We’re not getting any change.

Everybody’s on a high as a result of the last two weeks of protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

But was it even murder?

A wide swath of Americans don’t believe it was so.

You think the only white nationalists, the only Republicans, the only deluded are out there protesting at statehouses for the reopening of America and the right not to wear masks. But there are tens of millions more sitting at home, a great number of them wealthy, who like things just the way they are and despite not going on the record, always refusing to talk politics, are gonna vote for Trump.

Because it’s good for them. Lower taxes. Unrestricted business dealings. Few consequences. What’s not to like?

And the money is important. Joe Biden can’t raise any cash from individuals, they’re just not inspired by him. So, Joe is raising funds from the usual suspects, the corporations and the fat cats, who are not giving money out of charity, they expect a quid pro quo. Remember that legal term from impeachment?

And what’s important about impeachment is the only Republican who broke ranks was Mitt Romney. And you can break out all the polling you want, about his approval rate in Utah, but the truth is he’s been written off by the Republicans in the Senate, he’s not to be trusted, and they’re gonna hammer him ad infinitum until he fades away and does not radiate.

You may have been protesting in the street, but Iowa just passed a law saying you can’t vote by mail unless you request a ballot in writing.

And yesterday we saw the insanity of the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act in Georgia. Plenty of polling stations in white neighborhoods, no lines, and hours-long waits at the few polling sites left in black neighborhoods. This evidence was in plain sight. But it’s not the lead story in today’s news. Oh, it got reported, but today everybody shrugs, this is now business as usual, remember Milwaukee?

Voting has been rigged. If you live in a blue state, like California, more power to you. But in red and purple states the lines have been redrawn to keep Republicans in power. And their response when challenged is to say that Democrats would do the same thing if they were in power, but they aren’t, and may never be.

So, you’ve got the young and angry protesting in the street, and the professional watchers, the professional pundits, they’re all saying it’s about the election.

Hogwash. This just like the NFL and Kaepernick. Goodell only wakes up when there’s riots. That’s what it takes to foment change in America, and it works slowly, if at all.

You’re expecting a radical remaking of corporate America.

Despite all the statements and the self-congratulatory advertisements, this ain’t gonna happen, not in a significant way. They’ll appoint an African-American to the board, but he’ll be less like Cornel West and more like Michael Steele. They’re looking for someone just like them, who talks just like them. Not someone from the street, but from the Ivys. As for employees…they’ll throw their hands in the air and say there just aren’t enough qualified candidates. We can debate the veracity of this all day long, but one thing is for sure, they’re not giving blacks opportunities, they’re shutting them out of colleges, they’re not giving them jobs at the base level, they’ll say it will take time to create a pool, and then the people running the corporation will change and the idea will be back-burnered because it’s all about profits, about Wall Street, correct? The only company that seems to put people over profits, that truly cares about the environment, is Patagonia. That’s one. In a sea of thousands.

And if you think Congress is gonna raise the minimum wage, you’ve ignored the past decade of debate. They’ll whip out the “fact” this will hurt small business, say the nation runs on small business, which is factually untrue, and there will be a lot of talk and no action. Kinda like gun control. Come on, they shoot schoolkids all over the country and what we’ve got is less gun control. You see you can’t take away people’s freedom!

Their freedom, they don’t care about yours.

And their freedom means their kids must not be edged out in competition for educational slots and job slots.

And their freedom means that there need to be fewer regulations, come on, do you think Trump has been railing about the economy because it’s irrelevant to him and his constituents? Never mind that the improved economy didn’t help you. They’ve got manipulated statistics to show you you’re wrong. Everybody’s got a job! And if you can’t put food on the table it’s your fault.

And they’re sick and tired of affirmative action. They’ll say they tried it and it was unfair and didn’t work, even though it did. They don’t want to suffer for you to improve your quality of life, no way. That ship sailed in the sixties and seventies and was sunk and is never going to be rebuilt.

The “New Yorker” did a whole story about the silent majority of rich in Greenwich who support Trump. I’d link to it, but you’re either aware of it or don’t have the time or inclination to check it out. You’ve got no time, and the waters have been muddied to the point where nothing is true, absolutely nothing.

And today the “Washington Post” published a video illustrating the falsehoods spread by Tucker Carlson, and how it’s an organized plan, but that’s behind a paywall, because unless you’re rich the only news you get is what filters down to social media.

“Opinion-Tucker Carlson’s guide to injustice”

(Actually, the video appears to be free to all, but since most of the WaPo is behind a wall, you don’t check out the site.)

But let’s say we believe in the system, will the same youngsters who didn’t come out to vote for Bernie Sanders come out to vote for Joe Biden and defeat Trump? Very questionable.

Meanwhile, all the talking heads say it’s about bringing back those Trump voters who used to be Democrats. Forget the fact that Rachel Bitecofer has gone on and on how this is a false paradigm, what have the Democrats done to win the support of blue collar workers who’ve switched parties? I don’t see Joe Biden agitating for the institution of unions. I don’t see significant rule changes in Amazon warehouses. The Democrats are just like Trump in 2016, they say they’re your only choice, and what can you lose?

And the Republicans will say taxes, i.e. your money. They’ll say if the Democrats win, your taxes will go up, spending will be through the roof.

Even Democrats believe that! That’s what a forty year plan of disinformation has achieved. Reagan said the government was the enemy. Rich and poor believe this, as for the middle…it keeps getting squeezed and demonized. Poor people pay no taxes! They may pay no income taxes, but they’re taxed up the yin-yang every damn day, at the gas station, the supermarket…and they’re spending all of their income to stay alive.

I know I’m painting a bleak picture. But you optimists cannot handle the truth.

And the truth is we need systemic change. And you only get that via something akin to revolution.

Boomers protested against the Vietnam war in the sixties and they got rid of Johnson, who was replaced by Nixon and it was business as usual.

As for Trump… Did you see that Bolsonaro is on the brink of bringing out the military? That’s right, Brazil is devolving into autocracy. That’s the pattern all over the world. You see when people feel threatened, when they can’t make ends meet, they elect a “savior” who ends up turning on them. Happened in Venezuela, happened in Eastern Europe, but for some reason Americans think they’re immune, that it can’t happen here. They still believe the United States is the land of social mobility, that if you work hard you can get rich, even though statistics tell us otherwise, that this paradigm exists in western Europe more than here.

And that’s an element of the disinformation campaign. You don’t want socialism, you don’t want a safety net, because that will eviscerate your freedom! And it won’t allow the job-creators, i.e. the rich and corporations, to run willy-nilly and the end loser will be you. Huh?

And it does come down to income inequality. Because it is all about money. Hell, the candidate who can flood social media with ads tends to win.

And then there are the left wing canards that make informed heads rotate upon their necks. If I hear one more person say to save local newspapers… Any student of history will tell you propping up old paradigms based on emotion never works. The problem is the business model, not the news. There’s got to be another way to deliver news.

And sometimes you’ve got to reach your limit before there is change. Facebook and Google profit on the efforts of news collectors, but now the ship is turning, after decades, to the point where they’re coughing up dough. Maybe they need to pay for local news. Maybe there’s another way to get reportage. But talk to the techies, who don’t live in D.C. and don’t populate the DNC, and you’ll hear the truth, but techies are now evil, everything they say is wrong, talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater…

And if he loses, Trump isn’t gonna leave. And there’s a good chance he’s not losing. What are the aftereffects of yesterday in Georgia? I don’t see any. And now with electronic voting and hacking the results are inherently questionable. So Trump just ain’t gonna bring out the Army and lock us all down, he’s gonna claim the vote was inaccurate and he won, just like he had the largest attendance at an inauguration ever!

He lies and…

The media reports his lies.

The most important story you’ll read this week was by Ben Smith in the “New York Times,” about how youngsters are changing news media. They’re sick and tired of the outlets staying above the fray, reporting and not speaking truth and agitating for change. The reporters broke the rules, they protested, and the end result…the papers didn’t win, the reporters did.

“Inside the Revolts Erupting in America’s Big Newsrooms”

So, we’re sick and angry about the death of George Floyd and all those who preceded him. One thing about riots, they demonstrate how angry people are. Oh, the right and the rich blame it on outside agitators who just want to wreak havoc. But unless we challenge the precepts of these entrenched players change is doomed.

The reporters won by breaking the rules. Unfortunately, that’s the only way we’re gonna get change in the country at large. When the game is rigged, you flip over the table, you don’t continue to play it and complain you’re losing. You’ve got to challenge the fat cats at their core.

And the reason Bernie Sanders lost the nomination comes down to his demonization by the press and entrenched players. They don’t want change, don’t you get it! They want you to believe the safe candidate is the only one who can get elected, and to just trust the experts. Yeah, the same experts who said a file was not as good as a CD, the same experts who said no one would buy an electric car, these same experts who keep demonizing smartphones because they give you the instant ability to communicate and organize and gain power, which is the last thing they want you to have.

Want to have more black people at the record company?

Hit acts have to refuse to release new music and to promote the old.

But this was the ethos of the sixties, today it’s all about brand-building and money, no one will sacrifice for the greater good. They’ll throw out some dollars, make a statement, but you can’t challenge their business enterprise.

As for line workers… I’m not telling them to sabotage the product, but believe me that gets results. As do slowdowns. But unfortunately Democrats have gone along with Republicans in killing unions and making the moniker a dirty name. Come on, who is protecting the working man? Nobody in power.

And the rich have convinced us CEOs deserve their outrageous salaries, that if we don’t pay them they’ll jump to another company. Once again, it’s a club and you’re not in it. They pass the gigs amongst the cabal the same way Grammy committees pass the trophy amongst insiders.

And then they tell you to believe the organization is transparent and worthwhile. But what did they say about Deborah Dugan…change was happening too fast! And that’s in music, with plenty of African-American players. Do you really expect big corporations to be goaded into instant change?

Once again, this comes down to revolution. It looks like we’re not gonna get any change until there’s one. Hell, let’s even say Biden gets elected, do you really think the man from Delaware is gonna lower your credit card interest rate? Keep dreaming.

You see the owners of this country pushed it too far. They could have maintained most of their power and lifestyles but they got too greedy. They wanted everything, at the cost of the living standards of everybody else. And if you tell them they’re the problem they tell you how much they pay in taxes, and they hire lawyers and lobbyists to make sure there’s no change. Here in California, the beach is open to the public. But for decades the rich have locked the gates, they just keep on litigating, and they just keep on defying orders. Meanwhile, if you defy orders you go to jail.

We’ve gotten too far off course. Business as usual is not going to continue. Either Trump and his cronies are going to hoist the authoritarian flag or the public is gonna sink the ship.

Happens all over the globe. You just believe since you live in the United States, the self-professed greatest country in the world, it can’t happen here.

Trump was built on television by Mark Burnett. Who won’t come out and tell us the truth, who won’t release outtakes.

Trump went bankrupt again and again, and in a real head-twister he said it was smart!

Meanwhile, the government changed the law so you can go bankrupt, but can’t write off all of your debts. You must pay, the rich do not.

Once again, the ship can’t be turned around, it’s got to be sunk.

But the rich and powerful like it the way it is, and then there are those scared to take action and then there are those afraid of action, afraid of the chaos, which frequently results in authoritarians in power.

Come on, are we gonna get black NFL owners? Of course not, not enough blacks have that kind of money, never mind want to put it there.

Meanwhile, Roget Goodell makes $40 million a year. Your whole neighborhood doesn’t even make $40 million a year!

I’m just pointing out the gap, between those who have and those who do not. Those who want change and those who do not.

Look at the changes tech wrought. They were not gradual, the companies did not get permission from entrenched players… Change happened nearly instantly, and new entities gained power.

That’s the only way it’s gonna happen in the country at large.

I’m gonna vote, like George Carlin said, do it if it makes you feel good. But just like he said it makes no difference, I’m starting to believe the same thing. Of course Biden will be better than Trump. But do you really think the country is gonna change under this structure? Hell, if women got the vote, why can’t we get rid of the electoral college? Why is everything inviolate, claiming the Constitution says otherwise when the truth is the framers of said document were revolutionaries themselves looking to create a better nation, who did not want to institutionalize the past, i.e. top-down government by a monarchy. Hell, if the framers were alive today most would be to the left of everybody in D.C!

But the Supreme Court is ruled by people who say otherwise.

It’s a sad state of affairs and peaceful demonstration in the streets is a start, but far from a solution.

We need further action.

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

Show Playlist:

Spotify
Pandora

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.