“Don’t let someone tell you to be optimistic. This requires a rethink. Something out of the box. A long ball thrown. All this bs about the system and protests are just that. We need a general strike, or something else dramatic. The system is rigged against us and to believe the system will save us is fallacious.”

I wrote that yesterday to a friend whose wife felt he was defeated. And that that was not helping the cause.

Don’t be optimistic.

Don’t go out and protest.

Don’t think that someone else will do the job.

Do not believe the government and its elected officials will solve the problem.

To protest in the street is too sixties. That’s what we did before we could reach the world with one keystroke. Furthermore, the Trump era showed us it didn’t make any difference, the bad actors just went on their merry way and ignored the mass gatherings.

And I’m not saying to employ the internet for a fake consciousness-raising program. Like the Ice Bucket Challenge, and that’s a good one. Changing your picture on social media, retweeting something, that does little good, don’t bother.

But you could employ cyberwarfare.

Now let me go back. I’m not advocating breaking the law. But you may have to in order to move your ball down the field, especially when someone else has rigged the game.

It’s not like this is the first time democracy has been in peril.

And what does the public do when it doesn’t get its way, when the minority, and frequently the wealthy, lord their policies over them?

THEY GO ON STRIKE!

Let’s start there, every Monday everybody in America who is pro-choice refuses to go to work. Donezo.

But I may lose my job!

If you’re not willing to risk your job, you’re not dedicated to change. And there is strength in numbers. Maybe only a few people stop working the first Monday, but as the Mondays ensue, the group will grow and grow until…

Let’s be clear, it’s Disney’s employees that made the company stand up for LGBTQ rights. So, DeSantis passed an inane law that will raise taxes on his constituents to punish Disney. And what has Disney done? FIGHT BACK! Yes, Disney says under the agreement it signed with the state, Florida can’t change the law without paying it a billion dollars. And now residents of Disney’s domain are suing Florida. Why is everybody so fearful of losing something that they cower instead of fighting back? The right fights back, but not the left. Or when it does there’s so much infighting that those fighting back are ostracized.

You’ve got to cause disruption. Didn’t we learn that in the first decade of this century? It was Shawn Fanning who brought the music business into the modern world. Those in power at the labels wanted no change. But the people did, they were sick of paying double-digit dollars for CDs with only one good track. Was Napster breaking the law? Ultimately a court decided it was copyright infringement, but then KaZaA, without a centralized database, came online and the legal questions got ever more complicated.

I could recite the history of the evolution to music streaming but it was third parties, not in the industry, pirates in some cases, who pushed the ball forward. Yes, there were economic consequences. But the future we’re in now…record label revenues are up, manufacturing costs have been eliminated and some people got lost in the shuffle but others have done very well. Furthermore, the customer can now get the history of recorded music for ten bucks a month, ain’t that great!

But when it comes to the big issues, politics, and abortion, the Democrats have to color between the lines, they’re afraid of touching the third rail. And when a Republican does, they’re embraced by the party, can you say Matt Gaetz or Madison Cawthorn or Marjorie Taylor Greene? And then you’ve got Kevin McCarthy, who is denying what he said even though it was recorded! Do you expect to beat these people by playing by the established rules? You can’t.

As for cyberwarfare… Attack anti-abortion organizations. Any institution involved in restricting access to abortion…is in the crosshairs. The loonies on the right think guns will ensure their freedom, hogwash, he or she who employs technology controls the country, never forget it. Put a few hackers on the case and there can be turmoil nearly instantly. As far as stopping it, they haven’t found the Supreme Court leaker yet, and even if the culprit is found the legal system works very very slowly. Didn’t we learn this with Napster, et al? That the ball keeps moving even though you sued?

And the right protests at abortion clinics with guns. Pro-choice people have to block access to right wing institutions physically, this will gain much more attention than showing up at some federal building with a flag.

And the effort must be continuous. What happened today is gone tomorrow in the internet era. Ukraine is already back to being the top headline, three days later! That’s right, abortion has been pushed down. That’s yesterday’s news.

Trump keeps propagating his b.s. story about the election being stolen…

The left wing cries once and goes home.

It’s not like the strategies aren’t extant.

As for Fox News…  Go surround Tucker Carlson’s home and studio in Maine (or Rupert Murdoch’s!). Piss him off. Prevent him from broadcasting. This guy believes he’s got a free pass. It’s legal to protest, go for it.

And it’s not about the number of people you gather, but getting news traction. Passive general protests don’t even get above the fold coverage anymore.

Almost all of the creative people are on the left. They can’t come up with any ideas?

Netflix employees are afraid of what Dave Chappelle says about trans people. I’d think they’d be more upset about the lack of abortion rights. Make Netflix stand with them. Or else…they go on strike.

All those corporations, who’ve oftentimes given money to anti-abortion causes…they must be made to testify, to take a stand, pro-choice. It’s not like they haven’t taken stands on social issues before, long before the government. Like providing benefits to non-married same sex partners. If you expect the government to lead…

The newspaper will print the facts.

It’s up to the public to take action.

And the public has so many options, so many tools in its belt.

And the story of history is one person changing its course, revealing truths. Whether it be Daniel Ellsberg or Edward Snowden or the leaker of Alito’s draft.

Yes, they leaked, the court will never be the same. The processes have been perverted. Have you been paying attention the past couple of decades? The right has been perverting the cause of justice constantly!

And the Supreme Court Justices are just people, they are not gods.

Sure, it would be great if there were term limits. All this stuff the process won’t deliver.

But people will change, when you force them to, when you make life so difficult they’ve got no option, at least not an economic one.

Yes, it all comes down to economics in America. Every single thing. Which is why the revolt has been so tempered so far. People with enough money…they’re worried about where they’re going on vacation, the travel industry is through the roof. And they know they can fly young Ava or Aurelia to another state if they need to terminate a pregnancy.

If you don’t make the people with money suffer, you’ll never get real change.

I’m not saying to be violent.

But I am saying passive protest is passé. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was agitating for equal rights there were three TV networks and tens of millions of people watched!

And there’s been white backlash for eons. Don’t take away my chance, my job, anything. No one can lose anything in America anymore. Talk about socialism…I’m entitled to my job, my income, don’t tax me…I could go on and on.

Not that I want to muddy the waters. Let’s start first and foremost with abortion.

Coming out as gay…that helped ensure gay rights. Some women are coming out with their abortion stories… Hell, maybe if these wankers found out their sister had an abortion, or their hero, they’d re-evaluate their position. Remember, the fight against opioids only really gained traction when the sons and daughters of middle and upper class whites got addicted and died.

You’ve got to bring it home.

We live in an information age, we can use information to our advantage.

The “New York Times” printed victims of 9/11 in their pages, how about victims of abortion, day after day after day. The deaths of yore, never mind the more recent terminations.

But we’ve got to be together, organized. The right gets everybody in line, why can’t the left?

Oh, the left is a supposed big tent, that accommodates all voices.

Well, someone needs to make a decision and get everybody on the same page. And that person is a leader. Someone who can motivate the troops. And believe me, this is a war.

So far democracy is losing. The changes will come to your front door. Better to start battling now before it’s too late.

The first half is all about Ukraine/Russia/defense and the second half is all about Skunk’s musical career. You may or may not know that Skunk has worked with the defense department for decades. As for his musical endeavors…hear the inside story on Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers and more!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jeff-skunk-baxter/id1316200737?i=1000559688213

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/62f407b7-ed6e-4b29-a00c-605edc451667/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-jeff-skunk-baxter

https://listen.stitcher.com/yvap/?af_dp=stitcher://episode/202931650&af_web_dp=https://www.stitcher.com/episode/202931650

Eagles – Desperado

1

“Desperado” was a stiff when it was released. It’s not like it didn’t sell at all, but there were no hit singles, it didn’t burn up the chart, it didn’t even get banged on FM radio. That didn’t happen until later, after the release of “On the Border,” with its number one single “Best of My Love.” And then the following year “One of These Nights” cemented the Eagles as the biggest band in the land. All summer you heard the title track, “Lyin’ Eyes” and “Take It to the Limit” incessantly, on both AM and FM, and despite Steely Dan ultimately singing “turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening,” only hipsters pooh-poohed the band, just to hear that intro to “One of These Nights” was to go on an aural trip into the ether of California, when the state was still a dream as opposed to an object of derision.

And then came “Hotel California.”

It’s rare that the heavily expected follow-up to the monster hit exceeds expectations. “Hotel California” was a leap forward, with more hooks, more insight and phrases that entered the vernacular, like “life in the fast lane.” “Hotel California” cemented the band’s legacy, they were no longer just hitmakers, they were seers, chroniclers of life…if you don’t resonate with “Wasted Time” you never had a breakup.

But what about “Desperado”?

I bought it the day it came out. At this point the Dude and so many more put down the Eagles, but back in 1973, they were just another band with a good debut album with a hit single. Albeit a monster.

Maybe you didn’t buy the album, but if you did you heard not only the follow-up single “Witchy Woman,” but magical tracks like “Earlybird” and “Tryin'” and you wanted more. That’s what fans always want, more. And it’s a responsibility to deliver something of equal or better value. Which most acts abdicate, frustrating their fans. That’s what is astounding about the Beatles’ output, they never missed. And neither did the Eagles.

And the insider hype for “Desperado” was heavy and hot. There were endless stories in music magazines about the western theme, the photography session, the fact that Jackson Browne was included, along with J.D. Souther, tied the knot for all those following the Southern California music scene, dreaming if they could only live there their lives would work.

But the album came and as I said above, nothing happened.

But like I also said above, the one thing a fan wants more of is the music, so people later went back and bought “Desperado” and discovered its magic and it slowly grew in the public consciousness to the point when Don Henley steps up to the microphone and starts singing the title song it’s the highlight of the show.

Now you did not need a big stereo rig to get the Eagles, but it helped, especially with “Hotel California,” and then shortly thereafter Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours.” This was not two track low fidelity and if you had a good system you could extract nuggets that those listening through the speaker in the car dash could not.

But now those systems are passé. They’re not the dream they once were. That was your number one desire, a great stereo. They had stores dedicated to selling you just this. You went and marveled at the equipment, contemplating what you’d buy next as you built your system, or upgraded it. And to sit or lie in front of the speakers, stoned or not, and listen to the music and let your mind drift…was the height of life. Music was not the background, a complement to your activities, it was your activity, it was life.

So how many people have the equipment to hear the aural truth in the MoFi version of “Desperado”? Very few.

Not that my expectations were high. I’ve still got my vinyl, I’ve got the CDs, how much is left to extract from the master tapes?

Turns out plenty.

I was shocked. I learned that Don Henley was right. His vocal on “Desperado” could have been improved. I always thought it was nitpicking, another artist who could never be satisfied. But when Henley sings it live it’s not just another song, it’s a summation of not only a lifestyle, but all our lives, a better life, one in which limitations were less, where we explored the fringe and some got stuck out there and some made it back and artists chronicled the journey.

I’m listening now and I’m hearing the treatment of Henley’s vocal, the strings in a new way. The song is so great it can’t be killed, but someone needs to let the band loose, which ultimately Bill Szymczyk did thereafter.

Glyn Johns did not take the Eagles seriously. They made the albums on his terms. In his way. When true artists have a vision and want to do it their way. “Desperado” was cut in dull and dreary London, whereas the Eagles were not about constriction, but an opening up, a superseding of limits. And the title track is controlled in a way that what comes after is not.

2

The second side of “Desperado” has a cover of David Blue’s “Outlaw Man.” I had to buy Blue’s album to hear his take, it was not as good. But it fit the theme of “Desperado” perfectly so the Eagles included it.

But the second side also includes “Certain Kind of Fool” and “Bitter Creek,” the songs I love most on “Desperado” along with the title track.

“He kinda had a craving for something no one else could see”

That’s what it takes to be a rock and roll star. There’s no school, you just have to have a vision, believe in yourself and execute, and you still might not make it. Oftentimes you’re the only one who believes, but you want it so bad.

“He wants to sing, oh yeah

He wants to see lights a-flashing

And listen to the thundering”

What he wants is to let loose, to be free, the freedom of yore, which was more about what you thought than what you did.

“They got respect, oh yeah

He wants the same, oh yeah”

Some things never change. Isn’t this the essence of hip-hop?

And “Certain Kind of Fool” is sung by Randy Meisner, an integral part of the group until he stopped delivering on stage and was ultimately excised and replaced. Henley and Frey wrote it with him. But Meisner’s nearly pained vocal conveys an emotion that makes the whole number believable.

But “Bitter Creek” was something different.

“Once I was young and so unsure”

Now everybody knows everything. We see preteen entrepreneurs. Everybody wanting to skip the discovery process of life, trying to figure out who they are. But back in the seventies that was part of growing up. You might ultimately go down a career path, but before you did you wanted to drive cross-country, see the Rockies, get high, try and figure it out, and then you’d take the experience into everything you did thereafter.

“Out where the desert meets the sky

Is where I go when I wanna hide”

Hiding, it’s the opposite of today’s social media world. Do you ever feel you just want to retreat, lick your wounds, be free of the incoming, try to soothe yourself? I certainly do, and this is when tracks like “Bitter Creek” resonate so much.

“I can’t wait to see the old man’s face

When I win the race”

There was a generation gap. Not only could our parents not believe in our paths, they couldn’t even understand them. We had something to prove. And the best of us did.

We were desperadoes.

3

“Desperado

Why don’t you come to your senses

You’ve been out ridin’ fences

For so long now”

The dream. We held on to it for as long as we could. We thought it could work, but it didn’t. And one by one we sold out. But we never forgot.

That lumpy guy in the bad suit? In his heart he was a desperado, and still is.

That guy in the boardroom? He may be rich but he’d rather be a rock star, he wants to be a desperado.

Everything was possible, and we wanted to get our share.

“Desperado

Oh, you ain’t getting no younger

Your pain and your hunger

They’re driving you home

And freedom, oh, freedom

Well that’s just some people talking

Your prison is walking through this world all alone”

You wake up one day and you realize your life is no longer working. What you dedicated yourself to has not panned out. Your life is hard. You’ve been flying solo, forgoing the treats of humanity, the comforts. The touch, the conversation, everything everybody can’t see that means so much. It’s not on your resumé, you can’t see it on LinkedIn, but it’s everything.

“You’re losing all your highs and lows”

This is when you know you’ve got to give up, take another direction. When the dope no longer gets you high. When you’re going through the motions and getting less and less satisfaction, fewer and fewer highs.

“Why don’t you come to your senses”

We wouldn’t listen to our parents, we had to hear it from people we trusted, who we knew were trying to channel truth, who understood us.

“Come down from your fences

Open the gate”

Buy a ticket. Take a chance. It’s as true at seventy as it is at twenty. I know you’ve been beaten and bruised, but there are still rewards in life if you’d just take a chance. As Jackson Browne sang in “The Late Show” the next year:

“You could be with somebody who is lonely too

(Sometimes it doesn’t show)

He might be trying to get across to you

(Words can be so slow)”

“But there’s a rainbow above you”

Hope is everything in this world, it’s the silver lining, without it you’re done, you’re paralyzed, in mind if not body. You’ve got to believe things can get better.

“You better let somebody love you

Before it’s too late”

As the boomers aged, as the songs on the hit parade came and went, “Desperado” started to shine in a way it had not before. You could give up the dream and still be whole. What you thought was selling out could easily be buying in. Instead of waiting for the perfect love, finding a companion, a person who’ll be there for you, is what makes life endurable, worth living.

So “Desperado” has become a secret anthem. A song that means something to listeners that others do not. It’s not a ditty, people believe it’s their life, that Don Henley has looked into their soul and understands them, is nudging them to move on down the line, to give up being an outlaw and embrace the good in life. He’s setting your head straight. You don’t really want to be a desperado.

Except when you’re out in the wilderness.

Except when you’re at the Eagles show.

I did not set out to write about “Desperado” today. I just inserted the MoFi CD into the Sony’s drawer and I heard this sound… It was more than a sound, it was akin to the Pied Piper taking me on a journey, away from the mess of every day, to a much better place, where I used to live and know I can now visit just by playing this CD.

Tune in today, May 3rd, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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