Charlie Parker, but most AOR listeners knew nothing about Parker, and were categorically against jazz. But “Parker’s Band” was a tear. It took off like a shot and you had to hold on to your hat, you didn’t have too much time to contemplate it, you could only go along for the ride.

“Through with Buzz”…the title lyrics stuck in your head, and then there was that great change in the middle.

“With a Gun” had a western feel via New York City, which was riddled with crime at this time, it was a combination of White Album acoustic combined with the proficiency of studio players. And then there was the hiding in the bushes with the Luger… “With a Gun” was a mini-movie.

Which was followed by “Charlie Freak.” Which like “Barrytown” went up and down melodically, yet with a darkness underpinning the entire number.

The closing number, “Monkey in Your Soul”…was not a traditional album-ender, which was usually a summing up, a closing down, either quiet or an in-your-face final statement, whereas “Monkey in Your Soul” was more upbeat and more driving than what had preceded it, to the point where when it ended all you could do was drop the needle to listen to the album again. You were swinging, you didn’t want to stop. “Monkey in Your Soul” was like a live encore, a jaunty number leaving you wanting more.

But in between “Through with Buzz” and “With a Gun” was the title track, “Pretzel Logic.”

4

That GROOVE! Listeners knew what a groove was, they’d listened to soul records, but this was not traditional rock fare, nor were the horn accents, never mind those quirky lead guitar accents, looping in the background. In rock the lead guitar dominated, but not here. Until the solo, which sounded at first like a trombone on mute, dancing in a nearly spastic way, unfamiliar to the rock audience, BUT IT FELT SO GOOD!

And then back to that groove, set by the keyboard.

And then when the vocal came back…

“I stepped up on the platform

The man gave me the news

He said ‘You must be joking son

Where did you get those shoes?’

Where did you get those shoes”

These were hipsters. Cool people. Who knew the difference in footwear, who would judge you based on what was on your feet, delineating a definite line between them and you.

Unlike today, Steely Dan was not accessible, they’d even stopped playing live. They were making music in darkened studios and then…who knew exactly what? But one thing was for sure, you wouldn’t see them downing a beer at the local watering hole in the western-style wear that was the uniform of the era. They might not have even owned a pair of jeans. Not even Frye boots.

But you could listen to this music.

It was like Steely Dan said F*CK YOU! after “Countdown to Ecstasy” was not broadly embraced and determined they were going to do it their way, which was unlike anybody else’s way.

5

I woke up with the groove of “Pretzel Logic” in my head. Not that I could remember the title of the track, but going through my brain was:

“I have never met Napoleon

But I plan to find the time”

Not a subject of rock lyrics at the time, when Robert Plant was infatuated with “Lord of the Rings.”

And the amazing thing is when a song is in your brain you never lose it. It’s on a loop, over and over.

But with the magic of Google I searched and of course I realized it was “Pretzel Logic” after the result was coughed up. And I immediately pulled the track up on my phone.

“I would love to tour the Southland

In a traveling minstrel show”

Needless to say minstrel shows were a thing of the past at this point. However there were rock bands crisscrossing this great nation of ours, and you could see them on stage and nowhere else. And they didn’t pledge fealty to their fans, rather they were dark and private, doing who knows what in their hotel rooms…drinking alcohol, shooting drugs, getting laid. This became the lifestyle an entire generation became enthralled with. Sure, there was perceived to be plenty of money, but… You didn’t have to get up for a nine to five job, you had no boss, and when you came offstage people were throwing themselves at you. And the driver was this music.

By this time there was merch. But bands were not brands. Their records were their edifice, and it was enough. You didn’t feel ripped-off by the acts, you’d like to give them even more money if you could get anything in return. But they didn’t want it! They were too busy traveling from town to town in a rarefied air we had no access to.

But not Steely Dan. We had no idea what they were doing, but they certainly weren’t on a plane from town to town, never mind a bus. And maybe they were night owls up all night at home, but you also knew they were reading, watching and going out and experiencing and reporting back, in a way so enigmatic that all you could do was listen to the records over and over again to divine. If you wanted this hit, this was the only place you could get it. No one else evidenced the same influences. And so many of those who dominated the airwaves were uneducated and far from book smart, but Steely Dan…

“These things are gone forever

Over a long time ago, oh yeah”

The Original Iron City Houserocker. Joe’s got co-writes on Bruce Springsteen’s latest release.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-grushecky/id1316200737?i=1000724964681

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b1618547-2454-4808-8a58-101b590c3208/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-joe-grushecky

This’ll keep you guessing.

This four part series stars Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald, whom you either love or just aren’t aware of yet. You most recently saw her in Netflix’s “Dept. Q,” and she was also in season six of “Line of Duty,” one of the best English series period. It’s all about “bent coppers,” if someone uses this term, you know they’ve seen the series. Macdonald was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland award for Best Actress Television for both of these series, and she won for “The Victim.” Macdonald doesn’t sacrifice her Scottish accent in both productions, which makes her even more believable. And unlike with Meryl Streep and many other vaunted actors, you don’t see the actor behind the role. “The Victim” sports a 92/96 rating on RottenTomatoes (and “Line of Duty” rates 96/94).

I know, I know, you don’t want to pay for another streaming service. But here’s what I do… I sign up via Amazon and immediately cancel, so I am only charged for one month. I’d like to say it’s easy to cancel on Amazon, it’s not, but give it a minute and you can figure it out. Cancellation is easiest on Apple, however having all your charges in one place, i.e. Amazon, can be advantageous. Is it worth the $10.99 for one month of BritBox? (Just raised from $8.99.) I can’t imagine anyone disliking “The Victim” or “Line of Duty,” but I’m not promising your money back, you’ll just have to trust me.

So there are multiple threads in “The Victim,” which ultimately all come together, but the main thread has to do with whether Kelly Macdonald as Anna Dean is liable for posting online the name and address of the person she believes killed her son. So, this is a courtroom drama.

But not at stake in the trial, but dominant throughout the series, is who exactly killed said son. The person she outed or..? This is done just brilliantly, you’re kept guessing, it’s never completely clear, and when you find out who is ultimately responsible…let me just say you’ll be shocked.

In addition there’s a thread about an addled addict coming in for mandatory drug testing, how does he fit in?

And then there’s the backstory and perspective of the investigating detective.

At first you will wonder how these threads all come together, but trust me, they will. And viewing is not as complicated as it may seem above. But having said that, TURN ON THE SUBTITLES! The Scottish accents are heavy, and unless you live there, you’ll have a hard time catching every word.

I’m stunned in a world where they remade the not so great original “War of the Roses” that they haven’t made American versions of these two series. In the case of “The Victim,” you could use the identical script, you’d only have to change the location.

People wonder why I watch so much streaming television. But it’s the highlight of my day. Because when done right it takes me away, puts me in a totally different headspace than I was when I was working.

Yes, I know some people still watch movies, but films are a different experience. They’re short stories and series are novels. In series the characters are more fleshed out, there’s more detail, less left unspoken, and if something is good it continues… “Line of Duty” has six seasons!

Once again, “The Victim” has only four, just under an hour apiece. The landscape is delineated and the action takes place.

What do you believe? Are your instincts correct? Are your conclusions tainted by preconceptions? These are all questions raised in “The Victim.”

I guess I’m selling “The Victim” not because it’s so damn good, although it is truly excellent, but it’s just that when discussing what people are watching they always come up with the usual suspects and oftentimes it’s tripe. But if you broaden your horizons just a little…

This is an English production. Meaning that every character is not beautiful, it’s regular people and therefore you can relate.

This is first class stuff.

WATCH IT!