1

I knew it had to be a true story.

So what I like to do is choose a song in Spotify, and then see what the algorithm serves me thereafter. Oftentimes I don’t even listen to what is purveyed, I just want to see what the service comes up with. And I can’t remember what song I started with yesterday, but about twenty five songs in, it served me “I Love You” by the Climax Blues Band.

What do I know about the Climax Blues Band? For a while there, they were managed by Miles Copeland, and they had two hits, “Couldn’t Get It Right” and “I Love You.” Other than that…I never bought an album and I don’t remember hearing them on the radio. But those two tracks…

Came deep in the band’s career.

And the band were on a slew of labels. They were journeymen, akin to Savoy Brown. But unlike Savoy Brown, Climax Blues Band had two hits. And neither of them sounded like the blues. “Couldn’t Get It Right” was a staple on FM radio in the late seventies. The change into the chorus…

“And I kept on looking for a sign in the middle of the night

But I couldn’t see the light, no, I couldn’t see the light

I kept on looking for a way to take me through the night

Couldn’t get it right, I couldn’t get it right”

I won’t quite say the chorus was sotto voce… But the verse is almost a march, as in the band is strutting down the road, and the chorus is almost an aside, and that’s what makes it magical.

But “I Love You”…

It broke up the band.

2

“When I was younger, man

I hadn’t a care

Fooling around

Hitting the town

Growing my hair”

There’s a soft intro, and then the singer stands up naked, right out front, and sings these words. He’s testifying and he’s not worried about how he looks, what anybody cares, he’s delivering it from the heart. The instrumentation drops out almost entirely, all you’ve got is the words and the message.

As for the message…

Today it’s different. People consider college to be a trade school. They’re on a career path from puberty. But in the sixties and seventies…

Of course not everybody went to college. But those who did and did not had the same experience of being out of school, getting high, getting drunk, trying to find out who they were. That was part of life, you weren’t building a résumé, you were feeling it out, changing it up, meeting new people, discarding others.

“You came along

And stole my heart

When you entered my life

Ooh, babe

You got what it takes

So I made you my wife”

This was when you still were optimistic, when you still had hope. At least we did, I’m not so sure about the younger generations today. You were looking for love, and when you found it it seemed like a revelation, it got you high, you were elated. You’d had a few misfires, but this one was gonna last, for a while anyway.

“Since then

I never looked back

It’s almost like living a dream

And, ooh

I love you”

They’re in it together, it’s him and her against the world.

“You came along

From far away

And found me here”

I know, I know, there are people who meet their significant other in nursery school, never mind college. But back when life was fluid, when you got in your car and parked your ass in a new location…you never quite knew who you were going to run into. It seemed like pure luck that you ran into this person. There was no connection other than you were both at the bar at the same time, or you had mutual friends.

“I was playing around

Feeling down

Hitting the beer

You picked me up

From off the floor

And gave me a smile”

Wives and girlfriends don’t get enough credit. It might be their husband, their significant other’s name in lights, but without their support, and oftentimes their direction, their man would fall apart, not even make it. This is in all walks of life, but especially with musicians, certainly successful ones. They’re the other, they need someone to root them and then connect them to society.

“You said

You’re much too young

Your life ain’t begun

Let’s walk for a while

Wait a second, in an earlier verse it seems like they got married right away. But here we hear that she put on the brakes, slowed him down, told him she wanted to be together for a while and see what happened.

But he was in from hello.

“And as my head was spinning ’round

I gazed into your eyes

And thought, ooh

I want you”

And here comes the essence, the piece-de-resistance.

“Thank you, babe

For being a friend

And shining your light in my life

‘Cause, ooh

I need you”

And he most certainly does. She energizes him, gives him direction…and he knows it, he knows her value to him.

“Thanks again for being my friend

And straightening out my life

‘Cause, ooh

I need you”

That’s what she did. She picked him up out of the slow lane, if not quite the gutter, then gave him direction and support.

And, once again, he knows it, and he wants her to know it.

“Since then I never looked back

It’s almost like livin’ a dream

Ooh

I got you

“If ever a man had it all

It would have to be me

And, ooh

I love you”

3

Now the average guy can’t be soft and sensitive, open-hearted, especially if he’s in a driving rock band, where this is anathema. Rock was all about machismo, tight pants showing your package. Sure, there were singer-songwriters, oftentimes considered wimpy, irrelevant of their talent, but even the Climax Blues Band had an element of cock rock. So… “I Love You” was totally out of character. But it was so honest and direct, simple. And there were touches…two guys or girls in a room couldn’t come up with some of these lines. Because this guy lived it, and it’s straight from the heart.

So I decided to Google and find out the real story, if it was a true story.

AND OF COURSE IT WAS!

What came up instantly was it was about Derek Holt’s FIRST WIFE!

That cracked me up, that they didn’t stay together. Back in our era, very few people did. As time went on there was distance, or too much anger, or third parties…and what seemed like forever turned out not to be. But when you stood up in front of your friends and family and said your vows, you thought it was.

Yup, Holt was inspired. The song came out almost instantly. I know, I know, some of the greatest songs are belabored, but so many of the great ones come in a flash, a lightning bolt from the heavens. You’re almost channeling them.

So…

The rest of the guys in the group HATED IT! Didn’t want to record it, never mind put it on their album, but producer John Ryan heard something and…

He called a session with Nicky Hopkins! John Cuffley, the band’s drummer, performed, and Holt, the singer, who was normally not, called in group member Pete Haycock to play the solo and…

Ryan thought the song needed strings. STRINGS??? That takes you right into wimpydom, the antithesis of the Climax Blues Band. And who does he call? DAVID CAMPBELL! Who’s got a list of credits a mile long, check them out in Wikipedia: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Campbell_(composer)

He’s worked with a who’s who of rockers, from the Stones to Metallica to even Garth Brooks, who’s got roots in rock, he credits his inspiration to KISS. And Campbell has arranged and orchestrated music for “Dreamgirls” and “Brokeback Mountain” and…

So it’s a veritable dream team…who knew Hopkins and Campbell were involved? There was no internet all those years ago.

And when Warner Bros. heard the result…they knew they had a smash!

4

Which it was. But the rest of the band STILL HATED IT!

They never ever played it live.

Ultimately the band ruptured as a result of this song, Derek Holt was excised from the band. The only time “I Love You” was ever performed live was…when Holt was at a karaoke bar in Florida in 2005.

And the well went even deeper.

For a long time, the Climax Blues Band’s albums were out of print.

And there is still a Climax Blues Band on the road, but there are no original members!

Now if that ain’t a rock and roll story…

Everybody alive back in 1980 knows this song. But almost no one can name the players in the band, never mind the writer. To the point where they can put a fake group on the road and get away with it.

As for the original players… They run out of juice, it’s hard enough if you’re a superstar, it’s a slog out there on the road, with guys you may know since you were a teenager, who you may hate these days.

Derek Holt? I hope he owns the publishing, but I doubt it. At best he probably gets the writer’s share. You had to pay to play back then. But maybe Holt’s got it, maybe he even got it in a reversion. I want to believe that.

As for the song, it’s been covered a number of times, it lives on.

So, you can see it as a schmaltzy number, with “moon in June” lyrics, that appeals to women and others with soft insides…but that’s not the real story. “I Love You” came straight from Derek Holt’s heart, he meant every word. And you can hear it in the record, which is why it’s so great, because it’s TRUE!

Coda: The essence, the reason for this song, for Holt’s bond to his wife, is she SUPPORTED HIM, told him NOT TO GIVE UP! If you haven’t thought of giving up, you’re not a real artist. The life is so hard and you get wrapped up in your own mind and what you need is direction and support, and it’s not that easy to find, the world is full of naysayers. But when you find it…

The records that were hits at the same time as the British Invasion.

Tune in Saturday March 14th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Report: https://loudandclear.byspotify.com

1

The music business is opaque. And that’s the way those inside like it. Because they can play fast and loose with the money… Isn’t that what the Live Nation conversation between those two employees is all about, the company screwing the ignorant public?

Maybe you missed that story. If so, here goes:

“‘Robbing Them Blind’: Live Nation Employees Joked About Fees – A series of private exchanges in the messaging system Slack were revealed as exhibits in the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against the concert giant.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/arts/music/live-nation-ticketmaster-trial-fees-slacks.html

Now the funny thing is it’s not only Live Nation (and its competitors) who don’t want the truth to come out, but the acts themselves. If breakdowns of every show were posted… The fans would still blame Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the ticketing company and the promoter. Because they just can’t believe that the acts are at fault, that they bear any responsibility for high ticket prices, that without the fees, the economics don’t work, there is no show. Again and again Live Nation says that the acts set ticket prices. And let’s put aside club gigs… Once you grow into theatres, the artist’s team might ask the promoter for its opinion on pricing and scaling, but the buck stops with the act. Then again, if an act wants a certain gross, wants to walk away from the tour with a large pot of money, inherently ticket prices will be higher. Conversely, if the act wants to charge less for tickets, then it’s a field day for bots and the secondary market. But somehow the consumer doesn’t want to accept any of this, people just believe they should be able to get a great seat for a low price and scalp the ticket themselves if they want to.

As for the antitrust case… Are you aware of the Apple iBooks antitrust lawsuit? Amazon was paying publishers full wholesale, but selling books for under ten bucks to build a business. But Apple was employing the agency system. Which means the publisher can set whatever price it wants, and Apple will take 30% of that. I’m not going to walk you through all the details, but the bottom line here is the antitrust case made Amazon go to the agency system as well, meaning…THE PRICE OF E-BOOKS WENT UP! FOR EVERYONE! Which is antithetical to the theory of antitrust, that it’s about harm to the consumer. That’s how intelligent the government is.

As for the Live Nation/Ticketmaster case… That’s the true question, if you split off the company, if you change the game as per the settlement just reached, will the consumer benefit, will prices go down and will they find it easier to get a ticket? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But nobody in the government can see or accept this.

2

Word on the street is that Spotify is the devil, that it is ripping artists off, if it pays at all. I mean someone’s got to be blamed for the fact that the act isn’t making more money. And no matter what you tell people, you can’t change their mind. It’s like MAGA, doesn’t matter what Trump does, they hate the LIBS.

But Spotify is a tech company. Those are the roots of the two founders, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. And tech is about digital, zeros and ones, there’s no fudging, because if there was the system, the program, wouldn’t work.

And the ethos of the Millennials and Gen-Z is far different from that of the Baby Boomers and Gen-X. Boomers believed music should be free, back in the SIXTIES! The younger generations don’t mind people making money, as long as they can see all the evidence, be walked through the steps. These are the entrepreneurial generations. Not buying insurance by becoming a doctor or lawyer, but believing in themselves and taking risks.

And the truth is the younger generations have no problem with Spotify. It’s the oldsters who do… Who want to go back to the label model of yore, before the internet. But their cries are dying out. Remember all the oldsters complaining about the audio quality of digital files? That was batted about FOR YEARS! And now hi-res is available and most people don’t bother to pay for it or have the equipment to hear it.

It’s kind of like politics. Did you read that 85 year old Representative Jim Clyburn is running for another term, his 18th in Congress? Man, I’d like to get him in a conversation about TikTok and social media. He’s inherently out of touch. And I know this is true… I’m constantly doing podcasts with Boomers who don’t know the tech, who tell me their computers broke. Bottom line…if you’ve got a Mac, they’re almost bulletproof. Just reboot. This is not the eighties anymore. Can I tell you how many times I’ve fixed people’s iPhones and Macs when they were ready to go to the Apple Store?

Of course, of course, there are old people who are tech-savvy, but the world is based on generalizations, except in tech.

So, Spotify has put up Loud&Clear, which answers every question people have about streaming and how the company works. Whenever anybody tells you how bad Spotify is, point them to this site. It’s exhaustive. And potentially exhausting. People want it simple, bite-sized, and they prefer emotion to facts.

3

Here is the summary:

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2026-03-11/loud-and-clear-music-economics-highlights/

But the bottom line is more people are making more money.

Here’s where it gets dicey. When I tell people they’re not entitled to compensation if people don’t stream their music. Where in business does this concept play? Does a commission salesperson get paid a big salary when they sell very little? Does everybody who can shoot a basket earn a place in the NBA? Then again, the world runs on delusion.

You should read each and every point in the above link, click on the ten Takeaways, expanding them for more information.

In addition, you should read the FAQ:

Your Questions, Answered

My favorite is: “Why does the ‘per-stream rate’ appear lower for Spotify than some other streaming services?”

Of course there’s no per-stream rate, and that is explained in depth in this report. But the nougat is:

“The average Spotify listener streams 3 to 4 times more music per month than the average listener of other streaming services.”

I could do the math for you, but either you get it or you don’t. But underneath that is the fact that Spotify is where active music listeners go. Where the fans are. You can be a king on another service but still be a pawn in the game. If you’re a king on Spotify, you are truly royalty.

And the increased listening and market share and ultimate payouts are why competing platforms won’t release their own reports, won’t be as transparent. Then again, are the others pure music companies or is music a sideshow.

Which brings me to that inane “Death of Spotify” article that I wrote about, that people keep e-mailing me.

To think Jimmy Iovine is a seer of technology is like saying Clyburn is one too. Boomer Jimmy is all about the old world, and he’s pissed someone moved his cheese.

But the bottom line is…if you think Spotify is about to die, you’d better short Apple and Nvidia too. Because the odds of the streaming company going under are as miniscule as those of the two tech giants caving.

But it makes a good story.

Then again, the labels used to run the music business, now it’s the promoters, it’s all about live. And those holding the short end of the stick don’t like that they’re no longer all-powerful.

But it gets better. One of the questions in the FAQ is:

“Would the user-centric model be fairer?”

They link to the French report and a summary from MusicAlly.

If you click through to the summary:

French study offers new data on impact of user-centric payouts

You’ll find out that:

“Among the key findings: switching to a user-centric system would reduce the royalties paid out to rightsholders of the top 10 artists by 17.2% – they’d get 7.7% of the overall payouts rather than 9.3%. The result would be small percentage gains further down the pyramid: an average 1.3% increase for artists ranked 11-100; 2.2% for those ranked 101-1,000; 0.5% for those between 1,001 and 10,000; and 5.2% for those outside the top 10,000.”

And you must read the following paragraph:

“‘If the percentages of change seem not insignificant, the amounts in value remain in reality limited,’ warned the CNM in its summary of the findings. That 5.2% average increase for artists outside the top 10,000 would be ‘at most a few euros per year on average’ for those musicians.”

And there you have it, the user-centric model is a canard.

And speaking of MusicAlly, they have a great summary of Loud&Clear here:

80 artists are generating $10m-plus of Spotify payouts a year

4

Most people can’t handle the truth. Which is Spotify isn’t the devil, it didn’t kill the music business, IT SAVED IT!

But now everybody can play and everybody can complain. The most vociferous e-mail I receive about the system is from those not in it. That’s the internet, everybody is entitled to a voice, but not every voice is worth listening to.

Streaming is here to stay. There’s nothing past streaming, it’s on demand. You get it when you need it, and it’s available instantly. What could be better than that?

And there are other ways to make money from recordings, like Patreon and SoundCloud… Go for it! But that’s marginal artists making money from fans. At least they’re marginal in terms of absolute streams, compared to who is successful on Spotify.

Let me just quote the MusicAlly report above, to make it perfectly clear:

“Spotify said that more than 1,500 artists generated more than $1m in payouts in 2025, while more than 13,800 generated at least $100k. The usual caveat being that this is before rightsholders and distributors took their cuts.

“The 13,800 figure is nearly 1,400 up on last year’s report, while Spotify offered another angle on the payout-millionaires stat. ‘Capturing just 1% of streams from 1% of listeners is enough to earn $1 million in annual royalties from Spotify.’

“‘In 2025, the 100,000th-highest-earning artist generated more than $7,300 in royalties from Spotify alone. In 2015, the artist in that same position generated about $350,’ added Spotify in its summary of the trends in this year’s report.”

Read it and weep.

Or maybe you can see that the future’s so bright you’ve got to wear shades.

But not for everybody, but it never was.

5

Let’s hope for more of this, more transparency, but don’t bet on it. This is the essence of the entertainment business, ripping people off. Just ask the actors with net profit participations in the hit films they appeared in. When I was practicing law, we represented an actor who had a net profit participation in the second biggest film of the year. He never saw a dime, it remained in a negative position. Creative accounting. If the hits don’t make money, how can the studios survive? But the truth is they do make money, they just employ accounting tricks to make sure they’re not sharing it.

That’s not what Spotify is doing and Loud&Clear lays it all out.

I’d read it before you start pontificating how bad Spotify is.

The Black Crowes have a new album, “A Pound of Feathers,” and have been nominated once again for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rich-robinson/id1316200737?i=1000754826873

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/dcc1e593-2888-4657-a9d0-652185058f9f/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-rich-robinson