https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0TNSFR0EEK92QB9GUIJXFHVLOZ

I can’t even find a YouTube trailer, not one in English anyway.

There is no heavy lifting here, this series is on Prime Video, and everybody has Amazon Prime (don’t e-mail me if you don’t, keep making those calls on your flip phone/dumbphone).

Owen Sloane e-mailed me about it. And I rarely hear from him, and I don’t remember him ever recommending a series, and that’s whose advice I respect most, not those who inundate me with the clickbait, low-hanging fruit shows. I like to go deeper, I look for full satisfaction.

But I’d never heard of “The German.”

And it wasn’t that easy to find on Amazon Prime Video either. A lot of other stuff comes up with a similar title.

Now this is an Israeli series. Kind of funny to be recommending it in the era of Free Palestine, but as I repeat ad infinitum, the Israelis and the Danes make the best television. Furthermore, “The German” is set in 1970, before today’s Gaza crisis.

So what we’ve got here is international business, espionage, kibbutz life… For a few episodes you won’t really know what is going on. Or you’ll think you know what is going on and…

I haven’t been to a kibbutz since 1972, but I was stunned to find the one in this series aligned with my memories completely.

You see a kibbutz in that era, before most of them went extinct, was very informal. Actually, in that era, Israel itself was informal. One, because it was so damn hot. Two, because the focus was not on image, but basic life. Trappings were irrelevant. Especially interesting in today’s world where it’s all about the trappings, boasting, especially online, how you’re better than everybody else.

On the kibbutz everybody is equal. Sort of. And no one has any real money, everything is communal. You even have to borrow a car.

But the life?

At one point a young woman talks about all the sex everybody is having. Interesting, when you have a limited number of people in a society they’re more honest, they get even closer.

But back to sartorial issues… Everybody in the kibbutz is wearing shorts. This is what I remember. Practicality was key, what was in your head was paramount.

And there’s a giant swimming pool… And not only did I consider the depiction of the kibbutz accurate, the reviews I read after we completed the series went on about this.

Not that everything is hunky-dory.

And if the kibbutz is paying for your college education, can you leave it?

And irrelevant of your intellect and qualifications, there’s a lot of manual labor involved.

So…

This is a concentration camp show.

This is a Nazi show.

But not in the conventional manner. You see many people in the kibbutz are survivors of the Holocaust, they’ve got numbers tattooed on their forearms and…

They’ve soldiered on when so many of their families and relatives did not make it. How do you do this?

You never forget, your sleep may be tainted decades later, but you don’t tell your kids, you don’t want to tarnish their lives, bring them down.

So we’ve got stories of survivors.

And the documentation of the dead at Yad Vashem.

And this may sound pedantic and dry, yet it’s anything but. What makes “The German” so great is the humanity, the three-dimensional figures and how they act and cope. The plot is just laid on top of them. AND OH WHAT A PLOT IT IS!

Nothing I’ve said above gives anything away, but I’m going to stop there, because…

Let’s just say you’ll be riveted, you’ll be emotionally involved, at times you’ll be on the edge of your seat.

How the Israelis do it, I do not know. How they get story so believable and the images right… In the U.S., we focus on image first, believability second, if at all, after all fantasy/science fiction/superheroes triumph over here.

We finished “The German” in two days. I defy you to sit through all eight episodes (none an hour long, this is not a slog) and say this wasn’t a great show.

This is real television, this is what we are looking for. You can get this plot in a movie, but not this depth.

WATCH IT!

P.S. You have to pay $4.99 a month for Prime Video Ultra to get rid of commercials. I always watch a while, see if I’m going to complete the series, before signing up for this. And after I do, I immediately cancel it, so I get my thirty days and am not charged again. And when I went to do this yesterday… Forget how hard it was to find the right page, but when I clicked to cancel Prime Video Ultra, the option that came up was to cancel Prime entirely. Believe me, I tried it multiple times, there’s a glitch in the system. And after wasting all that time, I decided to contact Amazon… But good luck with that. I’m looking for the chat option AND I JUST CANNOT FIND IT! Eventually I do, and I get Mohammed who takes care of my problem. But I’m pissed off. I wasted all this time for $4.99? Was it worth it? This is exactly what they want to have happen, to get you to sign up and never sign off. There was a Click-To-Cancel rule established by the Lina Khan led FTC during the prior administration, but Trump killed it…got to let the lobbyists win!

Trump’s FTC Let Lobbyists Kill Popular Click-To-Cancel Rule, Advocates Say

“What was the song of the summer? Here are nine candidates”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2026-09-21/song-of-the-summer-olivia-rodrigo-karol-g

Doesn’t that prove the point, that there is no song of the summer if there are nine possibilities?

Furthermore, as you read this list, if you don’t find names you’ve never heard of, you’ll definitely find songs you’ve never listened to.

So what is going on here?

Old media hanging on to an old construct, believing we live in a world we no longer do.

Then there’s today’s news that Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has been number one for 23 weeks, establishing a new record.

The last time I wrote about “Choosin’ Texas” I got e-mail from a person in the business who’d never heard the song.

I know most people at this point were not around in the days of the Beatles, but if you want to talk about true number ones, ubiquity…

Or even the era of MTV. Was there anybody who didn’t know the Police song “Every Breath You Take”?

Furthermore, the charts are for the recording industry, showing how out of touch the three majors are. They operate in very few genres, their dominance over listening and live are less than ever before.

What is going on here?

The nichification of the world.

Even more dramatically, in the streaming era worldwide hits have decreased, as streaming has become ubiquitous, it’s local repertoire that dominates.

So where does this leave us?

Sans metrics that matter. Other than the Spotify (and maybe YouTube) streams and tour grosses (and not every show is reported).

You can’t reach everybody and not everyone cares. What’s a poor boy to do, play in a rock and roll band?

Actually, that’d be a good idea, that’s relatively rare, but the economics are horrific.

More people are listening to more music, more genres of music, than ever before. There is no universality. We even see this in television, look at the number of views.

That’s what bothers me about “The Pitt”…believe me, it’s not that great, it’s not that innovative, it’s just another medical show. But it’s on HBO! And oldsters have not broken the habit of being attached to that outlet/model, so the media gloms on and… I mean I’ve got to ask you, how many people really watched all fifteen episodes of “The Pitt”?

Concomitantly, we can’t even agree on facts in the real news world. They rarely surface. Everyone is invested in their viewpoint and many are not curious outside this sphere.

This could change, but we’d need a complete rethink in music. Niches are okay, but universality is still achievable if…

There were other songs as catchy and basic as “Choosin’ Texas.” I mean if you like “Choosin’ Texas,” where do you go next? There’s nothing close to that caliber in mainstream country today.

That’s what Top 40 used to provide, what MTV used to provide, the best of the best, there was a competition, you could hear it all in one place. Today? Even the hits take a long time to climb the chart and triumph. That’s how much sludge there is in the system.

If we had more active people in the A&R world this would be better. Today, and for a long time, labels just see what comes over the transom. They don’t have a vision that they try to feed, a la Lou Pearlman and NSYNC and Backstreet Boys.

But the labels are myopic.

Meanwhile, everybody’s freaking out AI.

Just don’t tell me there’s a song of the summer. There is no such thing, and there hasn’t been for quite a while.

1

I was reading the new issue of “Mojo” in Apple News+. Yes, it’s available there, but usually I don’t bother, the old acts are still old and over thirty-odd years they’ve written about them already and now all we have is people who weren’t there commenting, and I was.

But even worse is the record review section. Where there are some new albums, but they all get four stars. What’s the use in that?

Like I said, I don’t usually bother to read “Mojo,” but I’d just finished the new issue of “The Week” and you know how it’s impossible to get off your device. As for “The Week”…it’s genius, everyone should read it, to catch up on the news in a quick to read, digested format. If it’s not in “The Week,” it did not happen. And there are great book and TV recommendations too (music, not so much). I used to subscribe to the print edition, but not only is radically expensive, it arrives now on Tuesday, when the issue goes live online the previous Friday.

Anyway, after the new records section, they review the oldies/reissues.

Now truly, the best place to find out about these repackages, extended versions, etc., is in “Record Collector News”: https://recordcollectornews.com In most cases, if I didn’t read it in “Record Collector News,” I wouldn’t have known about it. But there’s still stuff that slips through.

So I’m reading the reissues page in “Mojo” and I see that there’s a four record set of Phil Collins’s “Face Value.” Now I must have read it too fast, because I thought there was new stuff in the package, more demos, and I immediately went to Spotify to hear them. But I found the usual extended version that had been available for a while, that I’d already checked out.

Now when I went back to “Mojo,” I read more comprehensively, and found out it was a four record VINYL version… Ah, I thought it was CD… Four CDs would represent a ton of newly available material, but not that much fits on vinyl.

However, on Spotify I did find a newly released live version of “The Roof Is Leaking,” from “The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball.” Cool, but I was never a huge fan of that song.

And then I found a two month old live take of “You Know What I Mean,” from Perkins Palace back in 1982.

And I wondered why I wasn’t there. Because I was such a huge fan of “Face Value.”

Now the truth is no one was lying in wait for “Face Value,” unless you were a huge Genesis fan. But Peter Gabriel left the band and a great number of fans went with him. However, the first post-Gabriel record, “A Trick of the Tail”…god, can I call it a masterpiece? No, that’s “Face Value”… Let’s just say it doesn’t have the experimentation of the Gabriel era, it’s more straight ahead, but it creates a mood and is enticing and listenable and there’s one cut, “Squonk,” that is heavy and if you play it loud…

So I became a fan. And bought the new albums in progression. And went back and picked up the old ones too.

Now the third Genesis album after Gabriel left, after Steve Hackett left, had the band’s first “hit,” “Follow You, Follow Me.” Yes, the LP was entitled “…And Then There Were Three,” and it was more mainstream than the previous two, and the band was criticized for this, as Gabriel was off testing limits.

And then 1980’s “Duke” hit with “Misunderstanding” and now the band could even play arenas, I went to see them at the Forum, but many prog-rockers had abandoned them.

And I’d like to tell you the albums were getting better, but this was untrue. Every post-Gabriel record was progressively worse. “Duke” wasn’t bad, after all it did contain the original “Turn It On Again,” which is superior in its live version on “Three Sides Live,” but if you were looking for envelope-pushing material, this was not really the place.

This was before the MTV Genesis, with the humorous innovative videos, when the band struck upon the formula of making it more simple instead of complicated, coming up with a new, very palatable sound.

All to the point that even those who had heard of Phil Collins confused him with Paul Collins, and unless you lived in L.A., you probably didn’t know Paul and his Beat and..

2

It wasn’t that I was expecting much, just that I was a Genesis fan and was interested in all that they’d done and were doing and Collins was now the lead singer and of course I was going to buy the LP.

Now the funny thing is all these years later, it’s about the drum sound in “In the Air Tonight.” But that was just another track on the album, albeit the opening track, ultimately it got some airplay, but really Phil didn’t connect commercially until his follow-up solo album, “Hello, I Must Be Going!,” with its cover of the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” which was all over MTV, when MTV was still the hot new thing. Phil ultimately became so big, that he was in both editions of Live Aid, in London and Philadelphia, and somewhere along the way, despite more hits, which some considered insipid, he became the most hated man in music. He was everywhere, and “Face Value” was a cut above everything else that followed. Kind of like he was shocked people were paying attention and didn’t know where to go from there. He’d composed this album at home, after his wife had taken the kids and left him, he was at loose ends and all his feelings and emotions were embedded in the LP. It was PERSONAL! And that’s always the best work.

Now as time has gone by, the legend of “Face Value” has never waned, even in the wake of Collins backlash.

As for Phil…

You think it’s all about being rich and famous… But he went on to more marriages, one ex-wife refused to leave the property, his back went bad, he had problems with alcohol…if you think money solves all your problems, beware.

And now there’s this new version of this old song. One that I’ve never seen written about, that does not have its own Wikipedia page, that no one has ever mentioned to me, but is my favorite.

3

Actually, it’s a two-fer.

The second side of “Face Value” begins with “I Missed Again,” the other big track on the album.

But from there…

The record gets very quiet, it’s just Phil at the piano and…

It delineates the story of his breakup, you can feel the pain at the heart of it, and when it ends the record segues into “Thunder and Lightning,” which…they said would never strike twice, but it did, and he was in love once again.

So listen to these two together.

But as good as “Thunder and Lightning” is, and it’s very very good, “You Know What I Mean” is spectacular!

“Just as I thought I’d make it
You walk back into my life
Just like you never left”

Breakups are so damn hard, and men never talk about them. Oftentimes you’re hanging on for dear life. It’s such a mountain to climb, an endurance test, and just when the sun starts to shine, she reappears… I’ve lived it.

“Just as I’d learned to be lonely
You call up to tell me
You’re not sure if you’re ready”

Convincing yourself that a relationship is truly over is in an incredibly difficult job, especially if you’ve been left, part of you believes that you could get back together, rekindle the magic, be happy once again.

“Oh, but ready or not, you’ll take what you’ve got and leave
Oh, leave me alone in my heart
Putting the pieces back together again
Just leave, oh, leave me alone in my dreams
I can do without you, you know what I mean”

The strength it takes to say this, to act on it, to soldier on, is incredibly difficult. To draw the line, to not go back, to move on… Most serious relationships don’t end on a dime, there are a few round of getting back together and breaking up again before it’s truly over. But at some point, that’s what you’ve got to do, make a clean break, and it’s incredibly difficult.

“Oh, leave me alone in my heart
It’s broken in two and I’m not, I’m not thinking too straight”

Not in today’s world, men are macho, there’s no vulnerability, too much music is surface, you can’t relate.

“Just leave, oh, leave me alone with my dreams
You’ve taken everything else, you know what I mean”

The money, the kids, his LIFE!

Phil’s being honest, in a world where so many pull their punches.

And I’d like to tell you this live version of “You Know What I Mean” is a revelation, but not really. It’s not that it’s substandard, not in any way, but the original was exquisite.

Having said that, the reason this live version is notable is that unlike in today’s world of fakery, it’s just Phil and his piano, he can sing just like on the record, there’s no sacrifice, it’s naked and pure and perfect.

Wow.

You know what I mean?

Will be fine.

Back in the early nineties, Jackson Browne was accused of physically abusing Daryl Hannah. What really happened there? We’ll never know. Browne denied it and Hannah never pressed charges. But there were tons of women who said they were done with Browne, the same ones who are going to see him today.

And this happened in the pre-internet era.

Almost nothing sticks today. Even worse, the media trumps up any story that will get clicks, giving the impression it’s a major issue, assuming you’re paying attention, and most people are not.

Yes, there are people with their knickers in a twist over Ed Sheeran’s… Exactly what? That he didn’t cancel his tour in the wake of Robert Kraft saying no-go if Macklemore was still on the dates? Do you have any idea of the cost of these extravaganzas? Cancel the tour and Ed Sheeran can survive, albeit having lost a ton of money. But all those people working for him, never mind those employed the day of the gig, would be SOL. As for insurance, there’s not a policy in the world that would pay on this.

But that does not mean there is not a rabid mob out to get Ed. To quote that old song, “What do you want the boy to do?” (Listen to Bonnie Raitt’s version off of “Home Plate,” although Lowell George does a sweet take on his one and only solo album, “Thanks I’ll Eat It Here.”)

Makes a good story, Ed’s gonna be banned from the radio… Hell, they burned Beatle records and it didn’t hurt the band’s career. Made a great story, but it’s the music that leads, and at the time, the Beatles WERE bigger than Jesus (this was before God came back in the seventies, with every act attributing their success to the deity). But this is not about the truth, but emotion.

So if you’ve never seen Ed Sheeran live, if you’re not a fan, to the degree you care at all, it’s by being Team Macklamore or against him. But most people don’t care. And the ones who do are like those who’ve canceled Morgan Wallen, even though he plays stadiums consistently. But the northerners who have no time for a cracker will never let him go. God, I just mention his name and half my audience goes wild. It’s not like they even know his music, in some cases they’ve never even heard it, but Morgan’s a pariah and the word must be spread!

But his fans shrug.

Ed’s a talented dude, who needs no musicians to tantalize an audience, he can do it totally alone, and oftentimes does. It’s mesmerizing. But I’m gonna hate him and refuse to spend my dollars…exactly why?

And do you think all these haters are going to continue to hate on Ed as time goes by? Of course not, they’ll find new targets, there’s a professional agitated class, oftentimes the issue is irrelevant, their hate supersedes it.

And then we’ve got the CTE study. Big news for a day, but everybody’s still watching football.

I’ve never been a fan of an act, a ticket-buying fan, and then said NO MAS after something the act said or did. I’m not saying this isn’t possible, but I’ve never experienced it. It’s always the non-fans who are vocal, insisting that the act must pay for some faux pas, even if it’s theoretical.

Yup, I was going to see Ed, but since he didn’t cancel his tour in support of Macklemore, I’M DONE! I want you to find me the people who say this, because even if there are any, they won’t feel this way as time goes by. Why? Everybody else will have moved on.

Now we can debate what is going on in Gaza 24/7. But Ed has not hung his hat on either side of the debate.

Now if you want to make a political statement, feel free to go for it. But if it’s a song, I hope you enjoy the experience of making it, because the press for Springsteen’s protest song (can you even remember the name?) far exceeded listens to the actual record… Actually, it’s entitled “Streets of Minneapolis,” and it’s got 6,527,495 streams on Spotify as of this writing… For perspective, “Dancing in the Dark” has 1,302,426,224…then again, you’d be surprised how anemic listens of most Springsteen songs are. But Bruce has a very devoted fan base akin to the Dead, people who know the songs by heart (at least the old ones), and they go to see the Boss like lemmings. However, the true story is for all the scuttlebutt about ticket prices, he doesn’t go clean everywhere. But my point here is don’t tell me that acts should never talk about politics on stage, shouldn’t take a stand, this is what people expect at a Bruce Springsteen show, and those complaining, once again, are those not going.

How many oldsters have I seen weigh in in the past week that politics have no place at a concert? All of them aged pundits who don’t even go to shows. Who cares what these people think?

Ed Sheeran is a superstar, who understands the modern world, he refuses to get dragged down by the crowd, he made one statement and he’s done, he’s not saying another word, which is how it should be. All those bitching about his “not standing up for Macklemore” are just dying for Ed to say more, so they can excoriate him. You don’t engage with haters, because usually it’s more about them than you, they want to drag you down into the hole they’re in.

And all these people all riled up about this… They weren’t Macklemore fans yesterday and they won’t pay to see him tomorrow. Because Macklemore doesn’t have that many fans, but Ed Sheeran does. And they ignore the haters, if everyone was worried about others’ judgment of their taste, they wouldn’t go to see any act live.

Now, more than ever, you can have your individual tastes, spend time as you see fit. If you don’t want to go see Ed Sheeran, be my guest, don’t go. But odds are you were never going to go to begin with.

Ed is in a no-win position. He should have foreseen a problem with Macklemore when he hired him to do the gig. But, is it Ed’s fault that Macklemore was warned that if he did this again there would be a problem playing in future buildings, and then repeated his act? God, it’s Ed’s stage, he’s doing the opener a favor, Macklemore can’t sell very many tickets without him. The fact that Macklemore had no respect for Ed, that he put the entire tour in jeopardy? God, he should go into musician jail, who the hell is going to hire this guy in the future? If you’re the headliner, if it’s your name on the marquee, do whatever you want to, but if there are no paying customers, it’s like a tree falling in the forest, no one hears it.

So don’t pay any attention to the Ed Sheeran’s in trouble discourse. It’s a sideshow at best. Ed will be fine.

And so will you.

On to the next crisis!