We’re lacking context.

As a result we’re lacking inspiration.

And therefore there’s no competition.

What inspires you to be your best if there’s no scene? You can be the greatest singer in your neighborhood, on your campus, but if there’s no hope of recognition, no ladder to climb, you’re not inspired to take the chance.

There’s a Top Ten, but it’s not like it was in the monoculture, when everybody knew it, whether it be the sixties or the heyday of MTV. The latter illustrated the power of television. Suddenly acts were bigger than ever, selling more records and more tickets, you could tour around the world, you were a superstar.

Today Viacom, parent of MTV, lowers its carriage rates, because the cable provider doesn’t think its channels are worth it. They stopped calling it “Music Television” and all I know is they feature girls who got pregnant at sixteen, and the shenanigans they endure. Everything’s lowbrow, shooting for the lowest common denominator, our lives are ruled by clickbait, and you feel scummy when you ultimately get to the destination and find it’s just a way to sell you advertising, and that the info isn’t even what was promised.

It didn’t use to be this way.

Taylor Swift has Michael Jackson syndrome, she’s so busy being the Queen of Pop, needing to be on top, number one, that she’s missing the plot. The focus is not on music, but money. No one can have a hit every time out, you’re putting too much pressure on yourself, you’ve got to take risks to succeed. Once again, it’s about inspiration, in a moment, that you scramble to get down as you’re channeling the gods. “Me” is number ten on Spotify, with half the daily listens of number one. As for the video, this is akin to Michael Jackson’s morphing video. You remember what you saw, I dare you to remember what the song was. Maybe “Black And White,” or was it “Black Or White,” we weren’t sure which one Michael Jackson was, he was a party of one, out of touch, instead of bringing us all together, he separated himself from us.

“Echo In The Canyon” is not the first focus on Laurel Canyon. We watched all the clips at the advent of YouTube. But then there became too many, it was all about context, that’s your goal today, to create context, or universality.

So when you see Brian Wilson talking…

He’s strangely coherent here, the genius everybody admires as opposed to the mentally ill man walking and talking like a zombie. He needed to use four studios to get “Good Vibrations” right. Today, everybody records at home, otherwise it’s too expensive, and as for sound, everybody’s listening through horrible speakers anyway.

But Brian inspired the Beatles. The Byrds’ “Bells of Rhymney” inspired George Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone,” and George even admitted it, he sent a copy to Roger McGuinn (wasn’t he still “Jim” McGuinn back then?)

As for McGuinn, he was the one to match folk with rock, when Dylan heard the Byrds’ version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” the light bulb went off, he wanted to rock too.

At least that’s what McGuinn says.

You see there was that cross-pollination, and that need to not only succeed, but exceed. You wanted to be better than what came before. You’re sitting at home complacent and then Brian Wilson puts out “Pet Sounds” and suddenly the Beatles had to make “Sgt. Pepper,” the gantlet had been thrown down, the challenge was there, do better than THIS!

And it was all about the music, after all, “Pet Sounds” was a stiff, followed up almost instantly by a greatest hits LP.

And Stephen Stills hears the Byrds and…

When Clapton and Stills trade leads, albeit in different cities, you’re jolted awake, that’s the power of excellence.

You immediately know it’s not the average punter. Your ears prick up.

But what you’re not prepared for is Stills’s wailing. Yup, he’s that good and he’s still got it. He was on side two of “Super Session,” and despite all the accolades for Mike Bloomfield on side one, I always preferred Stills’s work.

But he doesn’t get any respect.

As for Michelle Phillips…

I hung with her once, in the desert, when Wilson Phillips premiered.

Since then… Let’s just say she’s had work done. You can always tell by the shiny face. No one can age gracefully anymore. Every star seems to have had plastic surgery. Charlize Theron wasn’t born that good-looking, and now Alyssa Milano is unrecognizable.

But other than Joni Mitchell, who’s refused the knife, most of the denizens of the Laurel Canyon scene were not beautiful. Their music spoke for them. Otherwise, how would Eric Clapton get a chance with Mary Hughes?

And you can’t say all that today, the #MeToo police come after you. But the truth is beauty pays dividends. As do talent and money, sorry.

But you watch the clips and you’re astounded what a dish Michelle was back then. I mean I was around, but I didn’t realize it. And then she cheated on Papa John with Denny and he wrote “Go Where You Wanna Go” for her/about her and…

We lap up this rock history.

But there’s more. David Crosby admitting he was an asshole, Graham Nash believing music can still change the world…

And there are performances by today’s stars.

But what no one acknowledges is how hard it was to write the songs! To be inspired, to lay it down, to have a hit. That’s why we admire these legends, that’s why people sing these songs. But it’s nothing like the originals. They last forever, a huge contrast to today’s world of evanescence.

And the truth is rappers do inspire other rappers.

Then again, Graham Nash testifies as to the beauty of music, something that’s absent today.

Stills wanted to replace the usual suspect engineers. Today, everybody wants the usual suspects to deliver a hit. Taking responsibility, doing it your way?

History.

But if you’re not in hip-hop or pop, there’s none of the aforementioned context, none of that pushing forward, no rising above where all of us can see you.

We pay attention to all those running for President, but most of us cannot only not name the Top Ten, we’ve never even heard the songs, even the young ‘uns, even people in the business.

Now the star of the show is Tom Petty, who’s so alive when he’s so dead.

And speaking of alive, there’s this singer Jade Castrinos. Not that she has the best voice, or a unique voice, but she’s got the music in her, when she stands on stage you feel the joy.

Kind of like Stephen Stills mouthing the words of “Mr. Soul” behind Neil Young when Neil’s singing “Mr. Soul” on television.

Now that Laurel Canyon era is over. But everything comes back, but with a twist. So personal lyrics with melody in songs written by those with not only talent but years of paying dues, practicing, will return. Could be supported by electronic music. Could be totally acoustic folk. The wheel keeps spinning.

But right now we’re absent the sixties California optimism. They lifted up the country and all the loose nuts and bolts came to Los Angeles. Not those who went to college and did what mommy and daddy told them to, but those who thought for themselves, and they changed the world.

It’s inspiring.

And watching this flick it made me want to reach, to do better, to capture inspiration and hit it way out of the park.

Then again, I’m not sure what game I’m playing.

But you’ve still got to try.

But trying is easiest when others are pushing you forward, not to make money, to be commercial, but to make an artistic statement.

Those are the days that have to return.

We’ve got to get back to the canyon.

Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday May 14th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

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

Lake Success: A Novel

I almost cried when this book ended. I was sitting in an Air Canada 777, staring straight ahead, unable to move, never mind start reading something else.

Reading was my first love, before baseball, before skiing, before music.

I loved the library. I’d take out seven books at a time. The librarians would always be wary, but when I showed up a few days later for a new stack of books, they began to understand I was a reader.

I remember driving to see my mother’s parents, lying in the wayback of the station wagon, reading “Shortstop On Wheels.” I couldn’t put a book down.

But then my interest shifted to periodicals. And when I discovered “Rolling Stone”…

This was before they broke the Patty Hearst story, before they sent Hunter Thompson on the campaign trail, before the magazine had respectability, before it won awards and became part of the firmament. There was an entire magazine devoted to my interests. And as good as the music coverage was, there were always stories that stuck indelibly in my brain which were off-topic. If it was in “Rolling Stone,” I read it, cover to cover, it was a ritual, it was the highlight of every other week.

And today I get more magazines than anybody I know. It doesn’t make sense to pay for Apple News+ because I’m paying already.

Actually, my interest in magazines has shifted to newspapers, especially since so much of magazine writing is awful, or close to it. Amateurs writing about subjects they’re unfamiliar with. Stories without detail, in an era where information is not scarce, magazines have dropped a notch, trying to be all things to all people and failing. I can get specific information online, usually for free, why should I pay for an ersatz version?

And as my mother says, she can fly coast to coast with only the “New York Times.”

There’s no flight long enough for me. I never buy the wifi, I love being off the grid. But by time I comb through the newspapers, the flight is often over, or it’s time to go to sleep…

Then again, my best reading is done when I’m disconnected, when everybody’s asleep. I spent every night in Toronto reading “Lake Success” for at least an hour, what I really wanted to do was stay in bed and read it all day, it was that good.

“Lake Success” is by Gary Shteyngart. I read his well-reviewed 2010 novel, “Super Sad True Love Story,” set in the future when I was in Val d’Isere back in 2011. Never told you that, just didn’t write for a week, but that was back before the tsunami of information, just before the attention economy, a term I coined and now everybody uses. And I didn’t enjoy it, but if I buy a book I finish it. It’s my own personal commitment to myself.

If you don’t pay, you don’t have to finish. But if you do…

In 2009, Felice bought me a Kindle for my birthday. This is what put me back on the road to reading books. My mother rarely paid, she got on line at the library, where you could get a best seller for free a year after it was published. But before Apple colluded, all Kindle books were $9.99. Amazon was building a market. Which the publishing industry quickly destroyed. The concept was Amazon was going to grow the market via lower prices. But the antiquated publishers, technically ignorant, business ignorant other than their narrow silo, were unhappy. Just like the record business, albeit with a much lower total gross.

The record business was brought into the future by theft and Spotify.

The book business is still living in the past.

Now the Kindle books are not that cheap, but what’s worse is the paperback version of “Lake Success” is over four dollars cheaper than the Kindle version. Printing, shipping, returns…that’s what physical comes with. It’d be like charging a hundred dollars a month for Spotify to maintain CD sales, keeping the labels in control of a small market. So what we’ve got now is a self-satisfied publishing industry that isn’t even aware it lost the war. Amazon was doing them a favor, but they missed it. The economics of digital are so much better. But “book lovers” say they love print, the same way the vinyl fanatics go on about LPs and the inane press trumpets gross figures when digital figures are net and… Never underestimate the power of Luddites to hold back the future.

If “Lake Success” were still $9.99, you’d impulse buy it. But at $13.99…you’re not so sure, maybe Lefsetz is wrong. Look at the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon itself, less than four stars. But these are wankers who want easy reading of books that are glorified movie scripts. Whereas “Lake Success” is…

Art. And not that hard to read to boot.

“Lake Success” is “Bonfire Of The Vanities” without the over the top comic tone. Oh, “Lake Success” is funny, but it’s also believable.

Now this is not a book for the underclass. This is a book for strivers, winners. It’s about the haves and the have-nots. About the super-rich versus the rich. But with a conscience.

Yes, the game is rigged, but these are the people who rig it.

But…at what cost?

There’s always a day of reckoning. And then do you wake up and find out you’ve wasted your whole life, doing what’s expedient?

“Lake Success” is au courant. Better than any record this year, better than any book I’ve read in YEARS!

The characters are believable. And flawed. And what happens is not expected, you keep on turning the pages believing you know what’s going to happen and then it doesn’t.

We’ve got instant best sellers, and then we’ve got the books that sneak up on you, that percolate over time.

Then again, the book industry is so insular, they review books a week or two BEFORE they come out, and then there’s no publicity unless they get traction. So it’s all word of mouth.

Hell, I wasn’t gonna read this, I was done with Shteyngart, but then Kate testified and I decided to download the sample chapter, and was immediately hooked and impulse bought it, after midnight, because the endless characterization of the rich’s viewpoint was so spot-on.

“Lake Success” is legendary. Maybe it’s barely known because it skewers the readers themselves. It’d be like trying to sell a book about the lunacy of fantasy sports to those that participate in them. If you worked hard to get ahead, I mean REALLY hard, in high school, to get into a good college, and then slaved to build a career so you could drive a Tesla to your vacation house…you might be offended.

But maybe that’s the point, the rich don’t have a sense of humor about themselves, they’re confident in their beliefs, have contempt for those wasting their opportunities, when the truth is for all their education and experience they’ve got huge blind spots, they know much less than they think they do.

Okay. If you’re capable of reading, and you must be if you got this far, I need you to purchase this book immediately. It’s so right on so many levels. And the plot moves forward and you know the characters and the worst thing that happened to me this week was IT ENDED!

Is cannabis the new music?

The week before CMW, Neill Dixon had a cannabis conference. With 3000 attendees! It’s the wild west, nothing is settled, it’s like music in the days of Napster.

Then again, Robbie Robertson spoke about the sixties. How you had to listen to a record to learn which way the wind blew.

Robbie told a good story. About being on tour with Bob Dylan. How Bob was a folkie and they were rockers and Dylan wanted some of what they had. So they went on tour, and people HATED IT! Normally when you get a bad reaction, you change up the set list. But Bob refused to do this. But it was Bob’s show, so Robbie wasn’t that worried about the response, other than dodging thrown objects. Night after night, he wondered whether it was them or the audience. After the tour the audience caught up with the music. Dylan was pushing the envelope when fans want you to stay in your own lane. That’s death. And Dylan survives when the folkies…many of them are literally dead, or retired or playing to tiny audiences.

But we’ve got no one testing those limits today.

Scott Cohen gave a futurist presentation. Hire him to speak at your conference. After Sony started telling him and Richard how to run the Orchard, Cohen ankled the business. And was hired by Max Lousada at Warner, even though he wasn’t looking for a gig. I don’t want to give away the secrets of our conversation after, but he remarked how the streaming services have all the data and the labels do not. And the money is in the data.

Yes, we have not reached the end of the line in music, there is still runway. Scott talked about AI helping amateurs to make music, so they don’t have to practice for a decade to do this. Like amateurs with Instagram. They’re not professional photographers, they don’t know what an f-stop is, but they employ filters and have a good time.

As for Dave Grohl… I sat there wondering if he gained this personality from all those years on the road, being with a bunch of guys in the van, on the bus… To survive in that atmosphere you have to know how to poke fun, to duck for cover, to deflect. And even though he’s overexposed, Grohl was the master of the quip. He was interviewing his mother, about her book about the mothers of musicians. He told her stuff she never knew and was consistently entertaining, you could not hate him.

Then at the urging of Larry LeBlanc, I went to the Palestinian panel. He’s been bugging me to go to this conference on the West Bank, I’ve been anxious. And it was all copacetic until someone asked about Roger Waters and cultural boycotts and this woman on the panel said cultural boycotts don’t work, that the Israelis stole their land and committed genocide and if you think there’s gonna be peace in the Middle East, you’re dreaming.

And then I went to the pitch panel, a mini Shark Tank.

Cracked me up. This woman pitching an app called Side Door about hooking up musicians for house concerts. Did she ever hear of SCALE?? It’s not like Bon Jovi is gonna play in your backyard, certainly not for less than seven figures. The company takes 10% of revenue, how you make any money…

And then there were the guys pitching music for health purposes. They’ve got some AI, artificial intelligence for those out of the loop, that will help soothe people and they projected some insane eight figure revenue total in five years and after reading the Theranos book, I couldn’t stop laughing. Did they pull that number out of their ass? Does anybody believe these business plans anymore?

But there was this one company called Squiggle or something similar. Their concept is to make electronic music… Let’s just say instead of playing one tone at a time, you can have the tone go up or down and…

You’d have to see it.

And they put up the numbers for music software and it was very convincing, but when they said they were gonna do $35 million in five years, I wondered.

This came up at dinner. Someone wanted to create an app. THAT WAS TEN YEARS AGO! I told this person to hang with people who’d already had tech victories, to learn the lessons. But the curse of the amateur is they don’t want to know much, they think they’re the first person to ever tread these waters, they don’t know that investors are only interested in grand slams as opposed to bunts or singles.

Maybe we should have had Linda Perry there to set them straight.

But Neill is now doing four cannabis conferences a year. He’s the smartest guy in the room, he pivoted.

If you want to succeed, to paraphrase Sam Kinison, YOU’VE GOT TO GO WHERE THE MONEY IS! If there’s not big money to be made, most people are not interested.

Then again, Scott Cohen said that the labels are now populated by thirtysomethings who worked in tech like drones and didn’t get stock options and now want to have fun and make a difference.

The truth is music’s in a lull, it’s the last throes of the baby boomers.

The world is gonna change, it’s just a matter of figuring out where it’s going.

Like Neill Dixon.