You know when you do something great.

Conventional wisdom is no one knows anything in Hollywood. Only hacks believe that. Certainly when it comes to music, some songs are UNDENIABLE!

My favorite story here involves Al Kooper. He was being inducted into the Guitar Center RockWalk and we’re sitting in the green room after the ceremony and Lonn Friend was interviewing him, he’d scored that gig, and Al said that Lynyrd Skynyrd cut “Sweet Home Alabama” a year before it came out.

He was in Atlanta, he’d moved there because of the music scene, funny how it’s one of the epicenters of hip-hop today, and he’d signed Lynyrd Skynyrd to his label Sounds of the South and had recorded the first album and “Free Bird” was just starting to gain notice and Ronnie Van Zant called him up and said the band had a new song they needed to cut right away, and Al booked the studio time and they cut the track and like I said above, it wasn’t released for another year. So I asked Al if he knew it was a hit. And he said…IT WAS SWEET HOME ALABAMA!

If you listen to the John Fogerty podcast, you’ll hear the story of how he wrote “Proud Mary,” as well as how he decided to start playing Creedence songs live again. I don’t want to step on the story, but the bottom line is he wrote nearly all of “Proud Mary” in a flash, alone. And when he was done he felt like he’d written a standard, something on the level of Stephen Foster, something that would last forever. HE KNEW!

So the arc of this season of “Hacks” is Deborah Vance, i.e. Jean Smart, has lost her residency in Vegas… That happened last season, but now I’ll give a spoiler alert, even though you know how these shows play out, maybe you want to be surprised and can stop here but…

Deborah goes on the road to hone her new routine. She’s throwing out the old, the stale one that worked for decades in Vegas, and is starting with a clean slate, she wants to tell her story, she wants to be honest.

But it’s not working.

Get this straight. She’s come down from the mountaintop. She had a steady gig in Vegas baby, and now she’s back on the road, paying her dues, in small clubs, in secondary, TERTIARY markets and you’d think a star of her caliber would kill, but that’s not how it plays out. She keeps missing the mark, she wants to give up.

That’s another thing, the greats not only know when they’ve hit a grand slam, created an 11, they also wrestle with giving up. If you haven’t thought of giving up, you’re probably a hack. Because a true great may project an image of confidence, but inside many feel like a fraud. After all, they need the success to make themselves complete, it’s all that counts, success, they’re just that damaged.

And after you decide to stick with it, the light bulb does not go on instantly, you just have a little more oomph, a little more inner strength that keeps you keepin’ on. You’re in the creative wilderness, looking for hooks. And if you’re honest with yourself, you know what’s B material. You not only know what is B material, but B+ too. You need to be in the A category to play, especially today. An A- will get you notice, but to transcend the pack, to truly gain traction with the public, you need a solid A, and hopefully an A+.

And the dirty little secret is no one can reach that level every time out, NO ONE! Furthermore, the best stuff usually comes when you’re not even trying. You’re taking a shower, you’re driving in your car, you’re out and about and suddenly you have a blast of insight. And sometimes the insight feels good but ultimately is not good, but then there are other times when your adrenaline starts to pump, you know you’re on to something, and you know you have to commit, catch lightning in a bottle, or the moment may pass, your opportunity will be history.

Deborah keeps missing the mark.

But then it comes to her in a flash. Like my shrink says, sometimes you change one little thing and the whole picture changes. And suddenly she’s back on track, it all works and now she wants success even bigger than she had, more than Vegas and…

This is a business built on dishonesty. Either people are falsely humble or falsely bragging. It takes years to understand the game. Actually, someone had me going today, and then I got off the phone and realized I knew much more about the subject than they did, but they had me convinced for a while there, I just needed to step back and give it some context.

And when you hit a grand slam, create an 11, you’re not thinking about the money, the sponsorships, none of the crap that the amateurs can’t stop talking about. No, you get this feeling inside, like you’ve climbed Mount Everest. You’ve planted your flag but you’re solo, there is no audience, it’s just you, and that’s enough.

Sure, after the fact, when the track is released, you might get the accolades, even win an award. But if you think it’s about the award you’ve probably never been in the zone and hit it far over the fence, nearly 600 feet. Which is why the greats put their Grammys in the bathroom, if they even know where they are.

The feeling of victory is fleeting. On one hand you’re excited, on the other you’re scared.

You see you want to try again, you need to try again, but you’re afraid you won’t reach the same level.

And A+, undeniability, is very rare. A great will always produce something serviceable, but something transcendent? If you can do it once or twice a year that’s a good record.

And you know it!

The one and only. I guarantee you’ll learn something you never knew before.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-fogerty/id1316200737?i=1000563978104

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/e5ac6f22-b10c-4d7c-8625-9dbca28e7205/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-john-fogerty

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/john-fogerty-203502496

Benghazi.

Hillary’s e-mails.

The stolen election.

You know exactly what I am talking about, even if you don’t know the underlying facts, because the Republican party hammered these messages every day for years, they kept them top of mind, they still want Hillary locked up, even though she’s a doting grandmother sans elected office.

Abortion?

That was last week’s news. Or maybe a couple of weeks back there. How long did abortion stay top of mind? Oh, it’s gone folks. People don’t dig deep, they hit the headlines and move on, they’re trying to cope with their own incoming, we’re all overscheduled and overwhelmed.

Back in the old days, twelve to fifteen years ago, the left controlled the internet. There were all these victory laps after Obama got elected. The lionization of nerds who ran the online campaign. Since then? Nothing. As a matter of fact, the Democrats have gone on defense, they can’t cope with the incoming, Cambridge Analytica…

This is a messaging issue folks. And if you want to change hearts and minds, if you want people riled up, if you ultimately want change, you’ve got to start at this grass roots level.

Once again, the music business is at the forefront, the canary in the coal mine.

You see there are too many acts and no universal outlet to expose them. There’s no MTV, minting stars overnight all over the world, and terrestrial radio has a fraction of the number of active listeners it had previously, no matter what bogus statistics the industry keeps proffering. So where do you go? ONLINE!

Musicians are everywhere. Labels, having realized their reluctance to license their wares hurt them at the turn of the century, are willing to license anybody who can pony up with big bucks today. They realize what looks like nowheresville today can be absolutely crushing it in a matter of months, and you’ve got to be ready, be prepared to seize the moment.

Everywhere you go online you see musicians hawking their wares.

You know where else you see this tsunami of hype, and that’s what it frequently is, false information…POLITICS! On the right, the left is way behind. Yes, every interactive platform is inundated with right wing acolytes spreading their message. Furthermore, they’ve falsely accused Facebook and Twitter of being left wing havens, when that’s not true whatsoever. Check those Facebook stats, it’s always the right wing views that are shared most.

Are you getting this? Not only do Republicans own the sphere, they gain even more power by saying they don’t!

That’s been the Twitter argument, “free speech.”

Well, in truth Twitter is not owned by the government and can do whatever it wants, it’s a private company, all the social media companies. And unlike the mall cases of yore, saying they were the public square even though they were private property, there are endless places to spew the same stuff all over online, you can even create your own platform, like Truth Social. The barrier to entry is nil. Just like in music. The mall was the only place in town, online we have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok…never mind websites. You can get your message out. The question is whether these social media outlets have an obligation to allow you to post. OF COURSE NOT! Come on, when the shoe was on the other foot, when David Geffen dropped the Geto Boys, you didn’t see these same right wingers crying freedom of speech, and that was when the barrier to entry in the music business was so much higher!

Are you getting this? It’s a full court press, 24/7.

And what do the Democrats fight it with? A circle jerk of complaints about the heinosity of the right wing. And not only does it have no effect, it doesn’t even reach the intended targets!

Man, we’ve got to wipe the dead wood from the Democratic party.

And I’d start with Schumer and Pelosi. Both lauded as political professionals, they’ve got no idea what is going on in America today, because to know that you’ve got to be online, like youngsters, ALL THE TIME! And what do we constantly hear from left wing educated boomers? The smartphone is the DEVIL! We’ve got to limit screen time. Meanwhile, the right wing keeps populating the platforms with information and disinformation. I mean you’ve got to play to win.

AOC bitched about this. The last election cycle. How candidates have to focus their campaigns online, instead of TV and print. But the oldsters blew back. AOC is right!

Sure, older people vote in higher percentages than younger people. But who do you know under the age of 35 who even sees commercials? Youngsters don’t have cable, their computer is their television and they watch streaming services with no commercials. So these TV ads aren’t reaching them AT ALL!

But the old school reporters inured to the old game parrot the words of the out of touch ancient.

You don’t want to be too progressive. You’ve got to fight for the center, that’s the only way you can win. IS THAT HOW THE REPUBLICANS DID IT?

No, the Republicans realized first and foremost you need to stimulate your constituency, rile them up, and give them hope you can effect change. We don’t see the equivalent on the left, AND THE LEFT IS IN POWER!

Oh, we hear Democrats crying about Manchin. Well, the Republicans don’t have any problem keeping their elected officials in line. Either you get with the program or you’re ostracized. They’re trying to achieve goals, they’re taking the long view.

As for the Democrats? They’ve got no plans and are just waiting for the future to play out. I don’t recognize my country, but the Greatest Generation? They’ve never seen anything like this. Disputing election results. Conspiracy theories. Listening to Q. Taking the voting power out of the hands of the public and giving it to legislatures and elected officials. This is nuts. And what is the left wing plan? I can’t even see one!

Every week Bill Maher said that Donald Trump wouldn’t leave office quietly, he’d do his best to stay. And what did the Democrats on his program say? THAT CAN’T HAPPEN! But that’s exactly what did!

So the majority of Americans want meaningful gun control.

But what have we got? More and more states allowing open carry.

It’s like we’re living in bizarroland.

The public will get behind leaders hammering a point. As for the usual suspects on TV and in print, who can believe in those people?

It’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before, this is not our first school shooting, it’s not our first rodeo. But all the Democrats can do is say they can’t do anything. To the point where their constituency is completely demoralized.

You want change?

You’ve got to keep the story alive. And today you do that online. And it’s only going to be more so, forget that b.s. about streaming services and their ads, the overwhelming majority pay. You’ve got to go WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE!

At every level.

The Republicans play the long game, fifty years of trying to get rid of Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, along the way, abortion rights are tightening, pro-life people are surrounding clinics and killing doctors… Believe me, we’ve got the same passion on the left, if only they believed they could make a difference!

There are so many ways. The recent California law allowing individual citizens to report gun manufacturers for shirking their responsibilities. Yes, you can force gun companies to cower.

A vigil. That’s endless. We did this during the Vietnam era, reading the names of the dead.

We see this time and time again in music. The biggest bands have ARMIES! Remember the KISS Army? And Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters? And BTS fans? Cross them, say something negative about their beloved, and they’ll track you down and inundate you with hate, over something you wrote/said about a musical act! But do we have these equivalents in politics? Oh yes, on the right, but not the left. If I write anything political I immediately get e-mail from those on the right, they’re the first ones in, and they keep at it, no matter what. The left? They respond later, if at all. They’re asleep at the wheel.

Hollywood has been completely disrupted, it’s not business as usual. And you know what the cause of that was? THE INTERNET!

And 4G/LTE allowed new apps to appear, like Uber.

But when it comes down to Democratic politics…IT’S THE SAME AS IT EVER WAS! It’s like the internet didn’t even happen.

So if you’re a Democrat, I’ve got to tell you, you’re the lobster, you’re the frog, you’re already in the pot and the water is beginning to boil. But since you’re not yet cooked you believe everything’s groovy. BUT IT’S NOT!

What did James Carville so famously say? IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

And he was and still is completely right, everybody in America is selfish, they’re watching their money first and foremost and want more. Yes, the right is famous for fighting culture wars, which they ultimately lose, but they know it’s not truly about culture, it’s about winning elections. Which they are very very good at, whatever it takes.

IT’S THE INTERNET STUPID!

Go on Reddit. Find those OnlyFans women. That’s right, sex sells and they want some of that cash. So what do they do? They cross post! They don’t post in only one category, but any one they even remotely qualify for. And they post each and every day! Frequently multiple times a day!

That’s what YouTube and Instagram “influencers” do too.

Democratic politicians? How do they expect to influence anybody if they don’t even play. You decide on your message and hammer it everywhere each and every day, to the point it becomes conventional wisdom, like Biden has dementia, can’t put two sentences together, and has accomplished nothing in office. THAT’S COMPLETELY UNTRUE! But the right wing has hammered this everywhere each and every day to the point where even the left wing outlets repeat it. Like the fact that Republicans are gonna win big next November. Where’s the campaign to say the opposite? Oh, that’s right, the rule tells us it’s an off-year election and the other party…

Come on, that’s not a rule.

Yes, the Democrats are playing by rules that don’t even exist.

And for the right, it’s a FREE-FOR-ALL!

And the Republicans are working the angles to boot. I hate to tell you, all those professional sports teams, even college, they’re working the angles. Did you see Nick Saban accusing his competition of buying players?

But the left is afraid.

No wonder the right is winning, AND THEY’RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO WIN!

Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3NxGAyD

1

It was released fifty years ago Sunday.

The Raspberries were an AM band in an FM world. FM started on the coasts, San Francisco and New York, and by time “Go All the Way” was released every metropolis had an FM outlet. And that meant if you listened to FM you never listened to AM, unless your car only had an AM radio. But by ’72 8-tracks were invading cars, you didn’t have to listen to the dreck on AM anymore. But some still did.

I never ever heard the Raspberries on FM radio. Sure, somewhere sometime they may have gotten airplay, but the Raspberries were decidedly uncool. Not only were they an AM band, THEY WERE TOO GOOD!

Punk rock did not emerge for a few years, the first Ramones album came out in ’76, but that was a reaction to prog, to overbaked records by trained players, not against power pop, which actually had its own renaissance at the end of the decade, and ultimately became part of new wave.

But I knew the Raspberries. You couldn’t escape “Go All the Way” and the follow-ups. But I never ever bought one of their records. Why? It seemed formulaic, of the moment, disposable, when in truth it was anything but.

There was coverage in the rock press, mostly about the scratch and sniff sticker on one of their albums, but if you were cool you didn’t own Raspberries records. They were never on the bill of the show you wanted to see. And then, all of a sudden…

2

“Well I know it sounds funny

But I’m not in it for the money”

The Raspberries were getting fantastic reviews. Everywhere. From credible writers. About their 1974 album “Starting Over.”

Huh? Just as the band’s star was fading, they never had another hit long player, “Starting Over” peaked at #143, the cognoscenti were into them. It’s like they grudgingly agreed they liked all their hits and now that AM was no longer interested, they could laud the band from Ohio.

So I bought it.

Oh, to be an active record buyer in the seventies. It meant you hung out at the store, you knew every outlet in town, at one you were a regular known by name, they saved records for you. You read all the rags, had a mental shopping list and went to the store and bought four, five or six records. You needed them, they were as vital as air and water. And they were always a surprise, even the biggest albums only had a few radio tracks, you dropped the needle and went on an adventure.

Which wasn’t always satisfying. But that was part of the magic, what you thought would be great wasn’t, and what you bought on a whim became your favorite record you testified to everybody about.

And most records went unheard. To get someone to buy an album was a huge feat, to get over that threshold. And the best ways were radio and live, but it was hard to get on the radio and even harder to be seen, especially when no one wanted to pay to come.

“Well if the program director don’t pull it

Then it’s time to get back the bullet

So bring the group down to the station

You’re gonna be an overnight sensation” 

“Bullet.” This was insider language. Which the hoi polloi didn’t know, never mind having no idea there was a program director, never mind what he did.

“I’ve been tryin’ to write the lyric

Non-offensive but satiric too”

Wait a second, weren’t the Raspberries mindless AM pap, non-thinking fly-by-nights? No, the band was thinking all about it, which too many acts today do not. It’s like the formula’s been lost. I mean all you need is verse, chorus, bridge, but that’s too much for them, whereas the Raspberries had learned at the feet of the Beatles, that was the starting point for so many of the baby boomer acts.

“I fit those words to a good melody

Amazing how success has been ignoring me

So long I use my bread making demos all day

Writing in the night while in my head I hear

The record play, hear it play”

The game hasn’t changed whatsoever, everybody’s laboring in obscurity, looking for a hit. I mean you can post it on Spotify, but that doesn’t mean anybody will listen to it.

Now I’d never heard “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” before, I just dropped the needle on the Dual turntable and this sound came out of the speakers, this mini-symphony, an analogue to “Good Vibrations,” really, “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” should be in the pantheon, but it’s not. Times had changed. In 1966 AM played everything, in 1974 the playlist was much more constricted, most of the big classic rock tracks never even got played on AM radio, and the Raspberries fell between the cracks.

3

But I was a fan, I immediately bought Eric Carmen’s first solo album, I needed more. And now the public agreed, “All By Myself” was a number one record, however Eric was still relegated to the AM world. But there was more, “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” and a song that Shaun Cassidy ultimately turned into a monster hit, “That’s Rock ‘n Roll.”

“I played at parties

Played in bars

I spent my money buyin’ new guitars

I screamed my heart out

But how I loved it

That’s rock ‘n roll”

AND IT MOST DEFINITELY WAS! Scratch a boomer in the music business, they all had an electric guitar and an amp, they all dreamed of making it big, they had bands, they were inspired by the Beatles.

“Well come on everybody

Get down and get with it

Come on everybody

Get down and get with it

Come on everybody

Get down, that’s rock ‘n roll”

A mash-up of Freddy Cannon and Jan & Dean/the Beach Boys, this is the sound of the early sixties, when rock ‘n roll infected the youth, smoothing the cleaving away from the old fogeys, the establishment.

And having proved he could do it, that he possessed the magic, knew what he was doing, Eric proceeded to produce and record his unjustly ignored masterpiece, “Boats Against the Current,” which wasn’t even available online for eons, you see it was a legendary stiff, I bought my copy as cutout, where all the disappointments came to live, if they weren’t buried, literally.

“She Did It” was a very mild hit, with its “Sail On Sailor” intro, but it was too sophisticated for most mindless listeners, this was the analogue to the Beach Boys’ “Marcella,” but Carmen could populate entire albums with this stuff, which the boys from the beach no longer could.

But the heart of the album literally comes in the heart of the album, track 5 of 8, “Love Is All That Matters.” This is late night music, majestic, in an era where corporate rock was dominating, it was akin to a late sixties production, soft and meaningful, heartfelt, almost a male Laura Nyro.

But the piece-de-resistance is the closer, “Run Away,” an eight minute opus that will pick you up and fly you away from this mortal coil, will overwhelm you with its richness. Today everything is hard, or pulling directly at your heart, whereas “Run Away” has no concessions, it’s just banking on being so damn good that it’s irresistible, and it is!

Not that anybody today will admit liking this kind of music. The black jeans and leather jacket crowd hate strings, if something can be perceived as wimpy it is buried, but “Run Away” is part of why classic rock is classic. Brings tears to my eyes listening to it. Never heard it on the radio, never heard anybody talk about it, I just played it turned up loud enough on the JBLs to take up all the space in the room.

There was one victory lap, after the subsequent albums missed the target, I’m speaking, of course, of “Hungry Eyes” from the “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack, a B movie that became a classic, unheralded at first, but a big hit in both the theatre and home video.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you

I’ve got this feeling

That won’t subside”

You might put on a tough image for the guys, but when you’re lying in bed alone at night, what goes through your mind? When you’ve got more than a crush, you’ve actually connected, all you can think is about them.

And then…

4

Nothing.

Hip-hop and the Seattle sound took over the airwaves. AM bands were relegated to the oldies stations, which now existed on FM, but didn’t play anything that wasn’t known by every member of the audience.

But I found out I wasn’t the only one who knew the magic of Eric Carmen and the Raspberries.

And then they re-formed.

That’s what you’ve got to know, so many of the acts of yore that you want to see don’t get back together and go on the road because of the economics, the venues won’t guarantee enough to meet the costs, and will oldsters show up, on a weeknight, even on a weekend?

But the Raspberries did. For a little bit more than fifteen years ago, and I was there, at the House of Blues.

You know how it is going to see these old heroes, whose records you know by heart, you’re rooting for them, urging the little engine that could to gain speed and chug along. But they rarely do. The singer’s voice is shot. The sound is a facsimile of what once was. If you know the songs you can fill in the parts, overlook the clams, but it’s just nostalgia, you leave the building feeling slightly queasy, you were there, you saw them, but you never need to see them again.

That was not the Raspberries at the House of Blues back in 2005.

And they played “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record),” along with “I Wanna Be With You,” Tonight” and Let’s Pretend,” but the finale, the final encore, was…

“Go All the Way.” Which we couldn’t believe you could say on the radio, then again, Bread had “Make It With You” a couple of years before.

But the stunning thing was the sound, that slap of Wally Bryson’s guitar, it was just like the magic coming out of that small speaker in the dash of your car. You thought that was a studio sound, you didn’t think it could be replicated live, but Bryson did.

And Eric Carmen still sounded like the guy on the record and…

This was a band.

There aren’t many bands anymore. I mean bands with big hits. They’re afraid of looking bad, they go out with supporting musicians, hard drives, it’s all a little bit fake, and you can tell. But when there are slight imperfections the sound imparts humanity, and absent that element music is just sheen, it bounces off you, it doesn’t stick.

It’s a lost art. No one practices, hones the sound to get it just right. It’s just too much work. But if you wanted a hit record in the old days, when so many people were paying attention, this is what you had to do.

I didn’t go all the way with the Raspberries in the beginning. It took a while for me to commit. Which is how so many long-lasting relationships are.

But those are the ones that stick.

“Go All the Way” live: https://bit.ly/3PIu5Co