1

Every day I wake up with a song in my head.

And I never know what it’s going to be.

And I’m inspired to write about it, and I know if I don’t write about it just then, I’ll lose the mojo. But do people want to read about old songs?

And it is usually old songs. But the sting from “Tehran,” the main soundtrack element, watch a few episodes and it gets baked in your brain. And when someone e-mailed me about it…I felt the connection, the commonality, and that’s what we’re all searching for.

And the song in my head a few days back was Robert Palmer’s “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming.”

Now Robert Palmer became a star with “Addicted to Love,” a very good song with an iconic video, but he had a career before that.

Palmer was in Vinegar Joe, but that didn’t mean much in America, not really anything. But then he put out a solo album, “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” in 1974 with an opening three song medley that was absolutely killer, starting off with the relatively unknown, but not by me, Little Feat classic “Sailin’ Shoes,” segueing into the Palmer original “Hey Julia” and ending up with Allen Toussaint’s “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley.” It’s the best thing Palmer ever did.

But I think I bought the second album first, “Pressure Drop,” whose title song I knew in its original Toots and the Maytals version, but it was the opening cut I bought the album in the promotional bin for, “Give Me an Inch.” Although I did hear it on the radio, I don’t think many people did, because no one has ever mentioned it to me, and it’s one of he best thing Robert ever did.

Now Palmer kept making albums, but he wasn’t making much headway commercially. “Some People Can Do What They Like had his version of “Man Smart (Woman Smarter),” which got some airplay, but only on FM, not Top 40.

1978’s “Double Fun” had “Every Kinda People,” written by Free’s Andy Fraser, which got less airplay than “Man Smart (Woman Smarter),” but was heard and then… Came the fifth solo LP, which opened with Moon Martin’s “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)” which was all over the airwaves. Moon ultimately launched a solo career on Capitol as a result of this, and those records were quite good, but to illustrate their impact, not one of them has its own Wikipedia page.

And Moon Martin is gone now. As is Palmer himself. Despite the debonair look, he ingested copious amounts of substances, and ultimately they caught up with him, Robert died at 54, which is too young in anybody’s book.

But that previous album, the fourth, “Double Fun,” ended with the Palmer original “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming.”

Now to establish a timeline, it was not until almost eight years later that Palmer broke through with “Addicted to Love,” a hit in 1986. But it was “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” that put him on the map. Because it fit the format. Was Robert Palmer an R&B crooner? A disguised rocker? In the heyday of corporate rock he lived in a no-man’s land, cool, but all by himself. But “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” finally fit right alongside the rest of the tunes on the AOR format.

2

“You came upon me like a landslide

Once in a while I get taken like that

And I like it”

Now ultimately almost ten years later, in 1996, Oasis prominently employed the word “landslide” in my favorite song of theirs, “Champagne Supernova,” but at this point in the eighties, when we thought of “Landslide,” we thought of the Fleetwood Mac song. And the image Robert’s song conjured was completely different.

“I’ve got a Thunderbird parked right outside

Give me a minute to finish this thing

And we’ll light it”

This is why I’m writing. Because I woke up with “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” in my brain this morning for the second time this week, which is a rare occurrence, double fun, and it’s this line that stuck out.

I’m walking around the house thinking they no longer write songs about cars anymore. Whereas that was a staple for DECADES! Even before Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys opined about the machines.

But not anymore. Cars have been superseded. The only horsepower that seems to matter anymore is the speed of AI chips by the likes of Nvidia. No one even cares about the power of the chip in their computer, like in the late nineties, and certainly no one cares about the speed of their smartphone. And not every kid salivates about getting their license the day of their sixteenth birthday and you don’t even need one, Uber will take you around town very nicely. And it won’t be long before Waymo, et al, make it so you neither own nor drive an automobile, talk about the end of an era.

But the truth was the Thunderbird was already passé by 1978, a bloated machine. Palmer was referencing the legendary fifties models, some with a porthole, that a shop in Culver City specialized in selling back in that era.

“You’re gonna get what’s coming

You’ve been asking for it two days running

You’re gonna get what’s coming

You’re gonna get what’s coming to you”

Now what exactly is she asking for?

Taken alone the chorus implies male dominance, revenge, an attitude that is frowned upon today, almost fifty years later. You’ve got to respect women. But is that what he’s really singing about?

“I hope that you’re half as intrepid

As you make out”

Now everybody back in the sixties knew the word “intrepid,” for that was name of the aircraft carrier that picked up the astronauts. Did anybody know what the word meant back then, does anybody know what it means right now?

Well, the Oxford dictionary tells us:

“fearless; adventurous”

That’s what men fantasize about.

Well, I guess there are men who want their significant other to be close to mute and cook and raise babies, but certainly in the seventies many men wanted an adventure partner, someone who not only would go along for the ride, but would LEAD!

I’d never heard a song use the word “intrepid” before and I can’t think of one since. This usage fit with Robert’s upscale image.

“More often that not, I’ll bet

You never got what you asked for”

Can I have some more? That’s what Oliver asked for, never before has a boy asked for more. But the image of a powerful, desirous woman grew and then exploded in the seventies. She wants it, will she get it?

“Keep on pouring until you hear me shout

And turn up the sound

If you want me to drive any faster”

Life in the fast lane… But now no one hits the highway. Driving cross-country used to be a rite of passage, now why bother, just fly, if you leave home at all.

“Caution went out when you walked in the room

If it never came back it would be too soon.”

No limits, baby. Never mind no judgment. This was the freedom we fought for in the sixties and were reveling in in the seventies. And that freedom was emblematized by the automobile.

3

Now Bonnie Raitt had the opposite problem of Robert Palmer. She, unlike him, was known, had a place in the firmament, but had a hard time capitalizing on it.

She began with two earthy albums, a feel that didn’t break through big commercially that she could never recapture.

From there she went smoother with John Hall and then slicker with Jerry Ragavoy, she’d left where she came from and had not found an equally strong place for her career to reside.

So then Bonnie worked with Paul Rothchild, who’d started out producing folkies for Elektra, but made his name as the producer of the Doors. The first LP the two worked together on, “Home Plate,” had incredible song choices, but no single, when that was becoming a thing. But the follow-up, “Sweet Forgiveness,” which contained the exquisite but now forgotten “Two Lives,” had a cover of Del Shannon’s “Runaway” that broke bigger than anything Bonnie had done before…then again, it was a cover of a well-known number that was due for a renaissance.

So Bonnie decided to shake it up once again. To work with those who dominated her homeland, Peter Asher and his Southern California troupe. Peter had worked his magic not only on Jame Taylor and Linda Ronstadt records, he’d made J.D. Souther’s “Black Rose” and…

“The Glow” opened with Bonnie’s cover of “I Thank You,” a year before ZZ Top did their version, a rock radio staple. Bonnie’s got history, she cut “Love Has No Pride” on her second album, 1972’s “Give It Up,” a year before Linda Ronstadt did her more famous cover of the Eric Kaz/Libby Titus classic.

However, the song selections on “The Glow” were not as good as the ones on the two Rothchild-produced albums, but on the second side, in the next to last position, was a cover of Robert Palmer’s “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming.”

4

Now when I pulled up Spotify to listen to “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming” earlier in the week I went for the Robert Palmer version, that was the one I thought I was singing in my head. But when it started to play, the chunky guitar, the rhythmic riff, was not what I had in my mind. The high points were there, “landslide” and “intrepid” and the chorus, but…could it be that what had become embedded in my brain was Bonnie Raitt’s more streamlined cover? I mean usually the writer does the better take, but…

Bonnie’s version starts off with an explosive guitar by either Danny Kortchmar or Waddy Wachtel, they’re both credited, I’ll let you decide. And then…

“You came upon me like a landslide

Once in a while I get taken like that

And I like it”

Whoa, Robert’s singing with attitude, it’s a come on, verging on a sneer, he’s trying to entice her, but Bonnie is ALREADY SOLD! She’s leading the man.

“Once in a while I get taken like that

And I like it”

Inherently a woman is the receiver in sex, but who is the initiator here, who is in control?

Then again, when I asked Bonnie about being the lone female in a group of males, all the guys being after her, she responded WHO SAID I WASN’T GOING AFTER THEM!

Synth-wiz Robert Margouleff and his compatriot Malcolm Cecil associate produced Stevie Wonder’s four album run from “Music of My Mind” to Fulfillingness’ First Finale.” On his own Margouleff produced Devo’s landmark “Freedom of Choice” with “Whip It” and albums by Billy Preston and Oingo Boingo and David Sanborn and…

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robert-margouleff/id1316200737?i=1000767740777

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/45a1ef01-fe23-447a-91cb-17856ccb9f2a/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-robert-margouleff

Better Sony own these songs than the bank.

But what we’ve learned here is all the rightsholders who sold to Hipgnosis based on Merck’s involvement… I hope you had a key man clause, which you couldn’t get anyway.

Now the truth is most rightsholders are just interested in the money. As long as you pay them they don’t care who owns the songs, until…

They disapprove of a use.

Or find they underpriced their wares.

As for underpricing… How many times do rightsholders have to see this movie to understand that publishing rights keep going up? If you’re selling because you’re fearful your songs will be worth nothing tomorrow…

That may be true, but know that the assessors of the value of your catalog know that too. They are not in the business of overpaying. Merck’s theory was right, it’s just that interest rates went up and investors were pissed and wanted out. Merck may have single-handedly driven up the price of catalogs, he might have paid a ton in a fit of mania, but the truth is copyrights have long lives…

And the internet has proved a boon to the value of music and its associated rights. It’s music that underpins social media, every platform has to pay to use it. YouTube, TikTok, they’d be decimated without music. And they keep creating new platforms that need to be licensed.

And the truth is the new music business might be a fool’s errand, very little net for expenditure, but when it comes to proven hits, those pennies keep trickling in.

And giant music corporations are in the business of managing these assets. You need infrastructure. Was Hipngosis’s up to snuff? Comparable to those of the major labels?

Well, it’s all history now.

But the question arises what is going to be done with these rights. The truth is the major labels are somewhat somnambulant. They’re peopled by lifers who in many cases are phone answerers, as opposed to creative thinkers beating the bushes in new ways to drive up revenue.

The exception is Primary Wave, which is like a major label but without the new music costs. Yes, Primary Wave does release new music, but it’s de minimis in terms of their overall business.

All those roles at the record company, the product managers, the marketers… That’s how Primary Wave runs its business. So if you’re going to sell…

Then again, Primary Wave keeps buying and buying and how many acts can its A-level team service?

But now Primary Wave owns Kobalt and can do its own administration, which it lacked previously and…

What we learned with Spotify is that those with the most assets dictate the terms. Well, let’s just say they have inordinate power over the terms. And majors owning both recordings and songs…songwriters got screwed in these negotiations. Would it be better to have someone with a seat at the table who is song first?

Well, we’ve got that with Primary Wave, and now BMG/Concord…which is still in the front line record business, but is heavily weighted with publishing copyrights.

Independents innovate. Which is why they’re needed. And consolidation works against them when it comes to power. Although they still have power in new music production, where the majors are still operating under the old paradigm. Today you start very small in many areas and nurture and see what pops. If it doesn’t have a chance of getting in the Spotify Top 50 from the get-go, the majors aren’t interested. Which is why they are losing overall market share. Because it’s indie acts who are flourishing.

But when it comes to the past…

That’s where the power is in the music business. Hell, think of all the acts touring for Live Nation and AEG. The acts that broke prior to 2005, when the MTV/VH1 paradigm died, are cash cows. Can you say Coldplay? Good luck trying to build a Coldplay today.

So we lived through a decade of innovation in publishing, and now the era of consolidation has come upon us. Expect even more.

As for the acts…

The bottom line is you need someone who cares about you, who’ll fight for you, who will get licenses for you. After Kobalt’s computerized innovation all the major administrators have upgraded and are very good.

But…

Look at what is happening in visual entertainment, with Paramount scheduled to be acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. Artists/performers are up in arms. But they don’t have the piece of the puzzle that makes all the difference, OWNERSHIP!

That’s what it all comes down to, that’s what gives you a seat at the table, and if you don’t have it…

Once you give up ownership, you give up power. Few performers own their recording copyrights, but many do own their publishing copyrights. And this results in a steady source of income without the creative accounting labels subject them to with recording royalties.

This business was built by independents. Consolidation started when Atlantic sold to Warner, and then Elektra fifty plus years ago.

And then thirty five years ago, A&M and Island joined the major folds.

And then Edgar Bronfman, Jr. rolled up companies to form what is now known as Universal Music and then Capitol was decimated and then split up and sold and…

What we’ve ended up with is a mature business. The only way you can beat it is via independence, which depends upon hits, whether it be rights from the past or new works. But the more rights the usual suspect majors gain, the worse it is for rightsholders.

Sony Music is baked into a larger corporation, it doesn’t have to worry about investor returns like Hipgnosis did when it was independent, it can weather storms.

But if it’s your rights that went from Hipgnosis to Blackstone to Sony…who exactly is looking out for you? You have no personal relationships, no one tied to the original sale. And what we know in the music business is someone with passion is more important than pure money, someone who will work your project/music is worth more than a big advance.

But all these acts took the money and now have little to absolutely no power. Everybody got paid, including their advisors, and they’re left with a pile of money after tax and I hope it pays dividends… Don’t forget, with songs you get paid on a regular basis, this does not happen when you sell out completely.

But we live in a money-based society, and everybody focuses on the buck.

Isn’t it interesting that the Eagles haven’t sold their rights. Nor Paul McCartney or the Stones. What do they know that everybody else does not?

Everything.

That all you’ve got is your music and your image and you want to be in total control over it, because no one cares about it as much as you.

1

Apple pulled off a masterstroke, but it’s not the fruit company news everybody is talking about. Yes, Apple gained the rights for Formula 1, which used to be free on ESPN and…

Free TV is going the way of the dodo. There’s just too much money in desirable product for streamers not to lay their money down. But there’s only so much desirable product out there, and the most desirable is sports.

Now the truth is Netflix made Formula 1 big in America. Credit Liberty, which bought the series from Bernie Ecclestone… It’s kind of like a tech company, a founder may have the vision, but they may not be the best person to steer the enterprise once it breaks through and matures. Then again, I’m mostly for leaving the founder in place, assuming the founder knows that the world keeps evolving and you’ve got to keep up with it. This is what Mark Zuckerberg’s bets with Instagram, WhatsApp, the metaverse and now AI have been about. Then again, did you read this article?

“Meta Is Dying. It’s About Time.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/opinion/meta-facebook-zuckerberg.html

I think there are some holes in this argument, but it’s an interesting thought experiment, and the truth is Zuckerberg has been flailing.

So Apple TV has not been able to retain, never mind significantly grow, audience, i.e. subscribers. At first they charged little, wanting to build a business that had little product. Then finding that mostly diehard Apple fans were laying down their cash, they decided to raise the price. But for those who were avid cancelers, like me, or those who never subscribed at all…

I refuse to pay for a service I do not watch. I find it an insult. Because I feel like I’m being pecked to death by ducks by streaming outlets to begin with. So I only sign up for Apple TV when there’s something I want to see, which has historically meant I don’t subscribe, because I’m not going to pay all that money to watch a show that is dripped out week by week, it’s an insult, there’s a reason why Netflix is so successful, but traditional outlets, and now new ones, like Apple, are afraid to follow the paradigm.

We live in an attention economy. I hear about a good show and if it’s not available all at once, I don’t watch it, I figure I’ll pick it up when it’s complete, BUT I RARELY DO! Because my interest has been piqued by so many other productions that have come down the pipeline.

So how is Apple going to get my money every month?

WITH FORMULA ONE!

These are live events, they are inherently dripped-out, so if you’re interested, you’re not going to drop your subscription.

So I’m going to keep mine, and since I’m paying every month, I decided to delve in…

2

The Israelis and the Danes make the best television, which is kind of ironic in a world that has turned against the Jewish nation. Can you be pro-Palestinian and watch “Tehran”? I’ll let you decide.

And the truth is I thought we had watched one episode and were thumbs down. But it came up in therapy and since we’re paying anyway, I decided to pull it up, and I was wrong, we hadn’t seen it.

Now “Tehran” would be a much bigger show if it was on Netflix, if it were not behind a paywall that few people are laying down the cash to jump over. This is where distribution is king. Occasionally there’s a good show on MGM+, but really there’s almost nothing on the outlet, so I don’t subscribe. We have it much better in music, where everything is available for one low price (but that doesn’t keep people from complaining…)

The thing about Israeli television is it’s the exact opposite of American TV. In American productions it’s all whiz-bang, with stars. In an Israeli series, there can be extreme tension with very little happening. And needless to say, unless you’re a fan of Israeli TV, you don’t know the actors (although the same ones pop up regularly in series).

“Tehran” is not perfect, I’d call it a middling Israeli series, but compared to the dreck on most outlets, it’s a huge cut above.

Seemingly in each season there’s an action scene out of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Then again, the twists in the final episodes are always unpredictable.

On the other hand, the series is laden with near-misses. Just when they’re going to be caught, revealed…they escape. You get used to it, you accept it, but…

The funny thing is we’re at war with Iran right now. And “Tehran” just came out with a new season this year and that’s not a factor. But if you’ve been paying attention to the crisis…

But most people are not.

But this last season is all about the bomb. And ultimately, it’s the least satisfying, too many twists at the end… I won’t say it’s jumped the shark, like “Hacks,” with its “Amazing Race” episode, but usually you’re on pins and needles to the very end.

3

Now I recognized Niv Sultan from other Israeli shows, but she’s not slumming it, playing against character, trying to win an award like American actresses, in “Tehran.” You know, the big bad action hero bitch.

No, Sultan plays Tamar, who is subtle, and not always right, and not always in charge, but she’s true to her country first and foremost, she’s a spy, for the Mossad, which had a reputation as being unbeatable prior to October 7th.

Tamar is not one-dimensional, she’s not an automaton, she can’t just cast aside feelings.

So what we’ve got here is a Mossad operation in Tehran (the series is actually shot in Athens). And there’s an inherent tension in foreign operatives being in a country that does not look kindly on Jews…

And the first season is really good.

But the second is even better, with Glenn Close.

However the third…

It gets pulpy, but Sasson Gabai as the Owl portrays such an interesting character.

So you’ve got Tamar scurrying around on missions, which are run by the Mossad in a headquarters back in Israel that is akin to NASA Mission Control and… She’s on the street, in danger, and they’re all calm, cool and collected.

But this ain’t the United States.

Here we feel safe, untouchable. But Israel is one lost battle from being history.

And they might play Iranians, but they’re Israeli actors, and so believable in their roles, especially Shaun Toub as Faraz Kamali. Who despite everything, always comes back in defense of his country.

There’s a lot of cat and mouse, there’s a lot of changing of plans, and through it all you’re hooked. I’ve watched other series that have had me more tense, but this one is up there and…

Either you’ve seen it or you haven’t. Those who are Apple devotees have been watching it for years.

Still, most people have not seen “Tehran,” but it’s hiding in plain sight.

And although its events may not exactly parallel what’s happening in the real world today, there is the dissension within Iran… The unrest, those against the religious regime. They just killed 30,000 of them. Protesters Trump said he was going to support. Is there anybody who is going to rely on Trump anymore?

But everyone’s focused on Israel’s actions against Hezbollah, they’re critical of Jews, but they just can’t dig in or fathom what’s on the ground in Iran…

“Tehran” is a very good show, you should watch it.