Roll up for the mystery tour!

That’s right, for the benefit of Mr. Kite there won’t be a show tonight, but starting in October there will be. From Boston to Toronto to Brooklyn to Manhattan to Los Angeles to San Francisco. That’s right, from Beantown to T.O. to the Big Apple to Tinseltown to the City by the Bay, Jason and I will be taking our show on the road.

What does this involve?

An up close and personal with personalities who refuse to hold back and will speak the truth about not only the music business, but politics and law…did you know Jason’s a driver of the Innocence Project and has gotten numerous wrongly convicted people out of jail? YOU DO NOW! And you think you know everything about me, but this newsletter is an edited take. Come to the show and…

Jason will be interviewing me and I’ll be interviewing Jason and we’ll answer the questions you want to know, like how did Flom sign all those acts and how did I go from zero to where I am now.

How did this happen?

Jason said he got a bigger reaction doing my podcast than all the other press he’s done previously COMBINED! It was his idea to go on the road. I decided to go along. You see Jason doesn’t always hit, but his ratio of success is legendary, and I want some of what he’s got.

So we were in Toronto at Canadian Music Week, having a long conversation with Canadian rappers, there is such a thing, and Jason proffered this idea. And when I awoke he already had an agent and the tour was already rolling down the pike.

Marc Geiger is the majordomo agent. And he and his team have booked this experiment to see if you want to come, DO YOU?

Prices are low.

Buildings are small.

I guess you get to decide.

But I’ve gotten an education. I thought I knew a lot about the business, but only when your own show goes on the road do you really learn what’s involved. The offer process. The ticket pricing process. The routing process. Actually, we were gonna do Chicago and D.C. too. But then the dates flipped, so instead of playing D.C. and then Chicago, which makes logical travel sense, it became the reverse. You see every venue is not available on every evening. And the new routing required we twiddle our thumbs and burn time in between gigs so this time around we decided to pass on those cities.

And then there was copy and artwork.

Copy is my department.

As for photographs, they were shot on the eve of Rosh Hashanah by attorney Ken Hertz, photographer extraordinaire. But if you think this is a shoestring operation, you’d be wrong. Boston and Toronto are promoted by Live Nation and Brooklyn is promoted by The Bowery Presents and Manhattan is City Winery and L.A. is Spaceland and San Francisco is Goldenvoice. So this is a professional production, the only amateurs are US!

Then again, Jason is famous for his keynote speeches and jokes, a couple of which he’s sure to tell on stage. And I’ve done tons of live dates too, but I can’t guarantee Gene Simmons will show up…

Now hype is not my forte. But in this world if you don’t tell people, they don’t know. And if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.

So…A SPLENDID TIME IS GUARANTEED FOR ALL!

Saturday October 13 – Boston – Tsai Center at Boston University: $30 – http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0100552AD856A2FA

Sunday October 14 – Toronto – Phoenix Concert Theatre: $75, $50, $35 (CAD) – http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/10005525EB259B45

Tuesday October 16 – Brooklyn– Rough Trade – $25 – http://axs.com/events/361234/lefsetz-vs-flom-no-holds-barred-tickets?skin=roughtrade

Thursday October 18 – New York – The Loft at City Winery: $35, $28, $22 – https://citywinery.com/theloft/lefsetz-vs-flom-at-the-loft-10-18.html

Monday October 29 – Los Angeles – The Regent – $20 ($27 day of show) – http://www.ticketfly.com/event/1760739

Tuesday October 30 – San Francisco – Great American Music Hall – $25-$49.95 – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lefsetz-vs-flom-no-holds-barred-gamh-tickets-50004121674

Of course there will be fees on top of these prices, but we don’t control those!

Needless to say, we couldn’t do this tour without not only the promoters, but Marc and his assistant Jesse Robbins, who has done yeoman’s duty shepherding these novices down the slope.

So, this is a cheap night out. And they tell me it’s all about experiences these days, and you’re gonna have one!

P.S. You know me, but just in case you don’t know Jason…ah, what the hell, I’ll print all the hype:

Jason Flom is one of the most successful A&R people of all time, having signed everybody from Kid Rock to Katy Perry, Tori Amos to Lorde and now Greta Van Fleet. “The Lefsetz Letter” is read by a who’s who in the music business, from Michael Rapino to Drake, from Irving Azoff to Steven Tyler. Come see Jason and Bob debate the issues that matter in today’s cacophonous music business world, from getting signed, to marketing and distribution. Expect a no-holds barred conversation where names are named and foibles and successes are illuminated. If you want to hear how the music business really works, THIS IS THE PLACE!

Jason Flom is the Founder and CEO of Lava Records, Lava Music Publishing, and Lava Media, LLC. Flom previously served as Chairman and CEO at Atlantic Records, Virgin Records, and Capitol Music Group, and he is personally responsible for launching acts such as Katy Perry, Kid Rock, Lorde, and Greta Van Fleet. He is a leading philanthropist and expert on criminal justice issues and an internationally recognized and celebrated public speaker. Flom is the founding board member of the Innocence Project and serves on the boards of numerous criminal justice reform organizations. He is the host of the hit podcast, Wrongful Conviction, now in its sixth season, which features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit, some even sentenced to death. Flom’s love for animals inspired his latest project, the children’s book Lulu Is a Rhinoceros, co-written with his daughter Allison Flom and released in June, 2018. The book explores social themes addressing individuality, tolerance, and most importantly, acceptance, and launched with partnerships including Bonobos, Zappos, and the African Wildlife Foundation.

Bob Lefsetz, Santa Monica-based industry legend, is the author of the e-mail newsletter, “The Lefsetz Letter.” Famous for being beholden to no one and speaking the truth, Lefsetz addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: streaming, ticketing and the music itself. His intense brilliance captivates readers from Steven Tyler to Drake to Deadmau5 to Quincy Jones to music business honchos like Michael Rapino, Jay Marciano, Steve Barnett and Irving Azoff. In these days of turmoil, “The Lefsetz Letter” is a must-read. Never boring, always entertaining, Mr. Lefsetz’s insights are fueled by his stint as an entertainment business attorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music’s American division and consultancies to major labels.

Is the album DEAD?

SiriusXM Volume 106

Tuesday September 18: 7 PM Eastern, 4 PM Pacific

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

Twitter: @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Rerun times:

Tuesdays @ 11PM ET / 8PM PT
Thursdays @ 1PM ET / 10AM PT
Saturday @ 7PM ET / 4PM PT

And you can always pull the show up on demand on the SiriusXM app.

Who can go the distance
We’ll find out in the long run

Welcome to 2018, when everybody’s got an opinion and nobody’s listening. Word on the street is that this is the ersatz Eagles, but Don Henley’s got no problem with that, he acknowledges that the band has changed right after the show begins. But the songs remain. This concert is a tribute to very hard work done a long time ago that has been enshrined in the brains of fans all over the word, which is why the Eagles possess the biggest selling album of all time. You may hate ’em, but more people love ’em.
Now if you’re a fan, the opening will slay you.

There are stars
In the southern sky
Southward as you go

It’s “Seven Bridges Road” which was never a single, was only released on a live album back in 1980. But that was then and this is now. That’s the Eagles and everybody else. Like Led Zeppelin, the Eagles transcended the format. Album cuts were as big as singles. You knew them. And this unheralded song written by Steve Young is a classic.

There is moonlight
And moss in the trees
Down the Seven Bridges Road

It’s a new era, a rebirth. If Dodger Stadium was the introduction, this tour is the freight train, streamlining the sound, getting rid of the rough edges, and steaming down the track. If you can find a better rehearsed band, you’re lying. It’s so perfect, you want to pinch yourself. And sure, one can argue the roots of rock and roll are about the coarseness, but that’s never been what the Eagles have been selling. The Eagles came late, they may be considered classic rock now, but “Take It Easy” came out in ’72, long after the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. The band’s sound was a distillation of what came before, all its members had paid their dues, it was about stewing up the sounds and perfecting them, to rise above. And the Eagles did.

Sure, it was Glenn Frey’s idea. But the new band has maintained his vision. As a matter of fact, the biggest applause of the night was when his image was projected on the big screen. You see the audience knows. From back when rock ruled the planet and no one had even heard of techies. Being a rock star meant you were fabulously wealthy and hewed to the beat of your own drummer. That’s what we all aspired to. Today’s industrialists look down on musicians, back then everybody wanted to be one.

So, you’re listening to “Seven Bridges Road” stunned. The country rock sound was birthed by Gram Parsons, expanded by Crosby, Stills & Nash, but… Parsons never broke through to the mainstream and CSN could not reproduce the magic on stage. Just take a look at “Woodstock,” or listen to “4 Way Street,” you wince. But not when the Eagles took the stage, then or now. Last night at the Forum, forty three years after their first show there.

As Timothy B. Schmit said, they’re the Eagles from Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is a state of mind. One of freedom, one of possibilities. East coasters pooh-pooh it, southerners say they’ve got it, as they sweat away, Texans believe they’re superior, but the hopes and dreams of our nation reside in California, and it’s the hedonistic southern part of the state where your dreams come true. You can have no CV, trading on your pluck and luck, and you can make it. It’s why both Glenn Frey and Don Henley came here to begin with.

So last night was a celebration of what was, and in the mind of Angelenos, still can be.

Deacon Frey singing about standing on a corner…you don’t age in SoCal, your features fade, but you still believe your best days are ahead of you, that that girl in the flatbed Ford will still check you out.

And Vince Gill takes it to the limit, and one can never forget that Randy Meisner was ousted from the band because he no longer could. You see family is secondary to chops in the Eagles.

And speaking of Gill, one of the surprises of the evening was his take on Tom Waits’ “Ol ’55,” a smidge better than the rendition on the third album.

And Gill got to play one of his own songs, “Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away,” which was not quite up to the Eagles’ level, but his guitar-playing was. Last night was an axefest. With Gill, Joe Walsh and Steuart Smith demonstrating world class chops that compete with anybody. With help from Deacon and Don at times. That’s right, the act often featured SIX guitarists on the front line.

And Walsh delivered the spice as usual. But he had fire that had previously been held in check. He had the audience make fun of him in “Life’s Been Good.” And not only was there “Funk #49,” but “Walk Away” from his James Gang roots too.

But this show lived somewhere between nostalgia and the present. Sure, you’d hear “Tequila Sunrise” and think about what once was, where you were back then, but then you’d be on your feet singing along to “Heartache Tonight” and it felt like you were in the present. Where else can you go to a show where you know every word? This is a celebration, of not only the band, but the audience.

That was something I noticed, how the old songs had new meaning.

“Life In The Fast Lane”… So many have fallen off the edge. Tested the limits and got consumed by them. Mac Miller and Lil Peep have been cut down prematurely recently, but the game is to stay alive, to see how it all plays out. Die and you’re a legend, survive and you’re just a regular guy. But the trick is to live long enough to see how it all turns out, to try and capture the brass ring once again.

Unlike in past shows, Henley didn’t dominate. But one of the absolute highlights was when he performed “Boys Of Summer,” from the MTV era.

It’s that guitar lick, that synth sound swirling, and then Don steps up to the mic and sings:

Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
Summer’s out of reach

We have seasons in SoCal, contrary to popular opinion. And they’re changing right now. It might be bubbling under triple digits, but the beaches have cleared out, PCH is nearly empty and the angle of the sun makes everything golden, but not bright yellow. Kind of like our lives.

Maybe you started with the Beatles. Maybe it was the Eagles themselves. Maybe you didn’t come along until Martha Quinn and the rest of the VJs became household names. But you remember. How it was. Before cell phones. In the era of loneliness, of little communication. You listened to music to connect, to feel your humanity. You went to the show for a religious rite, to know you were all right. And you go a Eagles show to get back in touch with that feeling, all those thoughts, all those questions, how was it gonna all work out?

Well I’m gonna tell you how it did. You made it. The road’s been littered with disasters and death, but somehow you made it through, you’re still here. And so are the Eagles.

So you lay your money down to remind yourself. You pay some of the highest ticket prices extant. But you don’t care, you just need another hit of the magic, because you checked into the Hotel California and you can never leave.

AND YOU’RE HAPPY ABOUT IT!

The Savoy Brown Anthology

I knew the Savoy Brown Blues Band but never heard them. They were always billed at the Fillmore, but New York radio did not play them. It was the opposite of today’s situation, my inbox is filled with people who’ve never heard of Twenty One Pilots, but their music is just a click away, whereas back then we knew all the acts, but if radio didn’t play it and you didn’t buy it you never heard it.

I always thought of Savoy Brown as a second-rate band, their albums were in the bins, but if they were that big they would have broken through, I would have heard them, right?

But Tuesday night, after leaving the Greek, I was listening to SiriusXM’s “DeepTracks,” hell, I’ve been listening to that channel since Lee Abrams programmed XM, and I was going about 75 on the 101, L.A.’s funny, most times you’re crawling along, but when it gets to the late night, or early in the morning as Harry Nilsson sang, there are still vehicles on the road, but you can fly, and it was then that I heard Savoy Brown’s “Second Try.”

I’d be lying if I said it sounds as good to me right now listening on headphones at home, but…

Remember when you had your collection and you played what fit your mood? “Second Try” is perfect when you’re alone and it’s dark or you’re high on a lazy afternoon and especially when you’re driving.

It really reached me Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

The sound was familiar to me. It’s familiar to anybody who lived through the era. A driving, blues-based boogie with wailing guitars, it’s this sound that will presage the rock renaissance, that’s right, we’ve got to get back to the garden if we want to rebuild rock, rock music has become so self-referential as to be incomprehensible to most of the audience. I remember when Led Zeppelin was heavy metal and Black Sabbath was on the edge, now we’re many generations down the rabbit hole and if you haven’t followed the curve, ain’t got your decoder ring, you just pass it by.

The blues. Can’t say I’m an expert. But everybody from Jimmy Page to Bonnie Raitt was infected by them. They started with the classics, amplifying them, stretching them, that’s what drove the FM revolution.

Now “Second Try” sounds nothing like what’s on the hit parade. But that does not mean you won’t get it instantly. It was made for listening, not to be a hit. When you couldn’t just press a button and be done with it, you had to get up and lift the tonearm on the turntable and… Listening was a different experience, there was a lot of repetition and you couldn’t afford much, so you went deep. Not that I’m lamenting today’s world, we just haven’t figure it out yet, how to separate the wheat from the chaff, it’s great that we’ve got the history of recorded music at our fingertips.

Sure, it’s all sound. But styles are different. “Second Try” is music too.

It’s they way it swings, gets right into the groove, there were no long intros, the song began and you were swept away, and when the verse begins the keyboard keeps you jumping. And sure, the lyrics are not revolutionary, but they are personal. And then during the second verse we get some picking, some of that lead stuff so popular in the era of the guitar hero. And then they put the pedal to the medal, switch into overdrive as the guitar wails and you’re just holding on tight, riding the tiger into uncharted territory, meanwhile the track starts to twist and turn some more, until they pull back a bit and the vocals return, however with more emphasis. Now the band is in the groove, unconscious of the audience, locked in and unstoppable like a freight train. That’s right, the whole edifice is rolling down the tracks, you’ve got the piano and the organ and the riff and the wailing and it sounds so different from today’s music, but so right, and still fresh, undated like the AM pop tunes of that era.

Now if rock comes back it will start with a walk into the wilderness. None of today’s trappings will work. Won’t be about clothing, won’t be about sponsorship, won’t be about hype, it’ll be all about the work. First you’ve got to have the skills, you’ve got to practice, off the grid, when no one is paying attention. Social networking, posting YouTube videos and spamming won’t work. When you’re good enough, you’ll form a band and start to play live, for bupkes. But you’ll be so basic and good that you will draw an audience. It’s a great big world, there’s room for you. Everything new and great starts from outside the system, and builds slowly. Today labels consider a one album wonder artist development, used to take three or four, but you got a record deal after you’d developed your chops, when you were finally ready.

Music when done right is an intoxicant. You start to sip, still feeling the same, and then something changes. I’m about the fifth time through “Second Try” and now I’ll have a hard time clicking it off, it’s taken over not only my ears, but my whole body, my head started nodding involuntarily and then it spread to my torso and then my arms. Doesn’t matter if anybody else is listening, where the track is on the chart, it’s a personal experience, like it used to be and still can be again. AM was for everybody, FM was for somebodies. And when acts stopped trying to be in-your-face their music penetrated and took over. This is the feeling, the sound the baby boomers lament the loss of. It was killed by MTV, when it became about how you looked. But now the internet has blown that paradigm apart, now, more than ever, it’s about the music. It’s time for the younger generation to give their take on the blues, which like classical and jazz never die, they just wax and wane. Didn’t Muddy Waters put out an LP entitled “Electric Mud”? I’m waiting for “Electrical Millennial”!