I’m sick of reading how funny and great SNL is.

Chevy Chase must have a new publicist, because suddenly he’s everywhere, most notably the “Washington Post,” where he laments no one will hire him, that Lorne won’t let him host SNL because he’s too old. And then Chevy goes on to say SNL sucks.

It does.

Welcome to the modern media era, stuck in the past. Never forget, this is the same media that missed Trump, all the papers, so why should you trust them on anything else now? They’re disengaged, and in the case of Fox, manipulative, but they’re far from right, they’re cheerleaders at best, they do not have their finger on the pulse.

And that’s what stimulates us, the zeitgeist, it’s why we go to see the new act, tune in to the new TV show. “Roseanne,” “Murphy Brown,” good in their heyday, but hit radio is not playing Debbie Gibson, never mind Nirvana.

SNL worked because the players truly were not ready for prime time. They seemed uncontrollable, like they were gonna jump out of the screen and trash your house. Lorne Michaels was not the ringleader, that was Belushi, the producer barely controlled the cast, he was being dragged along, a Canadian in New York, a fish out of water. Now he’s in the Hamptons, lionized, now Lorne is the establishment. That’s one thing Kurt Cobain had right, it had to be punk, it was about image and belief and today’s SNL has no soul. It’s just a place to see famous faces riff on the news with no viewpoint. I watched the Matt Damon cold open. At first I was smiling, then I realized it was not going anywhere, more like a college troupe having fun off the grid, like Corky St. Clair with the hometown players of Blaine, Missouri.

I mean I’ve got to call crap on this. Does anybody even watch the show live anymore? I haven’t in eons, I just wait till Sunday morning for the clips. Which usually aren’t laugh out loud funny, but are dangerous.

Unlike John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight.”

Last night Oliver tied Kavanaugh in a knot. What was the result of the endless SNL skit, burning twelve plus minutes of screen time…NOTHING! Did it give you insight, did it change your position? OF COURSE NOT!

Welcome to the twenty first century, where if you don’t stand for something, you don’t stand for anything. If people aren’t protesting, if there’s no backlash, you’re doing it wrong. Give Trump credit, he’s pissing people off, getting them to pay attention. And we do live in an attention economy. I said that first, but without the push I get no credit, then again, Oliver is on HBO killing it and since it’s not available to everybody, he doesn’t get credit either. Oliver is like Howard Stern on Sirius back in the day, unfettered by the FCC Howard was better than ever, albeit only playing for hard core fans. Then Howard goes on “America’s Got Talent” and now the Stern Show is the number one place for celebrity interviews, only he gets traction, because the interviews are long and deep and reveal what you did not know, mostly personal stuff. Meanwhile, over on broadcast television, you’ve got to tell a joke, a story, and we don’t know who you are and no one ever sees it, there’s certainly no virality, why should there be? Meanwhile, Howard now reaches more people than any of the late night shows, but we read about the late night shenanigans in the newspaper but no one ever covers Stern, they still haven’t figured out how to cover satellite radio fifteen years later.

The original SNL was irreverent, it tested limits, today it seems all the players are screen-testing for a movie or sitcom. There’s no edge, no danger. That’s why the show was so significant and successful back in ’75, the rock and roll generation finally had its own TV show, and of course it wasn’t in prime time, it couldn’t be, just like today’s cutting edge stuff is on YouTube, on the new outlets, because the mainstream ones just can’t accept it.

But it’s hard to get noticed. That’s why acts still play SNL, not because anybody sees them, but because it’s an imprimatur of importance, shows the label and the media are behind something. Other outlets don’t have the same impact.

Kinda like Netflix. The media refuses to believe how big Netflix is. We’re told to wait for Disney’s streaming outlet, now that they’ve got Fox. Good luck getting to 100 million subscribers. Bing could never compete with Google. Furthermore, Disney will go right up to the edge and…not cross it. Kinda like Apple, worried about R-rated shows they’re ending up with the bland.

Today you want to make a difference, isn’t that what all the millennial research tells us? Companies are focusing on their philanthropy, but in media too many people think people are brain dead. They’re not, they read more news than ever, even if a good portion of it might be biased or plain wrong. Contrary to public belief, the public can handle the truth. Sure, you’re gonna hear from people who aren’t watching if you cross the line, a conundrum if there ever was one, but anybody who wades into the fray these days knows…there are people living to work the refs. I write anything anti-Trump and I hear from the same damn people! Their full time job seems to be defending Trump, trying to get you to shut up. But now is the time to speak, not be quiet.

The SNL formula is dead. But if you want to continue to beat a dead horse Lorne, please stand for something, take a viewpoint, endure the catcalls, try to move the needle. The country is in crisis and you’re just making lame jokes. You’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.

And for those of you doing great unheralded work, I sympathize with you, it’s tough. But if you can put food in your mouth, stay the course, your time is coming. The millennials know the score. Isn’t it funny, the boomer press keeps excoriating the millennials, saying they need recognition and coddling and… That’s all crap, these people are just as intelligent and better educated than their forebears. Furthermore, they know how tough life is. They want CHANGE!

So Lorne and the SNL team… Take Kavanaugh down. Not by grade school antics, but “Harvard Lampoon” ones, isn’t that where all the original writers came from? Point out Kavanaugh’s flaws, reference abortion, sway the audience, you’ve got the eyeballs, take advantage of them! Everybody knows the Dixie Chicks, who else was number one back when Bush was President? But Natalie Maines blinked, the Chicks could have another hit today but they abdicated their power.

I’m sick of the uninformed and duplicitous telling us America must be first, that you’ve got to work harder and it’s your fault.

It’s not our fault. A lot of us have gotten screwed. And if you think living on welfare is royal, you don’t know what living on bupkes is really like.

I could go on and excoriate the right wing position, I’m already gonna get hate mail from the usual suspects, but I’m just trying to be a beacon. Why is it that Fox News has attitude and will take a stand but “Saturday Night Live” is wishy-washy?

Yup Lorne, I’m asking YOU!

“Last Week Tonight” on YouTube
Watch this, forget SNL. (And yes, you can see it for free on YouTube, but most people don’t know this, it’s not like YouTube is promoting it on billboards.

THE PODCAST

We are switching distributors, so we’re on hiatus for a bit, but we’re definitely coming back, much sooner rather than later.

SIRIUS XM VOLUME 106

This week’s guest is Dorothy Carvello, who wrote “Anything For A Hit.” You can read what I wrote about her book here

Once again, Dorothy tells the tales of a woman in the music business, you want to tune in to hear them and you can call in to talk to her at:

SiriusXM Volume 106

Tuesday October 2nd, 7 PM East, 4 PM West

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

Twitter: @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

LEFSETZ VS. FLOM

We’ve added a date on Wednesday October 17 at the Fairfield Theatre in my hometown, here’s a link to all of the gigs:

LEFSETZ VS. FLOM

The best part was soundcheck.

Graham Gouldman and Luke invited me. It was just me and Barbara Bach and another woman in the seats and in between numbers Ringo asked who I was and then said hi to me from the stage. Kind of a mind-bending experience if you were around back then, in ’64, when meeting a Beatle was your heart’s desire and seemed impossible. Actually, after they were done and I climbed on stage Ringo made a special effort to meet me and shake hands, which I did not expect, although in truth he shook forearms, I get that, since he’s a drummer. To tell you the truth I’ve had some aged bros shake my hand so hard I wondered if I could still type.

So if you were around back then, at the beginning of the revolution, you bought a guitar. Maybe switched from acoustic to electric. That’s what I did, my mother bought a folk guitar so we could learn to play folk songs, took us for lessons with a woman in Bridgeport, who taught us some chords and insisted we play G with our third, fourth and fifth fingers, that’s why you take lessons, to get it right. I’m big on foundations. I’m a big believer in building blocks, without them it’s hard to grow, at least properly.

And then the Beatles hit and I got an electric guitar and we started to form bands. I’d go to friends’ houses, lugging my equipment, we’d plug in, and play.

That was what the soundcheck was like. Late afternoon, no one paying attention. Seven blokes having a rave-up, sans stage clothes, making a glorious noise. That’s what it was about back then, getting out your frustrations, which eventually led to punk, and replicating the songs on the radio, until you got to the point where you could improvise, which I never did, I did not have the chops.

And the highlight was when they did “Boys.” If you remember, Ringo had hair that curled up at the bottom, and he shook his head in a certain way, kinda like those guys on SNL dancing years later, and last night he did it the exact same way, which brought me back to how it was back then. The records live on, but the memories are searing, private, electric. Where we were, junior high, our risks, our victories, our losses, they’re all embodied in this music. Which was not evanescent and ridiculous like some critics believed, but definitely heart and soul material. I always used to ask my mother what it was like before TV, I couldn’t imagine it. Kids today can’t imagine the pre-internet days. But we had the radio. And records. And it was completely different. Radio was not jive, but still alive, kinda like MTV in the early eighties, when they were making it up. And you only had a few records, and you knew them through and through. And you’d punch the buttons on the car radio, turn the dial on the transistor, just praying your favorite would come on. There was no on demand culture whatsoever.

And after the soundcheck I went into the bowels of the building to catering, where Luke and Graham couldn’t stop talking politics, with no provocation, it’s on everybody’s mind, Kavanaugh, but how do you get your message out?

And then the stars started to pass through, Edgar Winter, Joe Walsh, and the show began.

It was about the audience. The girl in front of me was seven and three quarters, or so she told me, but this was not her first concert, she’d been to see Blondie, and she stood on her seat and danced the night away. Singing along to “Yellow Submarine” and “With A Little Help From My Friends,” there are certain songs we all know by heart. Which is so different from today, but that’s the way it was.

And it was astounding what applause Colin Hay got for the Men At Work numbers, which were ever-present thirty five years ago, but are rarely heard anymore. Kinda like “Tubthumping.” But if you were around, you know, and these people knew.

And these people were not hipsters, at least not in look. They were fans. That’s the power of music, at least the old music, how it could reach and touch everybody. To look and see everybody singing along…

And Gregg Rolie couldn’t be nicer. These aren’t players who gave up and went straight, they kept doing it. Colin Hay in Topanga, Rolie with Santana and Journey and back again. You’ve got no choice, you’ve got to play.

And all the performers got a huge reaction. “I’m Not In Love” and “The Things We Do For Love”…you’d figure the audience would ease up, applaud only for Beatle numbers, but that was not true. And Luke, the glue, wailed on his axe and the people ate it up, filling in Santana parts, doing “Rosanna” and “Africa.” If you ever thought this music was meaningless, passe, you should have been there last night.

But the show did not have an edge, that excitement when you’re coming up, that thrill, that tingle you get when you experience something for the first time.

But this was an audience which doesn’t see music as a sideshow, but a main course. They bought those Beatle albums. They remember when Toto dominated the airwaves. They can sing “I’m Not In Love” by heart.

So on one hand we’ve become our parents, celebrating what once was. Then again, so much of this is known by the younger generation.

But what is unknown by the younger generation is when music was everything. When you could not be a star at home, when there was no such thing as “influencers,” at least not those who weren’t household names, built within the system. Songs ran up and down the chart quickly. Go to summer camp and you missed stuff. And we listened to everything, white black and… It was a scene, comprehensible, and we could not get enough. The way you were talking about Kavanaugh and Ford the past few days, that’s the way we talked about the British Invasion, we were addicted to MTV instead of the news.

But times change.

Yet deep inside we’re still the same.

First and foremost they’re players. That’s why I think Ringo does these shows, he smiles when he plays. And they’re here to entertain us, but also themselves. And they do it not through sponsorship, but by playing. And they’re informed, and the work is hard, but when they take the stage and the audience lights up…

Everybody’s happy.

Kanye West’s pro-Trump remarks prompt boos in SNL studio

What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where a black musician takes the white viewpoint and gets traction?

One in which there’s no white musician of stature to stand up to him.

Except, of course, maybe a country musician. Then again, Eric Church stood up for gun control and got excoriated. As for pop singers… Gaga hasn’t had a hit in eons and Timberlake is too old and welcome to the Spotify generation, where the only acts with mindshare are rappers and most of their messages don’t reach everybody, but Kanye’s do.

Because he’s been playing the Trump card for years. Being so outrageous, being such a train-wreck, that you can’t help but pay attention, even if you don’t like his music. Actually, it used to be this way in the rock world, can you say David Lee Roth and M&M’s? But that was before rock was killed by the double-whammy of pop on MTV and the internet and now there’s a national vacuum when it comes to musicians standing up against the shenanigans of Trump and gaining traction.

And of course all whites aren’t pro-Trump.

But it’s hard to see how any African-American other than someone rich could be supporting the man.

Then again, Kanye is rich. And he wants less taxes. And more business freedom. The exact issues facing the rank and file.

Not.

Then again, this is the same rank and file that votes against its interests on a regular basis. We’ve got an uninformed populace, then again, we’ve got Kavanaugh and the blowhard-in-chief uttering falsehoods on a regular basis. Why should you have character and toe the line?

Then again, Kanye is a cartoon character!

There are lessons here. Having to do with stardom and attention. Both of which Kanye has captured. First and foremost, he’s in the public eye constantly, he cannot be stage-managed. And he reveals the intricacies of his life, his losses, his hopes and dreams. And he is alternately narcissistic and vulnerable. He seems real, however crazy. Whereas old school stars do not.

Sure, his fame started with his music. But he’s leveraged that into fashion and now politics. And he attacks first and people blanch.

How much of this has to do with music?

Well, it’s harder to get noticed than ever before. What are you willing to do to get noticed?

And Kanye, like Trump, plays the press like a fiddle. The press wants eyeballs, ratings, sales, whatever garners attention they’ll glom on to.

Not that he’s only playing to the gatekeepers, he’s tweeting on a regular basis. Everybody else micromanages their messages and releases, if his fail he just puts out new ones, utilizing the streaming platform to innovate, with EPs, with constant releases, changing release dates…

This is not a hidden formula, but the rockers and popsters seem to have no access to it. Or no vision. Like being a musician is enough. Hasn’t Kanye proven it’s about being more than a musician, a whole person? And if you criticize him, Obama even called him a “jackass,” he strikes back.

And today’s youth is more impressed by Kanye than any politician. His messages have impact. So he is making it legitimate to like Trump, even if you’re African-American.

Meanwhile the bleeding heart liberals are standing around going “Oh shoot.”

If identity politics make it so you have no message you lose.

Kanye is winning.