The songs played every Saturday night on rock stations from the mid-seventies to the early eighties.

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Tune in today June 9th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: LefsetzLive

This show is just astoundingly good. Probably the best thing I’ve seen in the stay at home Covid-19 era. I’m not sure, because all of the rest of the shows I watch are so different. They involve crimes, mysteries, figuring things out, whereas “Ramy”…

Is like real life.

Only it isn’t. Because it’s about a Muslim family living in New Jersey.

Funny how the two best streaming comedy series are made by Muslims. Well, in the case of Aziz Ansari, a former Muslim, and I’m not sure of Ramy Youssef’s adherence to Allah, but the character he plays in the show…

I don’t know what it’s like where you live. But Los Angeles is a melting pot. Not as much as Toronto, which supposedly has the most languages spoken of any city on the planet, still…here in the City of Angels we live amongst people of all colors and nationalities, you can’t help but interact with those different from you, and I always go deep with them, I want to know their stories, how many generations have their families been here, to what degree are they integrated with the “community” here in L.A.

Like the Uber driver I had in Toronto. He was a translator in Iraq. The Americans promised him safe passage to the States, but they reneged on that. He got to T.O., but he can’t go back to Iraq, where they retaliated against his family and…

Then there’s the woman in my doctor’s office. She was giving me supplies and we got into a conversation… She’s South Asian, i.e. Indian to the politically incorrect. Her parents live up north. They immigrated from India. Does she have to marry someone from her culture?

OF COURSE!

They don’t know she has a white boyfriend, but she’ll never marry him, her parents would never accept it.

Kinda like being Jewish. At least when I grew up. Your parents wanted you to marry a member of the tribe. And there are all these characteristics of the balabusta, the classic Jewish mother. Making sure you get enough to eat, constantly worrying about their children. That’s not my mom, she’s an outlier, but I’m familiar with the experience.

But I’m not familiar with the Muslim experience.

Muslim. It’s a dangerous word in the United States. But Muslims are people too. Just like you and me. Maybe with different color skin, and different traditions, but with many of the same hopes and dreams as the rest of us.

But if you say the word “mosque,” everybody white freezes. And of course it’s much more complicated than this, but the point is Ramy is working at a startup, he’s living the life of every other single twentysomething, albeit observing Ramadan and not drinking.

But he lives at home. As does his sister Dena. Who remarks that her parents won’t let her move out until she gets married.

As for sex… NOT UNTIL YOU ARE MARRIED!

But Ramy… This is not a show that drags out the plot, that leaves you hanging, in fact, in many cases events happen much sooner than you’d expect them to, and just when you think they’re going one way, a character says something that makes Ramy or his sister uncomfortable and…

You’ve been uncomfortable too.

Admit it, you want to fit in, you want to have friends. It’s the universal condition. And the scene wherein Ramy’s mother believes there’s a problem with her Facebook post because she didn’t get any likes…

And Ramy’s uncle is anti-Semitic. He works with Jews all day long in the jewelry mart. He says he knows. But he’s so bigoted, everybody avoids him.

And Ramy’s two best friends…

They’re both married. They tell Ramy to get to it, because all the hot Muslim girls are gonna be gone!

One friend owns a diner. And almost steals the show. He’s got an opinion on everything, and it’s not always what you expect. And he’s happy owning a diner, because he’s making money! It’s the classic immigrant story.

As for Ramy’s other buddy…he’s a doctor. Immigrants always want their kids to be professionals. They don’t want you to take risks, they want you to buy insurance, to know that you will be better off than they are and won’t suffer.

And the show fluctuates between humor and pathos. Each episode is less than half an hour, and when you finish one, you just roll into the next one, you need more.

It’s kinda like “The Wonder Years.” If Kevin’s family were Muslim.

I had no intention of watching “Ramy.” I saw the hype and I ignored it. It just proved to me that Hulu was working it. Everything in the entertainment section is placed, and therefore should be ignored. You know, first they do the puff piece, and then they do the review. It’s like the news outlets have a deal with the producers, it’s shameless.

But Eric Greenspan insisted I watch one episode.

Man, it only took about twenty minutes and I was hooked.

I’m loath to give away plot points, because I want you to be surprised.

But is every Muslim considered to be a terrorist, even by their white friends?

Do people date others because they consider them exotic?

And you’ve got parents with old country values raising kids who are positively American.

And just when you think they’re slipping into caricature, they’re not.

They go deep into the characters. Ramy in the wake of 9/11. His sister Dena debating whether or not to break the taboo and have sex. And the mother! The husband sets the rules, believes everything is fine, but is that really the case?

I know “Ramy” won’t appeal to everybody. But on some level it is everybody, you’ll see yourself in it.

And don’t get the idea it’s only heavy. There are moments when you burst out laughing.

Are Muslims the new Jews, bringing the immigrant experience to comedy?

I don’t know if that’s true, but “Ramy” is the best sitcom I’ve seen since…

Well, nothing on network compares. There is Ansari’s “Master of None” on Netflix, but “Ramy” somehow walks a tightrope without appearing to.

And Ramy Youssef is a star. As warm and cute as can be, he’s anything but dangerous. Which is kind of the point.

Not that all of Ramy’s choices are good. Like I said, there are a lot of plot surprises in “Ramy.”

Which, once again, is on Hulu.

I know many don’t have Hulu. But I must admit, there’s some good stuff on there. Like “Prisoners of War” and “Deutschland” and…

And it’s not like Epix. Which is like throwing your show into the witness protection program. But Hulu does not have the ubiquity of Netflix.

But they’ve got “Ramy.”

Whose idea was it to greenlight this? Kudos! And the show works from the very first episode. If we still lived in the three/four network world, if we still lived in a pre-streaming world, “Ramy” would be a top ten show, maybe number one, because not only is it great, it’s us.

Yes, we live in a land of immigrants. And there are some whites who believe they grew out of the land, that their ancestors never came from overseas, and that these people coming in are ruining our country.

Just the opposite.

Maybe we should ship some of these white nationalists overseas in exchange for more immigrants. If nothing else, the white nationalists’ eyes will be opened, being a minority in their new country.

Like Eric Greenspan said, just watch one episode. It’s not even half an hour. You can risk that. And either you’ll be in or you’ll be out.

I think you’ll be in.

And normally I wait until I finish a series before I write about it, but in this case I’m only eight episodes into twenty, I haven’t yet hit the second season. But even if the rest sucks, “Ramy” is a triumph. Don’t let this one pass you by.

Mad Dogs & Englishmen killed Joe Cocker’s career.

But it built Leon Russell’s.

Cocker was an FM staple before most people had an FM rock station in their market. After all, this was 1969. In the metropolis, AM faltered, everybody tuned into the FM dial, music was defining the culture and if you wanted to know which way the wind blew you turned on the radio.

At least in major markets like New York.

My father had a Thunderbird with sketchy FM reception. But most radio listening was done at home. The biggest deejays were on at night, not in drive time. And you listened and listened and listened.

We’d started with transistors. But by the late sixties you needed a “stereo.” Hopefully made out of components, for that sound separation, to hear the detail that got buried on the radio.

It was “With a Little Help from My Friends” that got initial FM play. It was almost sacrilegious, reconstructing a Beatles song, from “Sgt. Pepper” to boot, but it was so innovative it became addictive.

And then there was the cover of “Feelin’ Alright”… Cocker took a Traffic album cut out of obscurity into the mainstream, and lined Dave Mason’s pockets forever.

And not long thereafter, in the same year of ’69, Cocker put out a second LP and the track that got the most airplay, the one that stood out from the rest of the album, was entitled “Delta Lady.” The horn part put it over the top, and the credits told us it was written by one Leon Russell, someone we knew not whatsoever.

The rest of the second LP was full of songs written by household names, Dylan, Cohen, John Sebastian and…the Beatles. Yes, this was the first time the world heard “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window,” sans the songs on either side of it in the “Abbey Road” medley. It was a curio. The track that enraptured you after “Delta Lady.” But it was “Delta Lady” that reached listeners first.

And at this time the credits were a gold mine, that’s where you learned about the music, there was no Wikipedia page, no internet whatsoever, and “Rolling Stone” was a mostly unknown publication based in San Francisco. You learned the names and then cross-checked them with other LPs and that’s how you gained your knowledge. You combed the record bins to further your education. Not that everybody was in the know. But plenty were. To the point when Leon Russell released his first solo album in March of 1970, I had to buy it. And…the version of “Delta Lady” blew the roof off of Cocker’s version. There was this Okie vocal, and the production was so over the top, with everything including the kitchen sink thrown in, all you could do was turn it up and luxuriate in the sound, as the background singers echoed Leon and the horns flourished and the finale encapsulated all the power of Hollywood, of rock and roll, it was a showstopper, where did they create this sound and how could I get more of it?

At the Mad Dogs & Englishmen show.

That’s what drove me to the gig. I needed to see Leon Russell. At this point I didn’t even own any Cocker albums, but to see the Master of Space & Time!

Not that we knew he was called that yet.

So I bought tickets to see the entourage at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.

It was different then. There were a few rock places. The Fillmores. But most other shows were one-offs, and although they were not scarce, it’s not like today, where your favorite band can play and you’re completely unaware of it. You combed the ads in the newspaper. And a certain segment of the public had to go. And I was one of them.

This was just when Joe Cocker was in the Woodstock movie. This was just before John Belushi imitated him in National Lampoon’s “Lemmings.” This was fully five years before most people saw the act on “Saturday Night Live.” This was months before the double live album was released. This was unknown. We knew there was a troupe, but when they hit the stage in the theatre!

It made no financial sense. Twenty-odd people on stage, never mind the associated hangers-on. They were not playing stadiums. But this was long before production was a necessary part of the equation. Sound and lights, that’s all you needed.

So, Mad Dogs & Englishmen was a triumph. Upon which Leon Russell achieved fame, and Joe Cocker drank himself into a giant beer belly and nearly disappeared. When Joe put out new music at the end of ’72, it was a disappointment. One can argue Cocker didn’t really come back until 1982, when he and Jennifer Warnes duetted on “Up Where We Belong” from the soundtrack of the hit movie “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and Leon Russell was nearly completely forgotten.

At the peak of his fame, Leon Russell went country when country certainly was not cool, with “Hank Wilson’s Back Vol. 1,” but before that he burned out the fans with a TRIPLE LP live album that was not only too long, but not too good.

But before that…

While Cocker was off nursing his beer, Leon took the Mad Dogs & Englishmen concept and doubled down on it, this time calling the entourage “The Shelter People” and now…

Leon Russell was a star.

There was the cover of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” and a rendition of “Beware of Darkness” from George Harrison’s monstrous three album set “All Things Must Pass,” but the track that put it over the top was the opening “Stranger in a Strange Land,” a more slowed-down “Delta Lady,” but once again including seemingly everybody available to work in L.A.

There was a follow-up, not as good as what came before, but bearing a soon-to-be standard, “This Masquerade,” although “If the Shoe Fits” nailed the phenomenon of hangers-on and “Out in the Woods” was swampy and infectious, and then there came that triple live album and Leon’s career went into decline but…

We’d read all the credits in the interim, and were aware these records had been cut at Skyhill Studios.

That’s the amazing thing about coming to L.A., the songs come alive! Not only did Frank Zappa write a song referencing El Monte Legion Stadium, he also had Flo and Eddie singing about Zachary All. Hell, you couldn’t even get the references until you journeyed to SoCal.

And we knew the studio names. And assumed Skyhill was just another joint on the boulevard.

But it wasn’t.

I never read the real estate section of the newspaper. It’s just not that interesting to me. I live in my mind more than a house. But Felice kept pointing out abodes in the “Hot Property” section of the “Los Angeles Times” and now I tend to peruse the Saturday section too.

And I was reading it yesterday and I saw:

“Leon Russell’s former home and studio lists in Hollywood Hills”

All those records were cut in a home studio! I had to completely rearrange my conception of their creation. Instead of parking on a main drag in Hollywood, or maybe in back in the parking lot, the players drove up into the hills where a house had been turned into a studio…

Which almost no one did until the eighties.

And now home studios are de rigueur.

But not then.

Not only were Russell’s LPs cut there, but seemingly all of the Shelter Records product.

I had to do some research.

Willis Alan Ramsey’s debut was cut at Skyhill! Unavailable for a long time, it was a cult item, revered by insiders, it contained “Satin Sheets,” which Shawn Colvin covered so expertly.

And Albert King and Don Nix and Freddie King and…the truth is most credits don’t cover all the details. And with a home studio, you’re not paying by the hour, so your friends can come by and…

Now on “UltimateClassicRock” they’ve even got pictures:

Leon Russell’s ‘Skyhill Studios’ Home on Sale for $1.398 Million

It doesn’t look like the home of rock and roll from the outside, then again, back then your exterior was secondary to your interior, rock stars were not in the gossip pages, you spoke with your music, it didn’t matter what you looked like.

And then on another page it said that J.J. Cale was the original engineer! It was not like today, where the industry is looking to promote the barely pubescent, at this point marketing was secondary to the music, and you were in the scene, paid your dues for a long time before everybody knew your name.

So I mapped it. Skyhill was across the street from Universal Studios. Back when you didn’t have to be rich to buy property in the hills.

I can’t get over this. My mental picture of the creation of all those albums has changed. They were not cut in the sterile environment of a commercial studio, but in a home, from which they spread out to the world as if they were produced in the finest, most expensive recording palace, what did we know, Skyhill Studios, sounded like an official place to me!

Leon’s gone. J.J. Cale and Denny Cordell too.

But the records live on. It was a brief moment in time. But it lasts forever, at least in my mind.

If this were on Netflix, it would be a big hit.

Every show has a backstory, and with “ZeroZeroZero” it’s that the creative force is Robert Saviano, the same guy who did “Gomorrah,” which I haven’t seen yet, because it left Netflix.

It’s unclear whether you can watch it on Sundance Now. Well, when you click through it says “Not Available,” which I guess is definitive, but why is it still on the site anyway?

Turns out “Gomorrah” is caught up in rights issues, the wrenching transition of ownership of the Weinstein Company. At least that’s what my e-mail says. I’m not gonna research every damn thing, I’m gonna rely on the gossip. Which, of course, begs the question what else I’ll rely on the gossip for.

So somehow Amazon has screwed up its foray into streaming television. At this late date, people seem to know, at least subscribers, that it’s baked into Amazon Prime. But maybe it’s if something is completely free, or feels free, it gets no respect. Or maybe it’s the less than sexy interface. Yes, I used that word, it’s the first that came to mind, although I used to wince when everybody else used it. It’s just that Amazon’s interface is dull. And scrolling leads to incomprehensibility. In an effort to be all-encompassing, Amazon Prime is confusing. You see everything is not free, many shows require you to subscribe to a further service, which catches the viewer in the tyranny of choice where they go back to Netflix for a seamless experience.

Netflix hypes the show it’s promoting right on the home screen. That’s what you’re confronted with first. Along with what’s new, what’s hot…

It’s not that simple on Amazon Prime.

But people found “ZeroZeroZero.” Just like they found “Gomorrah.” Why wasn’t it as big as “Narcos,” is it that it’s in a foreign language, or that Pablo Escobar was famous? Yes, there’s been less excitement about “Narcos” in Mexico, but it’s getting pretty good.

And there are narcos in “ZeroZeroZero.”

It’s really damn hard to do comedy, so much of what appeals on streaming services is drama. Police procedurals. Crime. I’m not exactly sure why viewers are drawn to these shows. Is it a vicarious experience, as in “there but by the grace of god go I,” or “I’m too timid to live this life but I like to dream” or is it that these shows are easier to make, I’m not sure.

But I found out about “ZeroZeroZero” from Michael Rosenblatt. He raved. But that’s not enough for me, TV series take up so much time, I quizzed him further, he doubled-down, and I ventured in.

Now the thing about “ZeroZeroZero” is it’s a movie, albeit eight hours long. It’s what we used to go to the theatre for, and sometimes still do, at least when the theatres were still open, not overcrowded with those seeking escape in the fantasy world of superheroes. “ZeroZeroZero” is big screen entertainment. The visuals are rich. The locations exotic. The acting first rate. The story…

“ZeroZeroZero” is entertainment. There are no lessons, no deeper meaning. Oh, you can dig some metaphors up, but that’s not what it’s really about. “ZeroZeroZero” is a ride for adults. Who’ve seen some of the world, know to a degree how things work, and want a story to take them out of their regular life.

There are three main locations. Mexico, Africa and Italy. And they’re beautiful and fascinating. I’m afraid to go to Mexico because of the lawlessness of the cartels, but the landscape is overwhelming and the life… I like places that are different. When you’ve still got dirt roads, when you’re still developing, that’s when I’m interested. Once again, my trip to Bogota back in 2013 was the one that impressed me most, that I think of most. It wasn’t all cushy, you could get shot, you could die, but that make you feel so alive.

And in Africa…

When you’re outside of the U.S. the same rules don’t apply, you don’t always feel safe. Which is a good reason not to go, but it’s also a good reason to journey abroad, it’s exhilarating, you’ve got your wits about you, you feel alive.

So, “ZeroZeroZero” is about a drug deal.

Mexico provides the cocaine. The Lynwood family from New Orleans is the broker doing the shipping and the Mafia in Calabria, Italy is the customer.

Only there are struggles in each location. In New Orleans, a son has Huntington’s, which you’ll remember took the life of Woody Guthrie. In Italy there’s a turf war in the family. In Mexico…there’s a power struggle.

Actually, it’s what happens in Mexico that is most vivid. Because the drug wars are real. People do die.

So on some level “ZeroZeroZero” is “The Wages of Fear,” i.e. a story about the dangerous journey of an illicit substance, not that cocaine is going to explode.

So the usual rules of visual entertainment don’t necessarily apply in “ZeroZeroZero.” Those who can’t die, the heroes of the story, the focus, sometimes do.

And there’s this weird construct where events are foreshadowed, and then you go back and see what really happened. It’s hard to explain, but it happens right in the first episode, you’ll be caught off guard, but then you’ll expect it.

And the acting is superb.

Andrea Riseborough as Emma Lynwood is cunning and can be an iron fist in a velvet glove and can also exhibit emotion.

Dane DeHaan is one of the few Americans in the series, he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio, but is more believable. DiCaprio always looks preternaturally young to me, it’s always Leo, and he always seems too soft and smooth to play the role.

Harold Torres as Manuel…

It takes you a while to figure out his loyalties. But ultimately his strength and intelligence shine through. We’re used to leaders being self-satisfied hotheads, but Manuel is not. He’s got a vision, he’s calm and collected…ultimately you can’t take your eyes off him.

So, at first the stories are intermingled. But as you progress, locations/stories can make up nearly an entire episode. And this allows you to go into depth, and it’s so satisfying.

And there are constantly roadblocks to execution. Some seem phony, but most seem real.

So what do we have here?

Kind of a seventies movie. Like “French Connection.” Not with the same plot, but with a driving story that takes you around the world, where you align yourself with the characters and you’re not quite sure how it’s all going to play out.

Now the most prominent show Amazon Prime has is “Mrs. Maisel.” And I dig it, but it’s not for everyone.

“Mozart in the Jungle” won Golden Globes, but that was about the only publicity the series got. And when you watched it…it wasn’t THAT good.

But “ZeroZeroZero” is something different.

Oh yeah, they don’t explain the title in the series. But it’s easily Googlable. I’ll leave it to you.

The creation of shows, movies too, is a group effort. And it’s expensive. And you can find yourself in the middle of it and realize you veered off course and cannot get back on the right path. It’s different from music, which is best when it runs on sheer inspiration, and is unhobbled by too much input. And it takes much longer to make visual entertainment than audio. We’re always hungering for more.

Of that which we like.

But we don’t like that much.

I don’t know if there’ll be another season of “ZeroZeroZero.” It’s based on a book, and I don’t know where that book ends. Then again, they’ve been making James Bond movies for years with no books. But Bond is now a joke, about gadgets and big forces whereas “ZeroZeroZero” is a smaller story about people, and they’re not like you and me, but it illustrates how many stories there are on this globe, what makes the world turn.

So, when there’s a hit in America, there’s always a sequel, there’s always more, and it’s rarely as good as what came before.

It’s different overseas, it can be one and done.

But honestly, I’d like more from these characters, I want to see where they go, how their lives and organizations develop.

“ZeroZeroZero” is beyond HBO. Because of the production qualities. HBO is television, so they usually focus on talking. “ZeroZeroZero” paints on a big canvas. And it’s not “House of Cards,” it’s not throwing off lessons constantly, but you’ll get hooked, believe me.