Guitarist Alex Skolnick got his start with Testament, but has broadened his interest to jazz with the Alex Skolnick Trio and has played with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Metal Allegiance and…

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alex-skolnick/id1316200737?i=1000745276889

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/2c7259dc-cd5f-4fbb-9dae-8375b21f5ae8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-alex-skolnick

I did this podcast yesterday with Kenny Greenberg…

If you don’t live in Nashville you may not know Kenny, but… At this point he’s Kenny Chesney’s guitarist, amongst a ton of other credits. And I’m asking Kenny Greenberg about the difference between Nashville yesterday and today, since he’s been there since the seventies.

Well, the publishers aren’t handing out deals like they used to. It wasn’t hard to get a publishing deal in the past, in addition, they’d pay for a band and demos and…

All that’s gone.

So now, a lot of people are making their demos with Suno, AI.

Last week I got this e-mail from Jack Tempchin. You know Jack, he wrote “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and co-wrote “Already Gone” and many others. And unlike a lot of writers who had hits in the past, Jack is still writing, prodigiously. He goes down to the beach and makes up songs and…

This is what Jack said:

—-

From: Jack Tempchin

Subject: Jack Tempchin’s new album MAGIC MIRROR

Hi Bob

My songs performed by AI.

I sure would appreciate it if you have time to listen to it.

Thanks!!

Jack

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-magic-mirror/1865153708

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0GD543MNM

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2H6VfAUCGSnGpbQmBkdjQr

Tidal: https://tidal.com/album/485722599

Youtube Music: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nYLmFkXPt7vLDfg-OEjVkRbHjjUNU_uRQ

—-

From: Bob Lefsetz

Re: Jack Tempchin’s new album MAGIC MIRROR

Listening…

Are you joking or is this really AI?

If so, what were the prompts?

—-

From: Jack Tempchin

Re: Jack Tempchin’s new album MAGIC MIRROR

It really is AI. Done with Suno!

I sang and played guitar, or most of the time just sang with no instrument into the SUNO app.

 

A lot of the time I don’t use a prompt and see what SUNO creates.

On ONLY LOVE KNOWS I used a prompt.  I just said “swing” and it created a big band Frank Sinatra arrangement.

On BACK IN THE 60’S I told it to do 60’s acid rock with Wa Wa guitar.  I sang the song into it  acapella and I actually sang the WaWa guitar parts.

Two interesting facts.

It actually changes the mood of singing and playing during the song based on the Meaning of the lyrics. It hears what you are singing about and gets sad or happy with the vocal and arrangement in response to that.  Pretty amazing.

The other thing is that SUNO has a “remix contest”. People who enter the contest for the $1000 prizes all remix the song chosen for the contest. They chose my song ONLY LOVE KNOWS.

What that means is that they take my song, which was written by me  and recorded by SUNO (I don’t use SUNO to write or help write the songs) and they put that song back into SUNO with different prompts that they create. They make their own arrangement of the song.

 

So this something amazing. It is a way for people who are not musicians to interact with their favorite music in a way that has never been possible before! They make their own versions of the songs they love.

I did not realize that this is a huge thing that is happening all over the world.

Over 4000 people remixed my song. There are versions in every style from all over the world.

Bob, I can’t thank you enough for listening to my album.

Jack

—-

So with this in the back of my head…

Kenny Greenberg tells me that many people in Nashville are now making their demos with Suno.

He’s in the studio with Chesney, and Chesney pulls up a demo and says he wants to cut the song. And he wants the sound of this particular instrument replicated exactly.

And then Greenberg tells Chensey IT’S A SUNO DEMO! And that those aren’t real instruments. And the sound Chesney likes and wants re-created is a blend of a guitar and a keyboard and Greenberg will do his best to reproduce it, but it won’t be exactly the same, because it can’t be, because that’s not a real instrument!

Now let me be clear, although Kenny Greenberg laments the fact that publishing companies are not ponying up money for real demos anymore, and he finds some of the sound of the Suno demos cheesy, he’s not decrying AI. He believes it’s here to stay, that it’s a tool.

So that’s the way it is today.

Consider this a message from the front.

That’s the only thing that unites Americans, that’s the only thing that moves the needle. I’d say it’s the economy stupid, but it’s deeper than that, if you want meaningful change, people have to be suffering, it’s got to be a matter of survival, if not outright starvation, it’s got to be literally life or death before all people will get on the same page and effect meaningful change.

The problem with ICE and the immigration issue is it doesn’t make sense mathematically. I’m here legally, they are not…why should I carry them, why should they get a free ride?

I don’t want to discuss the particulars, the facts, because then you’ve already lost the battle. Yes, illegal immigrants pay taxes (oftentimes one way only…as in they don’t reap the benefits, like Social Security), and yes, immigrants are disproportionately law-abiding, but they are here illegally. And you’re never going to convince everybody that a crackdown is not justified.

Now I thought protests like No Kings were a joke. And isn’t it interesting that the younger people did not participate proportionately. They’re wiser than their elders, they see that Trump doesn’t listen and change course, they’re’ disillusioned with government, both sides, right and left.

As for spontaneous reaction to the killing of Renee Good? I think that has an effect. When protest happens as a result of an event. The public was charged and Jonathan Ross pulled the trigger. But does what is happening in Minneapolis affect people in rural areas? In southern states where ICE is not focusing its efforts? No. Furthermore, people are reluctant to put themselves in the line of fire. For that…you can’t only be protesting the mistreatment of others, it’s got to be you, you’ve got to feel desperate. And what makes people desperate is the lack of cash, the inability to make ends meet.

Now the wheels are starting to turn. With the California billionaires tax. I’m not saying it should be passed, I’m not saying that Newsom is wrong in opposing it, I am saying that this represents the anger of the populace. Furthermore, it shows the true stripes of the billionaires, who are weeping like babies, threatening to end the game by taking the ball to their own court.

The billionaires still think we live in the last decade, or the one before. That we hold them up on a pedestal, that we revere them. But the tech giants… The public hates the social media companies. Not as much as Ticketmaster, but a lot. Elon Musk has been revealed to be myopic… He may be good at cars and rockets, but he’s terrible when it comes to people. Not only did DOGE not save money, Musk got into a snit with Trump and ended up coming back to the man with his tail between his legs.

Furthermore, the billionaires have shown they have no backbone, kissing Trump’s butt for money…as if a corporation’s profits were everything, that it’s only the Street that matters.

This is how we got into this mess. Biden and his cronies kept telling us the economy was good, with the lame term “Bidenomics,” when anybody who went to the grocery store could see otherwise. It’s not that people loved Trump, it’s just that the Democrats were out of touch with the public’s true feelings, mostly their economic feelings. And when Kamala lost…Democrats didn’t own it, they called the nation racist, they said the system was flawed… This is not a recipe for victory, it’s a recipe for alienation! I mean if you want a big tent with people on your side…

So when you look for a spark… It always happens when you don’t expect it, that’s the message of Renee Good and Minneapolis. That’s what we learned with the Arab Spring.

But the man who lit the match for the Arab Spring was a college educated fruit vendor, despite his degree, he could not get a good job. Which is what many Americans are fearful of right now… They’re already laying off coders… America is so afraid of AI and all we’ve got is the billionaires saying TRUST US! As they run up the economy building data centers that require more power than we’ve got in a race for…

Ironically, the only billionaire who looks somewhat reasonable is Jensen Huang of Nvidia, who says even if a billionaires tax is enacted, he’s staying in California, that’s where he lives, that’s where he likes it, that’s where the talent is located.

We keep reading about people moving from the Golden State… But the truth is it’s no longer the middle of the last century, most people can’t afford to move at all! And most know it, despite all the articles that are part of  an offensive trying to demonize Democratic states. Then again, the Republicans are smarter than the Democrats, at least they’re focusing on economics.

So the lesson here is Iran. It’s not like it’s been kumbaya over there since the shah lost power nearly fifty years ago. You’ve had a religious dictatorship and…we’ve only seen meaningful rebellion, THREATENING rebellion, when it became a raw economic issues. There was a currency crash. Inflation in excess of 40%. And this is when the people took to the streets. This is the only thing that will bring Americans of all stripes to the streets.

High prices… We hear about concert tickets. But let’s start with the basics, grocery prices, automobile prices… Recent news tells us that only the wealthy can afford new cars, the rest of the public has to buy used, after all, in December the average transaction price was $50,326. And to reinforce the point, this is not an issue for the wealthy, but most people just don’t have the money.

The problem with high concert ticket prices is not the fees, it’s the demand! There are people willing to pay high prices, which creates a secondary market.

And if you’re living on a fixed income, the economic situation is insane. You’re not making any more, but the prices keep going up and up. Forget oldsters living on a pension, on Social Security, if you’re earning a salary and can keep your job… Not only are you having trouble making ends meet, you’re not getting a pay increase! Meanwhile, the wankers in government say you should be happy, because you’ve got a flat screen TV and a smartphone, that your standard of living is higher than that of people past. It’s like telling people a hundred years ago to ignore the stock market crash…after all, they’re traveling in automobiles as opposed to by horse!

I could ask who is channeling our anger, but it’s worse than that… Nobody in power seems to know what is truly going on with the public, the Average Jane and Joes. We’ve got leaders who are tech-ignorant. There’s a detachment between generations. But what is going to push it over the edge…

Is when everybody is suffering.

You can be horrified about Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis, but the truth is most people don’t live in Minneapolis and just don’t see and feel the danger. It’s when they see and feel the danger that they react. And the government is doing a good job of chilling the public, making people afraid to go out and protest. What is going to motivate them to step outside the door? Money.

And how do the hoi polloi connect?

Via the excoriated internet, which was utilized in the Arab Spring. As for Iran, they shut it down. Yup, the winners of the world want their kids off smartphones. They don’t want youngsters in front of screens. But they can afford child care. The truth is the internet links Americans together, it’s doing the opposite of isolating us. So we’re supposed to believe in the holier-than-thou leftists telling us to put the phone down?

As for leftists… They continue to let the Republicans define them… You don’t want to be woke, you need to move to the center, it’s the extreme that are bringing this nation down. It’s got nothing to do with pronouns and trans women in sports… But Democrats are always on the back foot. Meantime, defending some minor group that the majority doesn’t agree with. The bottom line is most Americans don’t want trans women in sports. It’s kinda like illegal immigration, it just doesn’t feel right to most people.

But let’s not debate trans rights, that’s what those in power want us to do, to take us away from the major issues.

So until the focus is money, there will be no meaningful change. And if you want revolutionary change, the financial situation for the average person has to get worse.

Then again, it’s pretty bad. After the November election there was all this talk about an affordability crisis… But the truth is it didn’t happen suddenly, it was percolating, people were struggling, it’s just that an election surfaced the issue, that’s when the major news media and Trump started to take notice. What other pain points, especially economic ones, are there in plain sight that are not recognized by those in power?

The upper middle class wants to get rich, the rich want to stay rich, as for the rest of the people, the true majority, you’re screwed. You can’t get rich, the opportunity is not there, and those in power are not listening to you.

If I were a Democrat I would talk about money all the time, people are driven by their wallet.

Then again, I no longer believe in the system. A free and fair election in 2028? Give me a break.

What is it going to take for this country to crack?

Economic hardship. Money.

There, I’ve said it.

You have to hear this in hi-res.

I was listening on Spotify and it sounded like the music was filtered through steel wool, but when I pulled it up in Amazon, in what they call ULTRA HD, all the detritus was cleared away and the music was pure.

Then again, I wasn’t listening on earbuds, but through my Genelecs…studio quality for studio quality music.

Now this used to be the paradigm, we bought the vinyl (prerecorded cassettes were inferior, having been replicated at high speed) and played it back on the stereos we worked all summer, for years to buy. We spoke of specs, THD (total harmonic distortion), talked about the merit of certain matchups…amp and speaker…speaker and cartridge…and when we dropped the needle we weren’t doing the dishes, talking on the phone, we sat or stood in the sweet spot and experienced the music washing over us. And it wasn’t always revelatory, but it was a pact between the act and the listener, they would do their very best, not only in writing and playing, but in recording, and then serve it up to us for evaluation.

That’s not how the oldsters do it anymore. Most of them don’t even bother to make new music.

As for the youngsters…when they’re not busy thinking about their brand extensions, leaving the creativity in the hands of others, they’re selling hedonism, not the intellectualism of Peter Gabriel.

So at this point, is Peter Gabriel the last man standing?

He wouldn’t do a podcast with me because I criticized his dripping out of his last album track by track, a formula he’s repeating with this LP. The problem is the landscape keeps changing… Track by track worked fifteen years ago, maybe ten, but not anymore in a world where it’s nearly impossible to gain someone’s attention, never mind keep it. Believe me, if I had more tracks I’d be listening to them right now.

As for “Been Undone”… I knew he was putting out this album on maybe a monthly basis, having to do with the moon or something, I could Google and get it exactly right, but the point is the press registered…at least on some level…the details? The point being I didn’t know ” Been Undone” had been released.

But it has.

And it came up in Jeff Pollack’s weekly playlist of five. And to tell you the truth, at first I wasn’t enamored. It’s not that ” Been Undone” was bad, it just reminded me too much of the experimental sounds of the initial solo career. And the sotto voce vocal was not riveting. It wasn’t quite “Moribund the Burgermeister,” but I wanted to be taken away, I wanted to like it, and at first I didn’t, it was kind of blah.

And Spotify told me the song was nearly eight minutes long and I laughed to myself…he’s still doing it the same way, he’s not compromising, he’s still being Peter Gabriel.

And while I was watching a non-sound video on the 2027 K2 skis, something changed, there was an intensity, a driving beat, very different from the fake 808, the song had started subtly, but it was building, and I was becoming enamored.

So Peter Gabriel is in his own business and his own business only. This is not the way it used to be, it used to be all about radio and retail…get it on the radio so people buy it, create numbers that got people’s attention, do your best to start a juggernaut.

But can a guy with roots in prog rock who’s over 70 create a juggernaut today? Can anybody create a juggernaut today? And those who do, like the Weeknd and Bruno Mars…they may be in the same business, but they’re in a completely different stratosphere when it comes to music.

It’s hard to create in a vacuum, sans feedback, most people need context, need to see the route to success, and without that they lose the drive. Never mind if you’ve been to the mountaintop, looked around and realized your achievement didn’t solve all your problems, most people can’t get up the gumption to climb again.

You’re listening to ” Been Undone” and you realize this wasn’t written and done in a day. It’s layered. The individual sounds are important. Getting the vision down is important.

For me the song comes alive just before the six minute mark, with the industrial sounds and then Peter’s full-strength emoting, he’s giving it his all, the faders are pushed up and it might not appeal to you.

Or it just might.

That’s what we’re looking for, something that appeals to us. Me-too is good to dance to, but to listen we’re looking for something unique, more than a pretty voice, more than the ability to play…we’re looking for exploration, a statement.

“Time to let go, just listen and feel

Just listen and feel”

P.S. It’s not as simple as paying for hi-res from the service of your choice, you’ve got to have a DAC (digital to analog converter). That will get you full resolution, in many cases in excess of CD quality, but all stereo mavens know that as good as the source material is, the end result is colored most by the speakers… You must have enough power for full sound, to avoid distortion, and your speakers must be able to replicate the bottom…not the fake one from the car next to you at the stoplight with the pounding bass, but one with accuracy.

P.P.S. Most creators are no longer concerned with audio quality, because it costs too much, and most people don’t have systems that can reproduce it anyway. But sound is sound, and you want to hear it replicated as accurately as possible. And you want to be able to turn it up loud enough so you can feel it, so it squeezes out all other thoughts.

P.P.P.S. By the end of the song, you’ll either be intrigued or you won’t… I will say, the more you play ” Been Undone,” the more you get into it. However, let’s be clear, this is definitely an album track, ” Been Undone” is not “Sledgehammer” or “Shock the Monkey,” but that’s another problem with the modern marketplace, everybody’s trying for hits all the time.

P.P.P.P.S. There’s nothing rote about ” Been Undone.” What you’ve got is an artist, delivering his work, you can either accept it or not, but it’s clear it’s uncompromised.