“Shiffrin wins first WC downhill in two years”: https://bit.ly/36nQVNx

Life goes on.

This is what you learn as you age. All those once in a lifetime events? Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King, Evel Knievel jumping the Snake River Canyon? They’re hyped for months, then they come and go, and usually don’t live up to the buildup. Then again, there are the non-entertainment stories, the ones that are so outrageous, superseding our conceptions, that blow our minds and stick with us. Like walking on the moon. It’s my favorite Police song, but in the summer of 1969 when Neil Armstrong walked down that ladder and bounded on the surface you were glued to the screen, you couldn’t think about anything else. Well, there was a buildup, just like the Stones, we waited seemingly forever for Armstrong to emerge from the Lunar Module, but when he did…

Everybody remembers that. As well as the day President Kennedy was shot. And maybe today’s generation will remember 1/6, but seemingly everything else has come and gone. Oh, there are some personal memories, but shared ones that lived up to the billing? Very few.

Now one thing that Covid brought was death. Happens to us all, but almost all of us expect to live forever. Usually it’s a brush with cancer or some other health event that makes you aware of this. You survive, but now you know you’re mortal. But Covid, people dying all around us… Hell, they’ve already been forgotten, as has Covid been too. Masks are history. But if you read the legitimate news today, it’s a headline in the NYT and right up there in the WaPo, Omicron is surging in Europe. Now if you’re vaxxed, you should recover. But if not? And what does this mean for concerts, etc?

So Mikaela Shiffrin turned out to be a talker. It’s so funny, these athletes, so many “celebrities” are two-dimensional, despite social media, which is managed. But Shiffrin went on and on when interviewed after her losses at the Olympics. It seemed ugly that reporters were even asking questions, but Mikaela continued talking. Bode did, but most ski racers do not, the sport draws the strong, silent types.

But Shiffrin lost. When the whole world was watching. Now what?

Well, not a whole lot of success thereafter. Yes, life went on, the World Cup, which means one hell of a lot more to the racers than the Olympics, continued. But Shiffrin didn’t win. As a matter of fact, she was losing her lead in the World Cup overall. Maybe she was done. Maybe she couldn’t recover from the death of her father, maybe the Olympics were the nail in the coffin. This happens. Bo knows? Ask a youngster if they even know who Bo was! Same deal with the Boz.

But today Shiffrin won, in the downhill. Let’s see, that would be like Metallica having a number one pop song. Or conversely, Garth Brooks having a number one Active Rock track. Theoretically possible, but highly doubtful. Then again, there’s a lot more danger in ski racing. Physical, anyway.

But the whole world is not watching. Most Americans only pay attention to ski racing once every four years, at the above-referenced Olympics, but the White Circus goes on, in the rest of the world it’s about the World Cup, where there’s a hell of a lot more money. Not David Zaslav money, but more than the average working stiff earns. Did you see that Zaslav made $246 million last annum? That’s ugly, that’s offensive. In one year? After they’re finished with the oligarchs, can they please go after the billionaires? Who have abused the system to get ahead. Yes, paying government representatives to make sure their taxes are low. It’s like curling, these titans all hire lobbyists, lawyers, SWEEPERS, to make sure they get where they want to go.

Then again, money isn’t everything. But to those working multiple jobs to stay afloat it certainly is.

So life has a long arc. Then again, when you look back it always seems short. I remember dying to get out of college to start my real life, graduating from law school and feeling left behind in the music business. But most of those who skipped higher education flamed out long ago, and most don’t have much to show for their efforts. And there’s rampant ageism in music, the odds of being able to get a new job after 50? Nearly nonexistent. Even 40 or 45.

Today’s tragedy is tomorrow’s shoulder shrug. What seemed so overwhelming and terrible back then appears like just a blip on the radar screen in the rearview mirror.

So this week William Hurt dies. Timmy Thomas recently died, do you even know who he was? Richie Podolor, a legendary record producer, who cut those Three Dog Night hits, and a track I hear seemingly every day on SiriusXM that I can never seem to burn out on, Blues Image’s “Ride Captain Ride,” as well as Steppenwolf and the first Souther, Hillman, Furay album, which is a classic in my book, just passed away and he’s yet to get a mainstream obit, I haven’t seen one and that’s what the Google News says. And he was famous, he had worldwide success, most of us do not.

We just soldier on. Put one foot in front of the other. And most of the time, no one else is paying attention. Maybe our loved ones, but even they don’t know what goes on inside our brains.

It’s a conundrum. Life-changing events…frequently don’t change your life. The buzz goes down, eyeballs go elsewhere, and then you find yourself in the same place you always were, or close.

This is one of the downsides of victory. The high, the good feelings, don’t last that long, never mind the rest of the populace moving on.

As for the eyes of the world being upon you…they just need to focus on something, not necessarily your thing.

Most people grab the brass ring, reach the top and can’t sustain. Because it’s all about the goal, and once you get there, it’s hard to stay motivated. Like with the musicians, at least those who write and play their own songs, they thought if they had hits their lives would work, but they still didn’t, and then they couldn’t replicate the success.

It takes inner strength to carry on, never mind at an elite level. To compete and win you have to do so much behind the scenes, all that gym work… It’s like all the winners you see, you have no idea what they had to do to get there, almost no one else is willing to make the effort.

Especially athletes.

But I follow Mikaela. Because I’m interested in dominance. Which is why I won’t watch F1 this year, at least in the beginning. The story of Lewis Hamilton coming from behind to win the series, that’s amazing. But no, they decided they wanted to give it to someone else. But everybody has their time, let them establish records. Imagine if they’d pulled Babe Ruth so he wouldn’t have hit so many home runs, it’s the same thing.

So what can I tell you? Your life will go through twists and turns, many changes, and you’ve got to pay attention, because it’s easy to get caught in a backwater and get stuck and not progress. Opportunity exists until you die. But it’s a personal journey, it’s about character and backbone, you can’t be devastated by your losses, you’ve got to pick up and do it again.

So back in the late seventies the Kinks switched labels, from the moribund RCA, where they did good work which languished in the marketplace, to Arista, where Clive Davis was determined to return them to the chart.

Clive eventually did this. Mostly on bombastic arena rock. Kinks arena rock is superior to that of almost all comers, but it’s their more personal stuff that rings true, that we really remember.

And the second Arista outing, “Misfits,” is the band’s best work for the label.

But the first one, right out of the box, made more impact. You heard “Sleepwalker” on the radio. But it couldn’t compare to what was on the second side, the opener, “Juke Box Music,” and the closer…”Life Goes On.”

“Life Goes On” was and still is a killer. Great musically and lyrically, never mind Ray Davies’s unique, meaningful delivery.

So in the song, Ray, the singer, is down on his luck, having lost his “bank,” and he tries to commit suicide, but he didn’t pay the gas bill so he survives. And then Ray sings:

“Tornado, cyclone and hurricane

Can batter the houses with the thunder and rain

Blizzards can blow, the waves hit the shore

But the people recover and come back for more

Somehow the people fight back, even if the future looks black

Life goes on and on and on

Life goes on and on and on”

And that’s true.

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ilujua

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3JmzRpC

 

https://spoti.fi/3KN4vc5

Take Me To The Pilot

Sixty Years On

The King Must Die

Come Down In Time

My Father’s Gun

Where To Now St. Peter?

Amoreena

Friends

Seasons

Can I Put You On

Tiny Dancer

Holiday Inn

All The Nasties

Rocket Man

Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters

Teacher I Need You

Elderberry Wine

Have Mercy On The Criminal

This Song Has No Title

The Ballad Of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)

All The Girls Love Alice

Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)

Harmony

The Bitch Is Back

Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me

Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy

Tower Of Babel

Tell Me When The Whistle Blows

Philadelphia Freedom

Grow Some Funk Of Your Own

I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford)

Part Time Love

Little Jeannie

Blue Eyes

Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)

Club At The End Of The Street

Blue Avenue

Birds

All The Nasties-Piano Demo

Tune in today, March 15th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3w6WZEE

What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where John Oliver gets the Ticketmaster story exactly right?

One in which customers and legislators are too stupid to understand how the game works.

He labels Irving Azoff as uncharismatic, which I don’t agree with, you don’t become that successful without charisma, trust me, but Irving lays it out straight to the government and people still don’t get the story straight. TICKETMASTER IS A FRONT FOR THE ACTS! That’s right, your favorite act is most probably a greedy capitalist whilst telling you they are not. Sure, there are exceptions. But in a world where credibility and entertainment rarely ever meet, where the buck is king, where the Kardashians become richer than any singer sans any visible talent, it’s a rare performer who can say no. Especially when no one finds out the truth! That’s right, they keep saying the fan is first (after God, of course), but in truth the fan is at the absolute bottom of the pyramid. Because they can get much more money from corporations, Fitty made much more money from flavored water than he did from music. So, the acts say one thing but do another.

Like Metallica.

Yes, Metallica was an AEG act. And then became a Live Nation act.

Now I’m going to tell you something you may not have heard, it’ll be a revelation, THERE ARE ONLY A HUNDRED CENTS IN A DOLLAR! That’s right, there’s only so much money that can be generated by a concert.

Now Jimmy Buffett’s ticket sales were so consistent, sellouts were guaranteed, therefore he was paid in excess of a hundred percent of the gross. You ask me, Bob, how can that be?

Well, there’s parking, and food and drink, and merch and…ticket fees.

You see the money has to come from somewhere. And if you want more money, be prepared for the shenanigans to rear their ugly head.

Let’s start with Michael Cohl, the Canadian concert promoter who invented this paradigm, most notably with the Rolling Stones. I’ll pay you an incredible sum, BUT DON’T ASK ME HOW I MAKE MY MONEY BACK!

The promoter isn’t going to lose, not on a guaranteed sellout. Maybe the promoter scalps his own tickets. He knows the show is gonna sell out, so he’s already come up with ways to make a profit, and the act makes the sign of the cross and pleads ignorance, it’s not their business. But of course it is, because they took the huge guarantee.

So, AEG was already paying Metallica as much as possible. To go to Live Nation…they had to get more. And one was a giveback, the ability to scalp tickets given to the band.

Now let’s be clear. This happens all day long. Oliver even referenced this. But by doing this one tour with Live Nation and getting caught out, the story will not die, because everything lives forever on the internet.

But I’m going to tell you a dirty little secret, THE BAND’S FANS DON’T CARE!

I know that sounds insane, but it’s only the non-Metallica fans who are bothered by this.

A perfect example being Motley Crue, who signed in blood that they were retiring, AND THEN CAME BACK!

Yes, you say you’re retiring so fans will come to the final show. But it isn’t. I remember one band on a farewell tour that had its new album scheduled for a few months later. This was years ago, AND THEY’RE STILL ON THE ROAD!

Which is why the Eagles called one of their recent tours “Farewell 1.” It was a joke, maybe a bit inside, and in truth subsequent tours have had different monikers, but the Eagles are a rare exception, BECAUSE THEY CHARGE WHAT THE TICKETS ARE WORTH!

They’re not the only ones. The Rolling Stones are famous for this, and they flex the prices, like airline seats, yes, the person sitting next to you could have paid less, too bad, you’re there, you’re happy, I mean it’s the Stones, RIGHT?

And my inbox is filling up with people complaining about $500 Paul McCartney tickets, and those aren’t even the best ones. But history tells us people will pay the price, it’s raw economics.

But these three acts are legends. They’ve nearly transcended the business. Everybody knows who they are, their songs are part of the classic rock canon, so they don’t bother to play the game all the rest of the acts do.

Now insiders have known all of the above from day one.

And it’s this way BECAUSE THIS IS HOW THE BUSINESS WANTS IT! Entirely opaque, with Ticketmaster taking the heat instead of the acts.

And needless to say, all those fees don’t go to Ticketmaster, but fans believe this. People run on emotion, not fact. And if you do this, you’ll never be a titan like Irving. This is business. And there are immutable laws. Like I said above, there’s only a hundred cents in the dollar. If the act is getting all of the ticket revenue, which is de rigueur these days, everybody else in the food chain must have some way to make a profit, and one of those ways is via the fees….to the promoter, the building and even the act.

Everything I’ve written above I’ve said before, but it just doesn’t penetrate. You’re telling me it’s a business and everybody knows the economics and the main drivers of the problems are the acts? That’s like killing Bambi, or saying there’s no Santa Claus, it can’t possibly be true!

And there was a definitive book about all this a few years back, but the writers broke the number one rule of writing….SOMETIMES YOU’VE GOT TO LEAVE THE BEST STUFF OUT, because it detracts from the story. It’s all in “Ticket Masters,” it’s just the end result is unreadable.

As for the government… These wankers can’t understand seemingly anything, they just grandstand so they can get re-elected.

But the news media is even worse. Parroting all the falsehoods the industry keeps feeding them. They never stop and ask themselves…IS THIS TRUE?

That’s right, they’re in the news business. But they just go on camera, even write exactly what the players tell them, it makes good headlines, and they like the access and the tickets themselves!

And then an English comedian, who has little kids and probably never even goes to a show, or if he does gets tickets directly from the act or promoter (there are always tickets for VIPs, however I must tell you they are not free, those days are long gone), goes on camera and in twenty minutes nails the story, gets it exactly right. Oh, you can complain he emphasized this instead of that, but let’s not nitpick, his presentation is the most accurate in the history of Ticketmaster.

So now what happens?

NOTHING! That’s right absolutely NOTHING! Because this is the way EVERYBODY LIKES IT!

Yes, the acts, the promoters, the buildings and Ticketmaster, they’re all making money, Live Nation’s stock keeps going up.

As for the fans… THEY LOVE SCALPERS! It’s the only way they can get a good seat to a show.

People are delusional. And the biggest complainers are those not really in the game, like the marginal acts complaining about Spotify payouts. The truth is the fan wants the seat, and you’d be surprised how they’ll pay the freight. Yes, someone working a service job will pay $500 to sit in the first ten rows for their favorite act. And the only way they have access is through a broker.

I’ll go one step further. In a lot of live events, those on the selling side LOVE the brokers. Baseball… You’ve got 162 games a year and there are people who will come along and buy every home game, hoping to make their money back when the Yankees come to town, if the team hits the playoffs. Who knows, your team could suck this year, but you’ve already made bank from the scalpers.

That’s right, the people bitching loudly are the ones who believe they’re entitles to a front row seat for superstars, Bruno Mars and Adele, for under a hundred dollars. First and foremost, demand for these acts far outstrips the supply. Only one act has superseded this paradigm. Garth Brooks. He goes to a market, charges little compared to other acts, and plays until demand runs out. Multiple shows. So there is no scalping. There’s no money to be made, the fans know they can get in for a reasonable price, face value.

And then there’s paperless. Which the fans HATE! Because the fans are scalpers too. They buy as many tickets as they can and then put the extra up on secondary sites and…

There’s no hope.

The only real hope is to have the acts charge what the tickets are worth.

And in truth, for many acts they’re worth a fortune. They can sell out the entire floor at $500 a ducat. But they’re afraid they’ll look bad. Which of course makes no sense, because they’re all bragging about how much money they’re making. They should be proud of their high ticket prices. One thing is for sure, THE FANS ARE GOING TO PAY THEM!

Unfortunately, the markup goes to the scalpers, third parties, which is why acts scalp their own tickets, to get in on the action.

Now while I’ve been writing this, they’ve finally put this Oliver episode on YouTube. That’s right, despite HBO being a pay service, they give it away for free, because it’s good marketing. How can it be that HBO is more savvy than musicians? The number one way you make a fan is expose them to your art, you make the barrier low. You want to eliminate the free tier on Spotify, which is supported by advertising, and therefore pays less…but be prepared for people to miss your act. And Spotify will tell you that the free tier converts listeners to the pay tier. But you don’t want to believe that, because it doesn’t FEEL RIGHT!

Which brings us back to the very beginning. John Oliver nailed the live entertainment business. I don’t know how many people watch his show on HBO, but seven figures watch the videos on YouTube every week. But what does this really mean? It’s like the acts complaining their songs are being streamed a million times and they’re not millionaires. In context, IT’S JUST NOT THAT MUCH!

But John Oliver has credibility. And in the news business, he’s got pretty good numbers. And he’s entertaining. So his show will edify a number of people.

But the ones complaining most won’t watch, they’d rather hate on Ticketmaster.

Which brings us back to the fact that despite Oliver nailing it, I doubt there will be any change, everybody in the food chain likes it this way.

Oh, let me just add one thing. The hysteria. You remember that Hannah Montana tour, with all the parents bitching they couldn’t get tickets for their kids, or they were prohibitively expensive? Well, the next time around Miley went out totally paperless. AND THE SHOWS DIDN’T SELL OUT! It was the mania, the perceived scarcity that drove people to buy tickets.

After all, it’s show business.

Can you trust the man behind the curtain?

No, but you can’t trust those on stage either!

P.S. Don’t expect any of the above to be reported in trade papers. They’re in on the game, they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them. Even worse, “Billboard” is now consumer-facing, ever since trade advertising tanked, they don’t want to upset the fans who don’t want the truth anyway.

P.P.S. As for the straight media, they’ve missed this story for decades. They just can’t understand it. Which makes Oliver’s program so revelatory. I mean shouldn’t this be in the “New York Times”? Then again, video reaches more people and you can’t write an entertaining story in the “Times,” it’s got to be dry, leaving all personality out, which is why John Oliver has more reach. But no one reaches everybody these days. And if people can’t get it right when it comes to entertainment, don’t expect them to get it right on politics, which is the same game, I hate to tell you. Only in this case it’s all about fundraising and guarantees and payoffs…but the end result is the same, IT’S OPAQUE! The word Oliver used. No one else has been able to delineate the facts clearly outside of the music business. KUDOS!