Once again the music business is the canary in the coal mine.

Used to be there was a clear line between amateurs and professionals, those who had a chance and those who did not. It cost too much to record, there were a limited number of slots, and the possibility of getting on the radio was nil without the big label boosting you.

But the internet put the power of production in the hands of the people, streaming eclipsed radio and anybody could upload their tunes to services, and the big labels only sign a sliver of acts, leaving the rest of the field open.

So amateurs believe they can become successes, and they muddy the water.

Kinda like social media influencers. They read that some influencers are making bank and they think that they can do. The end result is only a thin layer of influencers survive, and their odds of crossing over to the big time world of entertainment are extremely low. But they post on.

Lori Loughlin wanted her daughter Olivia Jade to get a good education. Olivia Jade thought school was useless, better to groom herself and tell her story on YouTube, as if that were forever. Hell, even sports stars don’t last forever. As for entertainment… Musicians can go on the road and play their hits, actors are lucky if they can get gigs in summer stock. The internet is littered with momentary stars, from Tila Tequila to PSY to that “Chocolate Rain” guy… That’s right, Olivia Jade is just young and stupid enough to believe she can replicate the Kardashian paradigm, as if the guys in your garage can become the Beatles.

But we’ve got no new Beatles.

The Beatles were from the underclass and all they could do was play, get laid and do dope. There was no master plan, other than avoiding the factory.

Today everybody’s read Don Passman’s book, everybody’s legally sophisticated, they believe they’re marketing geniuses, but the art takes a back seat. Come on, would “Old Town Road” have become a phenomenon without TikTok and the faux controversy re country radio? No way, the record is not spectacular, it’s no “I Want To Hold Your Hand” or “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” but that’s how far we’ve sunk, where marketing takes precedence over content. In other words, oftentimes there’s no there there.

So how many candidates are running for President now? Is it twenty four with Bullock and de Blasio? Do all these people really believe they have a chance?

They wouldn’t in the old days. Their “brands” wouldn’t have enough traction. You had to pay your dues, it took years to get national recognition. Furthermore, you had to be anointed by the Party. But just like the internet blew apart the music business, the internet has blown apart politics. In the old days, AOC would be a freshman representative with little traction. But now, say or do something outrageous, own your position, and there are a million media outlets ready to spread the word for clicks, and the public then spreads the good stories further.

This is a far cry from the old days of politicians, when you couldn’t get them to say a damn thing, when they were wishy-washy. This is Biden’s problem. Whether you’re left, right or center, we all want someone honest and credible, and if you’re not willing to own a position and argue for it, we’re not interested.

That’s what Donald Trump did best.

Then again, Donald Trump was a media magician, he was already known. Most of these people running for President?

And the mainstream media is completely flummoxed. They missed the Trump revolution so they want to keep the bases covered this time. They cover all these candidates like we care.

Meanwhile, Beto has already faded, Buttitieg was the beneficiary of a soundbite on Pence and he’s had no traction in weeks and forgetting left field candidates like Marianne Williamson, everybody else seems to have some political experience, but just because you can bring patrons to the local bar, that does not mean you deserve to be on the radio, or in the Spotify Top 50. But everybody believes they can do it. Just like all the wannabe wankers in music, like the ignorant would-be influencers in social media. And once again, the wannabes have not learned the lessons from those who’ve already made it. A business is only unsophisticated once, then it becomes professional and harder to disrupt. Go up against Live Nation? Invest double digit millions in a label without a catalog? Sure, David sometimes beats Goliath, but if you want to win, go where the infrastructure isn’t. Like Napster with the major labels. It’s really hard to reinvent the wheel.

So we’re confused. We know almost nothing about most of these candidates. They’re running hard, but we’re tuned out. Whittle it down, then we’ll pay attention. Just like in the music business. There’s so much music being made that it’s incomprehensible. Playlists didn’t solve the problem and the industry is focused on the Top Ten, or Twenty or Fifty, when the internet has blown apart that construct, now it’s about a number of verticals, niches, but oftentimes not that small. And then these verticals topple the titans. Always happens. If you think we’re gonna be in a vapid world dominated by drum machines forever, you’re going to be left behind.

It’s like everybody’s become Stuart Smalley, but the truth is it’s no joke. And if you disrespect anybody, give them short shrift, the blowback is insane. So outlets are confused as to what to say and do.

So if you’ve got all twenty four candidates analyzed, can go into depth on each one…

You probably know all the records in the Spotify Top 50, the winners on all the genre charts. But the truth is even the professionals no longer know.

Then again, we’ve got a black and white arbiter in the music business, ticket sales. That’s where the rubber meets the road, either you can sell tickets or you can’t, and if you can’t…

We’ll find out if anybody wants to vote for the faceless. It’ll be clear after a couple of primaries.

Now it’s more akin to a high school talent show.

Come on, do all these people deserve to be President?

They think so, but we do not.

Just like the people posting music and spamming the internet with hype. There’s very little there.

Hell, I thought the people in NYC didn’t even like Bill de Blasio that much.

Kinda like Kamala Harris in CA. Good, but not legendary, not experienced enough.

But the pundits say we need a woman and…

The pundits are making a living, they’re usually clueless. They told Bernie Sanders he had no chance and he’s a dynamo at fund-raising.

Then again, he’s been working it for decades, he had a trial run in 2016.

That’s how it used to work in music too. You played clubs, then theatres…you didn’t think you could sell out stadiums the first time around.

But today new acts go immediately into arenas, with only one hit.

But one hit does not a career make.

And just saying you’re good enough to become President does not make it so.

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!