This is what America voted for. This is what America WANTS!

For far too long politicians have been afraid of their constituencies. And you can’t win a battle on fear. Rather than doing what is right, they’ve focused on doing nothing, to the point where people dismiss D.C. as a gridlocked backwater. And then a President comes along and leads and everybody is shocked, positively shocked I tell you!

The truth is gerrymandering has helped the Republicans win elections, but it has also made them beholden to the extreme right in their own party, to the point where the party majordomos have lost control. It used to be simple, talk low taxes, government waste and trickle down economics, sprinkle in some religious and culture issues and voila, you’ve got a victory! But then the disenfranchised blue collar Democrats became Republicans and it was no longer about big business, but personal interests, and those in charge of the party have been flummoxed ever since. What do you do when the majority of your voters prefer national health care but you’ve got a vocal minority against it? You placate the minority, because otherwise you’ll be primaried. Like Abbott in Texas. He reluctantly instituted a mask mandate in 2020 and now he’s being run against by those further right, and we’ve seen time and again those further right tend to win, because they don’t cotton to sausage making, they don’t believe in compromise, they’re all about digging in their heels and refusing to budge. And therefore we’ve got one party in Congress whose entire agenda is just making sure the other party passes no legislation, makes no progress, and you end up with the majority frustrated, since Republicans are a distinct minority who as a result of the aforesaid gerrymandering and the Electoral College have punched way above their weight in representation for years. You can win yet lose, just ask Hillary Clinton.

But Biden won by a significant majority of the popular vote. Which was focused foremost on getting rid of Trump.

Trump… He ruled with an iron fist, willy-nilly, and despite protesting, the Democrats ultimately acquiesced and ate it. The Democrats fight twenty first century wars with twentieth century strategies. October 2nd there will be rallies in support of women’s reproductive rights. What will be the result? NOTHING! Come on, all that protesting during Trump’s tenure, did he listen to it, did any of the Republican elected officials listen to it and change their behavior? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Isn’t that the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

And one thing is for sure, Trump bungled the Coronavirus. Reacting late if at all and proffering bogus medical solutions all the while. It’s one of the reasons he lost his job. And it was not only the failure to address Covid-19, but the concomitant crash of the economy.

Which worries Biden too.

I think Joe is most concerned with the citizenry, but not far behind is the economy. The more people go unvaxxed, the more the Delta variant rages, the more the economy sinks. Did you see the airlines are going back into the hole? Think about that, you bitched about all the money the government gave them and then the country opened up and they were flying profitably and now, because of people’s “freedom” and the resulting fear of those who are vaxxed to go anywhere, the airlines are tanking once again. But it’s not only the airlines, across the board business are faltering. But if the economy were up and running…

And the truth is despite states like Florida and Texas being open for business, they’re not bastions of 100% Republicans, they have sizable Democratic populations who refuse to leave their houses, who are scared of dying. Meanwhile, the unvaxxed aren’t afraid at all, despite having an eleven times more chance of passing from Covid-19 than those who’ve gotten the jab. Then again, fact are fungible, just ask Kellyanne Conway. If you close your eyes and pray you can make anything go away. And it doesn’t really hurt until it affects you personally.

So one thing the right has done is stack the courts. All the way from the bottom to the top. So, governors and other elected officials know that if you go to the Supreme Court, you’ve got a good chance of winning. Look, the Court punted on the Texas abortion law, allowing it go into effect.

But that’s not what Biden is banking on. It’s OSHA.

The Republican governors, never mind their constituencies, have no grounding in the law, they think everything can be brought to court and everything can be appealed when this is patently untrue. Not only does Biden have the right under OSHA, you can’t appeal every decision, you must have standing and a basis for that appeal. Just losing is not enough. There must have been an error in the trial court. Not that Americans know this, having watched too much prime time television, which the last time I checked was FICTION!

So Biden leads. I’d say he threw the long ball, but in truth he didn’t throw that far at all, he just decided to act.

Democrats aren’t supposed to do this, they’re supposed to be AFRAID! Of not only the Republicans but other Democrats. Commit a sexual faux pas as a Democrat and your party executes you. Do the same as a Republican and you’re still a member of the party, you still hold your office, almost no one even talks about Matt Gaetz anymore, he’s still in Congress. As for Al Franken, a Harvard educated comedian? He makes jokes and is sidelined, even though we need his intelligence and voice of reason in the Senate now more than ever.

So Biden wins the nomination. Seemingly everybody was surprised. It looked like he was down and out. And then he won the election, anybody but Trump, just ask all the Republicans who defected. And the right wing canard is he’s a senile old man beholden to the progressives and ultimately ineffective. But you can label someone all day long, but it comes down to what he DOES!

Biden got us out of Afghanistan. Something the majority of Americans wanted. The exit is akin to the Affordable Care Act. Fought over when it happens, embraced after it’s over. As for the execution of the exit, the more that comes out the better it looks. NATO just said the U.S. did tell its partners it was leaving Afghanistan, in April, it’s not like they were really surprised. But when the exit looked like a mess they wanted to disconnect from the U.S., to look good. We kept on hearing that the U.S. has lost its stature, its power, but you know the next time any of these allies are in trouble the first call is going to be to the American government. The U.S., Bush and Cheney, made a bad call. Subsequent presidents were afraid to make a bad call, so they just stayed there. And now Biden does the right thing. As for Trump…he said he was gonna do the right thing, but now that Biden executed the plan he flip-flopped, because that’s the rule of Republicans, whatever a Democrats says or does, just take the opposite side.

Like with vaccines. Trump supports them, delivers them, but then Administrations flip and vaccines are anathema.

And those Republicans saying we left too many people behind in Afghanistan, not only do they not want the refugees in the U.S., after all they’re immigrants, the scourge of our nation, it was just found out there’s been an outbreak of measles, and the Afghanis are being quarantined, unable to land in the States. Think about that, if they only got vaccinated there would be no issue. But don’t think too hard, because the logic employed by the right doesn’t make sense. And it is the right. No false equivalencies.

So kids must go to school, but they must not wear masks and vaccinations must not be required. What’s the end result? INFECTION! And kids are dying, teachers are infecting students. But in the name of freedom, the status quo must be maintained. Colleges in the north require vaccination, those in the south don’t, end result? INFECTION! For people who keep telling us they want to protect the children they seem to be doing a lousy job of it.

And it’s not like the elected officials testifying aren’t vaccinated, it’s not like Tucker Carlson and the rest of the bloviators are not vaccinated, as Biden stated on Thursday, a claim that has gone unchallenged, but they’re afraid of those beholden to rumors and false facts and on Fox they’re fanning these flames, because it’s the opposite opinion of the Democrats and they’re afraid of losing ground to outlets even further right, like Newsmax and OAN. To the point where Trump finally says to get the vaccine and he gets BOOED!

Yes, there were all these lines in the sand. That were going to make the reluctant get vaccinated. Frank Luntz said if Trump testified people would get the shot. Hmm…no. The media told us if the vaccine was approved by the FDA people’s fears would be alleviated and they’d get the jab. Hmm…no. They’re like the Democrats who believe protest can sway Abbott…NO WAY!

So what do you do when nothing soft works, you take action, you mandate. Which Biden has done.

And almost everyone is on his side. Not only the vaccinated, but the corporations, they were looking for leadership. It’s just the vocal minority and those beholden to them who are complaining. And didn’t we decide it was about elections, the majority as opposed to the one with the loudest voice? The Democrats have cowered previously but now Biden takes action and the right is shocked, positively shocked I tell you.

And why not get the jab?

Let’s be clear, the truth is almost everybody is afraid of needles. It’s just that simple. As for deleterious effects of vaccines, the intelligentsia, everybody the unvaxxed rely on, have gotten the shot. So if it’s really bad, if it kills you, the unvaxxed are going to have no one to rely on, no doctors, no techies, it’ll be like a “Twilight Zone” episode. God, why is everybody so afraid in America? I thought we were a can-do nation. We went to the moon, we invented the internet, never mind the smartphone, but when they tell us vaccines will save our lives, NO WAY! And it’s not like most people haven’t gotten a slew of vaccines already. It’s just that this one has become politicized.

This is what we wanted, leadership. This is what we voted for. We didn’t only want Trump gone, we wanted to be led out of the wilderness, we wanted order. And now we’ve got someone who’s giving it to us. HALLELUJAH!

As for Biden himself… I winced when I saw him reading from the teleprompter. Then again, at least he can read, unlike Trump. And why do we hold our elected officials to such high standards, when most people at home can’t read from the teleprompter. They’re just people. And the goal is to gather information, via committee, we don’t want isolated dictators, and make educated decisions. Biden does this but he’s laughable? Isn’t this what we want?

As for the attacks on Kamala Harris… Tell me again what a vice president should do? What did Pence do, other than bungle the handling of the coronavirus problem. VPs hang in the background and wait for the president to die. It’s just that simple. But since Harris is a DEMOCRAT, furthermore black and a woman, she deserves attack. Credit Harris, she’s seen and heard it before, she’s not bothering to respond, you never take the bait.

Then again, Biden is biting back. Not only is he calling out Republican officials, he’s standing his ground, like Republican John Wayne in a western. HAVE AT IT! He’s calling the right wing out. He’s not getting under the table and saying nothing. How come the right can call people out, taunt the left, but Democrats can’t do this? Huh punk!

And the truth is you’re on one side or the other. Nothing I write is going to change your mind and that’s not why I’m writing this. I’m writing this to set the scene, to tell you what is going on. It’s no different from the government tolerating protestors and then moving to evacuate them. Remember Occupy Wall Street? And after the protestors were gone, life went on. Which is what is going to happen here. People will get vaccinated and be happy about it. They will live, and ultimately that’s what it’s all about, no one wants to die for the cause, no one, especially when they don’t have to.

So the tide has turned. And you don’t want to go against it. Did you see that woman yelling at people wearing masks in the supermarket? The video went viral and SAP, her employer, fired her. Do you want to take that risk? And government subsidies are in most cases gone, so you don’t want to lose your job, no way. You might grumble, but you’ll get the shot.

And those reluctant to do so will become a member of an ever-shrinking group, they’ll be pariahs. Akin to soldiers left behind in Japan who were still fighting the war years on. It’s over, get in line, there’s no profit in staying behind, and the truth is your brethren will sell you out in an instant, they’ll tell you to go unvaxxed after they’ve gotten the shot, claiming their employer made them do it, or their spouse is immunocompromised. You do it, not me!

So Trump issues an edict and it stands, despite the blowback. But Biden isn’t entitled to do this? Furthermore, Biden is trying to save lives!

You might think the unvaxxed are a huge force, but the truth is their governors are puppets and they live in an echo chamber akin to a cult, where they never hear contrary information and if you go against the leader you’re excoriated.

America is about truth. And almost all of the information from the unvaxxed is not.

America is about justice. Majority rules. The safety of Americans is paramount.

And the American Way. Ever since World War II America has been the undisputed leader of the world. Not only in science, but the arts. America is the bleeding edge, which lifted up our entire populace. But now we’re so busy squabbling China is making headway. And Britain is even worse. The yahoos voted for Brexit and now not only is it almost impossible for musicians to tour the Continent, the shelves are bare because there aren’t enough truck drivers. Even worse, taxes had to be raised to fund the NHS, which was supposed to burgeon after Brexit. But too many uneducated people in the hinterlands voted on emotions, voted on FREEDOM, hating immigrants, ultimately to their detriment. Are we going to let this happen in America? HELL NO!

1

It was a musical turning point.

I found out about the attack on the Twin Towers from Kate, she called and invited me to her house to watch TV, we needed to all be together.

And then I woke up my computer.

It was a Power Mac G4. I’d started with a Mac Plus in ’86 and then went to a Performa in ’95 when the software exceeded its capabilities and when that fried I’d purchased the G4, the top of the line, the state of the art. Now not only does Apple no longer use Motorola chips, it is phasing out Intel chips for those of its own construction. The end result is much faster computing, however speed hasn’t been an issue for years, but hardware was king at the turn of the century.

So I fired up AOL and saw the news. I’d already switched from TV to internet. And, of course, AOL was a walled garden, with at this point access to the internet, and I already had a high speed cable connection, to download music, and AOL had purchased Time Warner a little over a year earlier and… AOL cratered shortly thereafter, most people have no idea who owns it now and that’s how you know you’re dealing with an oldster, they still have an AOL e-mail address when most people moved on to the far better performing Gmail years ago. As for Time Warner? It’s been sold for pieces. Warner Records is an independent company, the cable system was sold to Charter Communications and stunningly, AT&T purchased HBO, the basic cable channels and the film studio, although now that’s been essentially laid off too. And HBO, with its Max streaming service, is the focus, where the eyeballs and money are, the film studio isn’t quite an afterthought, but it’s close. A lot can happen in twenty years.

So if you’re of a certain age you remember where you were when Kennedy was shot. And it seemed everybody remembered 9/11, but now there are people in the armed services who weren’t even born when it happened. It’s fading in the rearview mirror. Took them a long time to rebuild, but the Freedom Tower is now there. As is the museum, which is a must-see, go and dedicate some time, although they recently announced a budget cut and a reduction in new exhibits, that’s how much people really care about 9/11, it always comes down to the money.

So I went to Kate’s house where we talked as we watched and the most memorable thing I saw was someone jumping out of the building to their death. It was shocking, but then the news outlets decided not to show that anymore, it was almost like I hadn’t seen it, I had to check myself, but if you go to the museum you’ll see pictures of the jumpers. Think about how awful it must be to jump to your death to save yourself from burning up, end result is the same, but both options are horrific.

Today everything is online, even suicides. They try to take them down, but the social media networks leak like a sieve, and when the envelope is pushed the software is not ready to excise that which is offensive.

So for a while there, we were freaked out. Took about a day to figure out what had happened and then the question was…is it going to happen again? This people were not prepared for, they’d felt safe in America, but we’re still not safe today, despite the news that our reservoirs and power grids are not protected from bad actors, they’re still mostly unprotected, despite ransomware being ever more prevalent. Future wars will be fought by computers, and if you really want to have a say you’ve got to know not only how to use them, but how they work. A kid makes a PowerPoint presentation in elementary school, most boomers still have no idea how to do so. Boomers are still afraid of their computers, kids are not. Then again, boomers remember when one false move could crash your computer, and it was just a matter of time until your hard drive crashed. You had to back up! But now not only do electronic devices work so much better, and are so much heartier in their underpinnings, your work is stored in the cloud, your end device in many cases is just a dumb terminal, look at the inroads of Chromebooks.

Now Kennedy was shot on a Friday, we had all weekend, without work, to be glued to the news. 9/11 was on a Tuesday. America essentially shut down. The movers and shakers were stuck where they were, planes didn’t fly, and there was a sense of community, that’s what happens when you’re all in a virtual foxhole. Then again, those not in New York City had no idea of what it was like to be there, and interestingly it was those in the most rural locations who were convinced the terrorists were coming to their hamlet next, so they gave the government a ton of powers, sacrificing their privacy, because they didn’t want to die. Now these same people are mad the government wants to make them get a vaccine.

2

Napster was killed in the spring of 2001. KaZaA was growing, but the music business was still flourishing, CDs were still flying out the door, and MTV and VH1 were still extremely powerful. The VMAs were a cultural rite, not to be missed, today they’re just a branding opportunity for performers most people don’t know the name of and don’t care to know the name of.

But music was still a juggernaut. In addition, it was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption, something the film and TV businesses are still going through. The music business learned you must give the public what it wants, the visual sphere still thinks it can dictate, it’s now in a fever over piracy, not knowing that if you put all the media in one location for one low price people won’t bother to pirate. Then again, the film and TV businesses have always looked down on music, despite music paying so many of the bills in the twentieth century, music was a cash cow.

But in 2001 the musicians were still powerful, gods, known for their music, not their shenanigans. And the way to bring everybody together was to have a concert, on all networks, on Friday night.

Today the value of a live benefit concert is de minimis, nearly worthless. Everybody is available on demand online and during Covid-19 there were so many live streams that they’re no longer special. You’ll tune in to see your favorites, after that, it’s a time suck. This is not 1985, this is not Live Aid, your time is precious and you don’t want to waste it, and we live in an on demand world and why should you spend time on anything you don’t care about? Not that the media has caught up with this. Awards show ratings have fallen through the floor, but they’re still suckers for live benefits, when the truth is the last one that meant anything was Live 8, and that’s mostly because of the appearance of the reunited Pink Floyd.

But Pink Floyd wouldn’t motivate all viewers today. Not even Journey with Steve Perry. The acts still seem relevant to those who remember their heyday, but most of America does not, never mind the twenty first century being about hip-hop and not rock.

So you could be cynical about “America: A Tribute to Heroes,” which aired ten days after the attacks, but that Friday night, I don’t know a single person who did not watch the four network show. Now there are youngsters who never ever watch network television, they find a cable subscription to be a rip-off, why pay for all that stuff you don’t want to watch, in many cases they don’t even have TVs! They just watch streaming shows on their laptops, or their phones, even though the same boomers still nostalgic for the antiquated theatre experience can’t accept this, even though the films are shot digitally, edited digitally and the standard of production is an LG OLED TV, which you can buy at home and then have the same experience. What are you missing? Paying twenty bucks to be in a room of noisy people looking at their phones?

3

So the main force behind “America: A Tribute to Heroes” was Jimmy Iovine, majordomo at Interscope Records, back when major labels still dominated the landscape. There’s not a record exec that powerful anymore, no way. And despite decrying technology, i.e. “theft,” Iovine kept coming up with ways to beat the system and make a fortune for himself and ultimately it was headphones, and after selling Beats to Apple Jimmy stayed on for a while, but he was out of time and out of touch, Iovine is now a billionaire art collector, leading the good life, he’s gone from the scene.

As for Bruce Springsteen… He can sell out on Broadway, just not in the rest of the world. Springsteen, a second or third generation rocker after the British Invasion, depending upon how you calculate, is the last tie to credibility. He dyes his hair and is conscious of his image, but he still makes new music and the press eats it up and so do his fans, but almost nobody else. His rendition of “My City of Ruins” was very powerful. But the subsequent “The Rising” album can’t hold a candle to his twentieth century work.

U2? They don’t go clean everywhere either. And after selling their album to Apple via Iovine they became hated, people don’t like anything forced upon them these days, we live in a pull economy. As for tech companies paying for albums… That was a nonstarter, but if you are a star, they’ll pay you for exclusive video documentaries. U2, like Springsteen, still puts out new music, like Springsteen in the old manner, albums every few years as opposed to dropping tracks constantly like today’s players, and they both look like dinosaurs, Springsteen playing to the boomers, U2 to the Gen-X’ers. As for everybody else? They don’t seem to care.

Faith Hill. Remember when she was one of the biggest names in country music, when it was still country music, before it became a lame version of seventies rock?

Tom Petty… He’s dead.

The Goo Goo Dolls…this was their peak, it was all downhill from here.

The Dixie Chicks…were soon to be exiled and despite shortening their name they’ve never come back, they’re a period piece.

Dave Matthews? He was a creature of VH1. Remember when fans were up in arms that he shelved a Steve Lillywhite production in favor of a Glen Ballard album in search of hits? It worked, but today Dave is an outdoor summer treat for those who lived through it, kind of like James Taylor, they both do amazing business at the box office, but those who don’t go are unaware and happily so.

Celine Dion? “Titanic” was in ’97, her fans still want to see her in concert, but she can’t get arrested with new recordings.

Paul Simon? Retired from touring.

Sheryl Crow? The queen of music television had the chutzpah to play a new song and for me it was the highlight of the night. You only had to hear “Safe and Sound” once to be moved, but the album of this concert didn’t come out until December, when most no longer cared, whereas today everything is available instantly.

Willie Nelson? A man out of time. He’s still as hip as he ever was, which proves if you want to last you should never follow trends. And back in 2001 if you asked us if weed could be legal, we would have said…NO WAY!

Sting? He’s got a new single, but without his Police bandmates his live business is far from strong.

Eddie Vedder? He’s got a new single too, and Pearl Jam does good live business, but if you’re not a Gen-X’er you ignore them.

Bon Jovi? Richie Sambora is no longer even in the group!

Mariah Carey? Known for her pipes? A joke who is constantly criticized for being unable to hit the notes live.

Wyclef Jean… Who?

Enrique Iglesias… Who?

As for Neil Young, he no longer has any power, no one from his era does, he used to speak and people listened, Young called today’s concerts superspreader events and it had absolutely no impact, the show must go on.

Stevie Wonder? Great, but he burned himself out in the seventies, with one of the best album runs ever.

And then there’s the curious case of Billy Joel, who by this point refused to release any new music and still hasn’t and is bigger than all the acts above! Billy’s depending upon the songs, it all comes down to the songs.

But not today.

4

Today…

Piracy? We’re thrilled you care enough to steal it! Will you please listen to my music! They said the internet would kill the incentive to make music and now we’re inundated in product, it’s never-ending, 60,000 tracks are uploaded to Spotify…A DAY!

No one will pay for music? Seemingly everyone is paying for music, on a monthly basis. I haven’t heard a person say they stole a song in years. Sure, some people never buy, but before the internet most people never bought, or only purchased one album a year.

Distribution? You needed the major label! Now distribution is wide open and essentially free to anyone, the friction is gone.

Radio? Find someone under twenty who still listens, I can’t find one.

CDs? I have three computers, none of them has a CD drive, nor does my automobile.

Meaningful songs that depict the heart and the soul of the culture? The biggest story of the past week is the beef between Kanye and Drizzy, it’s no different from professional wrestling. Turns out cartoons are the lowest common denominator, so you can get people to eat up this crap and go see the superhero movies but if you’re not interested…you’re not interested, AND MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT INTERESTED!

Melody? It’s now all beats.

Writing your own songs, making a statement from the heart? Now there can be eighteen writers on one song, songs are built brick by brick, it’s not about inspiration so much as calculation.

TikTok? Too many in the creative community don’t understand that the power is now in the hands of the proletariat. They decide what is a hit. You can do endless press and still reach no one other than those in your core audience, if they even get the message.

And then there are some things that never changed, that went through a few evolutions but are now back to where they once belonged, how they were in the beginning. I.e. e-mail. All the buzz is about Substack and newsletters, however only Heather Cox Richardson has seemed to garner a big audience with this model with a concomitant growth in esteem. Everybody else is writing to a tiny audience, thinking this is a good way to make a living when it’s not. What did we learn back in 2001? You’ve got to give it away free and make money on the ancillaries. The musicians learned this, Rihanna hasn’t put out new music for half a decade and she’s a billionaire!

As for tech… It was the wild west, it was all we talked about, we were constantly getting new gadgets. Now, the game of musical chairs is over, there are only a few platforms extant and if you don’t sell to them, you’re never going to succeed, because if you have a good idea they’ll compete with you and kill you.

Politics? It’s the new tech. It’s visceral, it’s life and death. That’s what those on both sides of the vaccine argument believe. The vaxxed think the unvaxxed are spreading the variant and more mutations will occur and the unvaxxed think the vaccine will kill them. As for science?

We’ve sold our souls to the 1’s and 0’s. But somehow people still won’t trust them. It’s astounding, you’ve got a computer in your hand, that almost never crashes, and it’s all built on 1’s and 0’s. But when it comes to science…it’s up for grabs, you must do your own research.

As for smartphones, they’re for texting and surfing the web, a young person never wants to talk on the phone, oftentimes they don’t even bother to set up their voice mail, or if they do they let it fill up and never check it.

So the big wheel keeps on turning, and we keep rollin’ down the river.

There are those in the music business who’ll tell you you’re too old, you don’t get it, that it’s the same as it ever was. WRONG! It couldn’t be more different!

And in an on demand world where everybody has cheap access to the same things it’s all now all about experiences, and concerts are the ultimate, people clamor to go. Yet you’ve got a media still focused on record sales and acts bitching they’re not making enough money on recordings when there are so many new avenues of compensation. So either they’re not innovative enough, stuck in the past, or they’re not good enough, but everybody in America, even the lowliest uneducated punk, thinks they’re as wise and talented as the President.

There’s no center, no common truth. People believe in their devices more than they do in any music.

And it is streams, even though “Billboard,” the “Bible,” turns everything into sales. CD sales are infinitesimal, unless you bundle them with t-shirts and other chozzerai in an effort to game the charts, which works, but you also make a ton of money doing it, getting more dollars from fewer people. Mass is passé, never forget it.

So the world has changed immensely from 2001. Completely different acts dominate recordings, despite the old acts still doing boffo at the b.o. But those acts triumphed in a different era, when we were all paying attention, when music could change the world.

It can’t anymore.

Paul Anka is a raconteur who tells us not only about his new album, but his writing process and 60+ years in the business, from bus tours with Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers to the Copa to Vegas to writing the theme song for “The Tonight Show” and “My Way” for Frank Sinatra. This is history come alive, with a lot of insight baked in, you’ll dig this.

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://listen.stitcher.c

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/paul-anka-86672109

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/id1316200737

LINE OF DUTY

It’s the U.K.’s most watched drama series of the century.

Now when you hear “English show,” many think of PBS, period pieces, history, stuff for intellectuals with no edge. But not “Line of Duty.”

But “Line of Duty” is not on PBS.

Due to a rights issue, “Line of Duty” can be streamed on two outlets in the U.S., Acorn and BritBox. But only BritBox has season six, the latest one, which premiered earlier in the year across the pond.

So what we’ve got here is a police show. And what it’s really about is the police policing the police. AC-12 is the anti-corruption outfit, and it’s run by Ted Hastings, aka “The Gaffer,” i.e. Irish actor Adrian Dunbar.

You’ll recognize Dunbar, from “The Crying Game” and “My Left Foot,” but all the action in adult entertainment, and I don’t mean XXX, is now on the flat screen. Dunbar alone is worth the price of admission, but there’s so much more.

This is a dense show. And it is a labyrinth, kind of a whodunit. With twists and turns. But they don’t seem artificial, “Line of Duty” is not just an amusement park ride. AC-12 keeps peeling back the layers of the onion, trying to get to the truth, in a department that keeps saying there’s no corruption, think about that.

So the truth is most TV is awful, and so much is mediocre. There’s a limited amount of great stuff, and like pornography, you know it when you see it. And “Line of Duty” is truly great, you’ll power right through it, eating it up.

So to make it easy for you, fire up the Amazon Prime app. I know you’re a subscriber, for the quick delivery if nothing else. (And the cheap hi-res music streaming too!) Search for “Line of Duty” and…

You’ll find it on Acorn and BritBox, and in this case subscribe to BritBox, since it has the aforementioned sixth season.

And it’s not going to cost you a penny. You get seven days free, meaning if you’ve already watched seasons one to five of “Line of Duty,” you can sign on to BritBox and watch the sixth for free, you know you can finish it in seven days.

But if you’re a newbie…give it a chance, watch a few episodes. I nearly guarantee you’ll dig it, and if you don’t… Just launch Amazon and go in and cancel the service. It’s not easy to find, but it’s not that hard. If you can’t figure it out, just call Amazon, they’re very helpful, that’s why you shop there, for the service, for the trustworthiness. And I know some of you hate Amazon, and the company has many heinous behaviors, but when you sign off, when you stop using it, you accomplish nothing. When something is that appealing, you can’t kill it, you can only supersede it, or hope to improve it. Turned out downtown couldn’t be saved by boycotting Walmart, people wanted the low prices. But Amazon trumped Walmart and something could trump Amazon but it’d be damn hard and…

Y

ou can subscribe directly to Acorn and BritBox via apps on your Roku or Apple TV, and that’s fine with me, but if so, you’re already sophisticated enough to know how to do this, so ignore what I just said.

“Line of Duty” is not quite as good as “Spiral,” but it’s superior to almost all the TV out there, and it’s not faux-intellectual, it’s straight up the middle, I’d be stunned if you didn’t like it.

BRON/THE BRIDGE

This is on Topic, but it’s only five bucks a month, and you get the same seven day free trial on Amazon.

And the truth is there have been many remakes, I even watched and wrote about “The Tunnel,” a British-French redo, but the original is far superior to any other iteration, as good as “The Tunnel” was.

You see it’s Sofia Helin as Saga, who is on the spectrum.

Now if you tune in, you’ll notice Helin has a facial scar. I’ll save you the research, it’s from a bicycle accident, when she was already twenty four, just before her career took off. And therefore, Helin is beautiful but flawed, and it has one questioning one’s idea of beauty, we think it’s all about perfection, but it’s not. It’s mostly about character.

Not that you’d want to have a relationship with Saga, who actually says she’s incapable of having one, although she does like sex.

But it’s not only Saga. The characters are all 3-D, and fully hip and alive, despite Americans thinking other countries are backwaters. You should just check the houses! And the show is about the cooperation between the Swedish and Danish police forces and…

The first season has the same plot as “The Tunnel,” but watch it anyway, it’s different, you’ll still enjoy the ride. The remaining seasons are unique. And there are four, and then the show is done.

This is great TV, which is one reason it’s been shown in over a hundred countries. You’ll live to watch it, just like you will with “Line of Duty.”

HIT & RUN

Everybody was excited about this new Netflix series from the creators of “Fauda,” starring Lior Raz, aka “Doron” from “Fauda,” as the lead.

But soon after it came out, reviews weren’t good. And Israeli and Danish television are considered to be the world’s best. So I waited a while to pull it up and then…

I found out the critics were right.

The plot is twisted, and that keeps you interested, but in truth “Hit & Run” is a cross between an Israeli and American series, and that’s the flaw. American shows are about the look, and danger, they’re oftentimes gussied-up cartoons. You’re watching and at some point you see Lior Raz as just another action hero, like in those bogus movies that play in the cinema, with talented actors slumming for the paycheck.

For a minute there, I thought “Hit & Run” was better than the reviews, but it’s not. Don’t listen to the scuttlebutt, most people are not critics, they haven’t been exposed to great television so they settle for stuff like this as opposed to “Line of Duty” and “The Bridge.” And yes, unlike those two shows, “Hit & Run” is half in English, but I know you can handle subtitles, after all you watch “Money Heist”!

MONEY HEIST

What a disappointment!

So they cut the last heist in half, left us hanging in the middle, and when you dive back in you can’t remember what was happening and over the five new episodes you realize…you just don’t care.

I mean come on, get to the conclusion!

But this is a great advertisement for dumping all episodes at once. I would have felt better about the just dropped five episodes of “Money Heist” if I’d just finished the beginning of the season, but now I don’t even care about the rest of the show. I loved the characters, laughed and cried along with them, and now it’s just a money machine, Netflix employing the show to keep you subscribing, and it’s not worth it.

I won’t reveal any of the plot, but everybody else I know who jumped to see this last weekend feels the exact same way. I hate when producers and distributors are out of touch with the public.