Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4k7Sh6uxSCWNobslKrbdnb?si=e462ab0412e344ec

1

“I’ll be home on a Monday

Somewhere around noon”

Actually, later in the afternoon, but that’s not the point. The point is people started asking me when I was going to be home. And I responded with this song, Little River Band’s “Home on Monday”…

And I’m not sure anybody had any idea what I was talking about.

WAIT, WAIT! This is actually about Bonnie Raitt! So all you Little River Band haters…

Well, you didn’t hate them at first. I can still remember hearing “It’s a Long Way There” at eight in the morning stuck in traffic driving to Civil Procedure. You remember where and when you hear amazing tracks, it’s part of the process, you’re struck by lightning and…

I purchased the LP and when Spotify slipped into another track from that initial album, which is really a combination of two Australian albums, I knew it. That wouldn’t happen today. Because it’s really not that great a song. But we listened from beginning to end back then.

But before that I played “Home on Monday.”

“Yes, that’s right, I’m calling from

The Las Vegas Hilton”

Band on the road. But it’s more than that…

“You looked so lovely when I left I nearly didn’t go

Twelve thousand miles is such a long way”

That’s how far it is from Sin City to Down Under. That’s a staggeringly long distance. Which is why not long before he died Michael Gudinski told me he preferred to be a big fish in a small pond. Not only do you need the music and the chops to make it in the States, you’ve got to GO, and it’s FAR!

But Little River Band did and…they ultimately had a string of hits. That became wimpier and wimpier, but they were ubiquitous. That’s right, Little River Band had more huge hits than anybody working today, if you consider audience reach.

And Spotify is playing them all. I always loved “Lonesome Loser,” but “Reminiscing”…this was not exactly the band I became enamored of back in 1976.

Then again it’s not that band at all anymore, hasn’t been in forever. You see the band’s name is owned by an entity that’s been putting a completely fake Little River Band on the road for eons. The old guys, the ones who made the hits, could not tour under the original name and…

I’m pulling up Wikipedia to see where everybody is today, and I read that not only is Glenn Shorrock eighty, he’s got Parkinson’s, which I initially thought meant he’s retired, but I just pulled up his personal website and he’s got two gigs this coming weekend…

And Graham Goble and Beeb Birtles are a few years younger than Shorrock, but for legal reasons, you won’t see the real band performing under its own moniker…EVER!

We wait and wait for reunions and then time passes and you suddenly realize…they’re never going to happen. Good luck with that Kinks tour.

But it’s funny, the records remain. AC/DC may be touring with a white-haired Angus Young, but even if the band had called it quits after “Highway to Hell” and the death of Bon Scott, people would still be listening to (and singing along with!) that track and “It’s a Long Way to the Top.”

Funny that we lived through these experiences, but they’re just fumes today. yet somehow younger generations perpetuate these records. There’s something in them. That’s IRRESISTIBLE!

Not that I think future generations will be listening to Bonnie Raitt’s “Green Light.”

2

Which was a commercial and critical disappointment back in 1982, despite all the hosannas on the Wikipedia page today. Yes, it’s a rewrite of history. Bonnie had finally broken through commercially. There were those who’d been with her forever and those who cottoned to the Paul Rothchild and Peter Asher sounds of the previous three albums and then came this left field, but in-your-face production by Bonnie’s then boyfriend Rob Fraboni, sans not only Freebo but featuring…Ian McLagan? Of the Faces? And an unknown, unheralded guitarist with the appellation Johnny Lee Schell.

It’s not like there was a big marketing hook here. Other than the record was cut at Shangri-La, the Band’s studio, now more famous as Rick Rubin’s domain. It seemed that Bonnie had gone on an alcohol-fueled hejira and might have had a lot of fun, but left her audience behind. To the point where Warner allowed her to record a new record thereafter, but they cut her loose and refused to release it for years and suddenly Raitt was truly out in the wilderness. An apparent seventies burnout, a has-been who could work on the road, but was seemingly meaningless in the big time world of rock and roll now driven by MTV.

Now the rest is history. After years, after Al Bunetta implored her to go indie like his client John Prine, telling Raitt that no major label would be interested, one was and Bonnie signed to Capitol and…

3

Now the advance word was “Green Light” contained two NRBQ songs. In an era when NRBQ was barely a critics’ darling, when they kept putting out albums that only a small coterie cared about. And the irony is to this day most people don’t know any of NRBQ’s records, even though they did one “At Yankee Stadium” (HA!), which actually contains the original recording of “Green Lights,” and I bought that based on the reviews and it slid right off of me, no, it bugged me a bit, it was edgy and “Green Lights” was the opening track and it didn’t resonate. As for “Me and the Boys,” the other NRBQ song on “Green Light”…it’s apropos considering the band and the recording process, it was Bonnie and the boys and it sounded like something they had fun recording, maybe performing late at night in a bar, but the magic of yore…

It was absent.

The album almost seemed like a lark. A finger poked in the eye of fans.

However…the opening number, “Keep This Heart in Mind,” written by the unknown duo of Fred Marrone and Steve Holsapple, worked. It had a driving force, with delicious changes, it just wasn’t what Bonnie had been selling for her last few albums. Sure, it rocked harder than the first two LPs, yet you could see it as part of those records, but…

Most of the album didn’t feature Bonnie’s usual writers, and to say it wasn’t a one listen smash is…charitable. If you listened to the record multiple times, got past the stuff that rubbed you the wrong way, you found some gems.

There’s “I Can’t Help Myself”…

If you listened to the album enough times the track became infectious, the way the song opened with the chorus and then quieted down, not quite sotto voce, but intimately, with the story, the verse. And that chorus had you nodding your head.

And then there’s the best track on the album, “River of Tears,” an Eric Kaz tune that evidences all of Bonnie’s sultriness and depth. Yes, Bonnie was not a blank blues-belter, you could always see the person underneath. And this person was not a victim. She could give as well as she got, and that was part of her appeal. You played baseball with her in your early days, she was one of the boys and then…she hit puberty and matured and suddenly you were anxious when you ran into her…

Even though she was not.

It’s one thing to meet a cardboard model/star. They trade on their looks, and their looks only. It’s a full-time job delivering the image the audience expects. But someone who allows the rough edges to be seen, who is three-dimensional…what works with a woman like that? Not a Porsche. Not a Black Amex card. No, you’ve got to sell both your body and mind, and most guys are not up to that. They’d rather do surface. And Bonnie Raitt was never surface.

4

So for some reason, I don’t know how the brain works, after listening to Little River Band I got a hankering to hear “River of Tears.” I didn’t even mention the groove…that’s part of its infectious nature, “River of Tears” is not in-your-face like so much of “Green Light,” then again, Bonnie had recorded Kaz’s (along with Libby Titus!) “Love Has No Pride” long before anybody had a hit with it, as well as “Cry Like a Rainstorm,” the unheralded “I’m Blowin’ Away” and a driving version of “Gamblin’ Man.”

Then again, Bonnie Raitt had never recorded a Bob Dylan song. In this case one that had never been released on wax by the man from Minnesota himself.

Now I know “Let’s Keep It Between Us,” it closed the first side of “Green Light” and it was a vinyl album you played from beginning to end and I actually bought the CD, but…

Today is the first day it ever truly resonated.

The song followed one of the others on “Green Light” while listening in the van to the airport and…

Maybe it was the state of suspended animation. With nothing on my mind, not working, the song penetrated me.

“Let’s keep it between us”‘

Usually it’s something bad. You don’t want the word out.

“These people meddling in our affairs

They’re not our friends”

Okay, okay…other people truly have no idea what is going on between a couple. And they have agendas and take sides and the underlying truth can be lost in the process. But what is that truth?

“Before the whole door closes 

And it comes to an end

They’ll tell you one thing, me another

‘Til we don’t know who to trust

Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us?”

Now I’m becoming intrigued. What exactly is going on here?

“We’ve been through too much together

That they’ll never share

They’ve had nothing to say to us before

Now all of a sudden it’s as if 

They’ve always cared

All we need is honesty

A little humility and trust

Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us”

And the more I’m listening, this does not sound like an argument, rather they share something between them and he’s advising circling the wagons against…

Exactly what?

The recording starts with an organ flourish, akin to an old blues number, and then Bonnie is singing this song with a swagger.

The band and she are cohesive. In a groove. And you can hear every player. The mix is not a miasma.

And then there’s the bridge…which actually differs from Bob Dylan’s original lyrics:

“I know we’re not perfect, then again, so what

That ain’t no reason to treat you like a snake

Or to treat me like a slut

And it’s makin’ me so angry”

Bob agrees they’re not perfect, but…

“Then again, neither are they

They act like we got to live for them

As if there just ain’t no other way

And it’s makin’ me kind of tired”

And then the whole number drops down…becomes ever more serious:

“Could we just lay back for a moment

Before we wake up and find ourselves

In a game that we both have lost

These easy cures and easy handsomes

Somethin’ tells me we can’t afford the cost”

But Bob’s lyrics are once again different:

“Can we just lay back for a moment

Before we wake up and find ourselves in a daze that’s got us out of our minds

There must be something we’ve overlooking here

We better drop down now and get back behind the lines

There’s some things not fit for human ears

Some things don’t need to be discussed

Oh, darlin’ can we keep it between us?”

Bob’s telling a more conspiratorial story. This ain’t no lover’s spat. There’s no reference to a slut and…

Now my curiosity got the better of me. I mean it’s possible “Let’s Keep It Between Us” is on an early Dylan album and I don’t know it, but…

It turns out it’s included in one of the “Bootleg Series,” in this case “Springtime in New York,” featuring recordings from 1980-1985, it’s Volume 16 and it was released in…2021, decades after the version on “Green Light.”

Okay, this is like the “Basement Tapes,” there must be more to this story. And after digging around a bit, I find out there is.

“Let’s Keep It Between Us” is about Dylan’s relationship with Carolyn Dennis, his backup singer who he ultimately married in 1986 and had a child with who is…

Black.

They definitely kept this relationship between them. It was truly a secret. No one knew about it until it was revealed in “Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan” by Howard Sounes in 2001. And at the time this claim was debated, many didn’t believe it was true, I remember reading the book and being stunned…if this is so, why haven’t we heard about it?

But now we know it’s absolutely true. And “Let’s Keep It Between Us” is the story of an interracial relationship, which many still consider taboo over forty years later.

Hmm…

Well, this is definitely an autobiographical song, and there are multiple versions of the lyrics and a line in one is…

“Let’s just move to the back of the back of the bus”

So now I’m reeling. What I thought was a song about two people who’d had a fight…

Turned out to be nothing of the sort.

And I’m still metabolizing this. Bob’ll surprise you. You think he’s speaking in allegory, that he’s not paying attention to others’ reaction to him and then…

You get the Musicares speech where he referenced seemingly every slight he’d received in his life.

And now “Let’s Keep It Between Us.”

How can a song say so much and so many of us miss it?

Maybe I’m the only one. But I don’t think so. There was no internet forty years ago, we could speculate…but that’s all we could do.

Who knew there was such a backstory on a song from “Green Light,” which works as pure presentation, performance, but…

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what Bonnie is singing about… 

When This Old World Is Done With Me is his best track in decades. Whether it’s a hit or not is meaningless. It’s perfection.

Russ Turk

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This is a really good one.

I tend to agree with most of what you said here. I really wanted the Elton/Brandi collection of songs to be terrific. I listened to the whole thing (or at least extended pieces of each song. ) I was struck by how exceptionally professional it was. They sound good,  they  sing great, the production is bright and sparkling—albeit mildly predictable.

The problem is the songs aren’t that great. I think that’s part of the problem with lots and lots of music. It’s available today. The songs just aren’t that good.

Rik Shafer

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Much respect to both of them but after listening to what you considered the best two songs…

I turned it off and undoubtedly won’t listen again.

Sad, but true.

David G.

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Harsh but very true.

Will Eggleston

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“I don’t hear a hit on “Who Believes in Angels?”

Nope.

Alicia Etchison

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I’m that same promo guy. You get maybe 8 seconds then I’m out.
I do like yungblud and DC Fontaines. They pop off. Otherwise I listen to Tex Mex n Latin Music. It’s fun and makes you happy. These days that’s a miracle.

Martin Schwartz

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I had to laugh at your opening line. Speaking as a former rock radio program director, I never met a label promo guy who didn’t think he had golden ears.

Beau Phillips

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New York Tendaberry came out when I was 2, I didn’t hear it until I was 22- it still stands as one of the best, most complete albums I have ever heard.

Dave Richards

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What I love about your posts is that you have a real talent to remind me of why I love music- it’s not the sound, the playing expertise, the popularity, etc., it’s the heart and the emotion.  Keep on bringing it brother.

Marty Jogensen

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You said, “I don’t hear a hit on “Who Believes in Angels?’” which means, you thought you would?!

Elton. Legend. Icon. Aside from the Dua “sample”… it’s been more than a decade for a hit. Probably way longer.  I can’t bother to google.

Brandi. Astounding vocalist.  Damn good writer a la Joni.  Hits?

I can’t believe you spent this much time devoted to this non-story.

And yet, it’ll get 8 Grammys nominations and mean nothing.  And thanks for telling us “MTV is dead,” again. Has been for 20 years.

Pop music is dead – is the story.  Dua, Weeknd, Miley, Lizzo – all tanked lately.  Where’s the Gaga push for what’s a GREAT pop album? If you’re really listening – and watching tour sales – only Kylie Minogue, 56, is keeping it alive.

Jerry J. Sharell

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Wow! What a great from the gut read… or should I see important read.

Best,
Robby Vee

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Truthfully I can’t say… ’cause I stopped listening after about three songs. It just wasn’t doing it for me.

I had a listen to ‘When This Old World Is Done With Me’ just now because you mentioned it. Sorry, but for me the vocal sounds as if he’s trying too hard.

I know, it’s easy to criticize. Normally I don’t. I know how hard it is to make something. I love Elton, especially his spirit.

One of the best concerts I ever attended was his gig in the National Stadium in Dublin… just himself and Ray Cooper on percussion. Two hours plus of pure magic.

Barry McCabe

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Just keep telling your truth.

Joe D’Ambrosio

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I agree with you. Overall, I like the album but it’s not something I want to listen to repeatedly. Still, I have much love and respect for Elton and Brandi.

On another note, streaming, have you watched the Black Mirror episode “Eulogy”? Talk about some great storytelling. Paul Giamatti is fantastic!

Regards,
Chris Adams

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Yeah, Bob. Stones album did nothing for me and I really wanted to hear something great. Was puzzled by all the raves at the time. Meanwhile, Steal Wheels, Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon sound better than ever. Go, as they say, figure.

Richard Pachter

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Rhino Bucket!

 

I signed them to EMI Publishing around 1989. Loved them. Didn’t care that they sounded so much like AC/DC that one reviewer said “You have to hand it to Rhino Bucket. They own every AC/DC album, and they’ve obviously never listened to anything else.”

 

AC/DC seemed to be creatively dead at the time, so I thought there was a hole in the market. Then around the same time as the debut Rhino Bucket album was released, AC/DC released Razors Edge with Thunderstruck and Money Talks. Ooops …..

Best,

 

Michael McCarty

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The holy dove that visited BC when she was writing her best songs 20 years ago no longer visits. Now it’s BC™, a business with a philanthropy arm (to offset taxes?) and a winery. Once someone stops waking up in the middle of the night to write down the scripture as it comes to them in flames and instead starts writing for the brand, for the marketing department, for the optics…. We all know what those songs sound like. BC has been comparing herself to Elton John in her live shows for years. This seems like the kind of thing she wanted on her resume. Not exactly divinely inspired.

You mention that it’s a pro album. It’s almost too pro. It’s full of clichés, hackneyed Elton modulations and cadences. It’s self-satisfied. Elton’s voice is autotune-corrected. It’s like watching the Carol King show on broadway rather than listen to Aretha sing Natural Woman.

It’s been said a million times, but it’s hard for very successful artists to put out real hits. Maybe the holy dove prefers to visit the hungry, the nameless, the seekers.

Mitchell Maddox

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There is a Bill Monroe song titled, “My Last Days on Earth.” To me, it expresses the same feeling as Elton’s lyrics to “When This Old World Is Done With Me”

It is nice, sometimes, to hear/see art that looks at life from the perspective of someone who has been here a while.

James Riley

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I love your point about Rick Rubin. Case in point is Johnny Cash. I wasn’t much interested in “the man in black” before he collaborated with Rubin. Now those records are some of my favorites of any genre. For me, he made Cash immortal.

And I remember the first time I heard “More than a Feeling.” It just grabbed me, grabbed everyone, apparently. Doesn’t happen often.

Sam Folmar

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Thank you. This was an incredibly disappointing album.

Ron Fuller

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On point. Plenty of pedigree and polish here. Just no magic. Art is elusive, but you sure know it when you hear it, and when you don’t.

Peter Barsocchini

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Wow, Bob! Bravo for being brave enough to state the facts.

I too find myself yearning many times recently-and maybe the last 10-20 years for more of exactly what you stated.

Onward in musical -and life passion!!

Stephen Bond Garvan / Garvan Management

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In this case they can get it heard so all they needed was one thing.

A great hook!

They blew it.

Leigh Goldstein

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Thing is, I doubt he’s doing it to make a hit.  He’s probably doing it to do what he does.  Like you do.  And they probably had fun bouncing sounds off each other.

I know Rick Rubin has been able to squeeze fresh juice outta people in the past, but I also wonder why musicians would want someone producing who doesn’t know how to engineer or play music.  Whatever gets you thru the night…

I’m curious to hear these tracks tho thanks to you.

Geronimo Son

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Thanks for the note on the new album from Brandi and Elton. It prompted me to listen to it with diminished expectations and that paid off.

Not that my expectations would have been that high to begin with. I haven’t been interested in Elton John since the 70’s. He was huge and then he was irrelevant to me as I went off in my pursuit of punk and then new wave and then……

And Brandi? She’s amazing but she’s not a hit maker. Never was, never will be. That’s a big part of her appeal to me: she does what she wants to and has stayed true to that forever. Does that make her the Bernie Sanders of music?

So, I was pleased to find that this album is a collaboration and to my ears it’s more of a Brandi/Elton mix than an Elton/Brandi mix. That would have been the easy default: put the superstar out front. Thank god they are equals instead. And Brandi really shines instead of playing second fiddle.

“Swing for the Fences” got my foot tapping. That’s the song that I would have selected as the “single”. But, of course, Brandi takes the lead so there’s that. Gotta put Elton out front for the single even though the album is at its best when the two of them harmonize and rock.

And they do have chemistry together. That’s pretty cool.

Is it a f*cking great album? No, it’s not. But it’s much better than I thought it would be. And I like it a little bit more each time that I listen to it.

All the best,

Chuck Mackie

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Wow!  Rhino Bucket,  I thought my friends and I were the only ones who heard that album!   Seemed like it when they came through SF.   Still can’t

believe that never hit.  I’m going to have to dig through my CD boxes.  It sounds SO much better than Spotify et al.

-Vadim

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David Crosbys For Free. His last album. I can listen to that from front to back over and over again. He had never really reached me before. His greatest career making work was about 10 years ahead of my time. But ‘For Free’? That’s a magic album.

Dua Lipas’ ‘Future Nostalgia’ – it’s already 5 years old but ‘Levitating’ was a one-listen smash, only made better by DaBaby. My wife loved it and the entire album is in heavy rotation on a Friday evening at our house. Then Dua did that thing with Elton. That’s really good. People talked about that song.

Harry Styles. His one-listen smash was ‘As It Was’ that whole album is pretty good, it got ‘Watermelon Sugar’ back into rotation for us. I bet I like the next thing he does, I like that he’s not saturating me with garbage in the meantime.

Teddy Swims. He’s got a couple great original songs. Makes me dig into his catalog for more. His Shania Twain cover of ‘You’re Still the One’ is a testimony to great song writing. I tell people about that all the time.

David Essex’s ‘Rock On’ is my personal favorite forgotten gem that was recently revived just to hear on my amazing real life stereo. And ‘Cars’ by Gary Newman, ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood…

You should come over next Friday night. We’ll have fun.

Kind regards,
Rob Whittaker

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When this album first was announced, Paul Sinclair over at Super Deluxe Editionpromoted it with a splash page on his site, along with SDE doing an ‘exclusive’ release in Atmos and 5.1 on BluRay –

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/elton-john-brandi-carlile-who-believes-in-angels-sde-exclusive-blu-ray/

If you scroll down to the comments, you’ll see folks opinions – most agree with you about the ho-hum nature of this release. There’s even a few comments about Andrew Watt not having the Midas touch.

“While another coup to get this for the SDE Surround Series, this is not for meThis doesn’t meet my criteria for purchasing. It is hard to learn to like new material now I am past 60, unless it is one of my favorite artists and I put the time into it. I know nothing of Brandi Carlile and with Elton audibly past his prime, this one is not for me.”

“Not sure about the album but the Dolby Atmos mix will probably sound a lot more dynamic than the stereo mix – Andrew Watt seems hell bent on being the next Rick Rubin (i.e. good from a creative standpoint, horrible from a sonic one).”

“Every record that has name Andrew Watt as a producer is hard pass from me. He spoiled the Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds totally. It was the first Stones album in 45 years i didn’t bought.”

“Hackney Diamond sounds godawful, even on vinyl. I played it twice and my ears hurt so much that I will never play it again.”

Now keep in mind Bob, these are audiophile nerds (and I count myself among them) that are obsessive over equipment, sonics and the playback medium. Vinyl rules, yes, but 5.1 and now Dolby Atmos make immersive audio worth investing in and obsessing over. 12 channels of audio at 48kHz/16 bit uncompressed – wow!

But if even they don’t want this record with all the bells and whistles of this special SDE release because the songs just don’t resonate… what hope is there for the rest of the market?

-Gil Griffith

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Brilliant piece. As a huge Elton fan, Captain Fantastic is tattooed on my arm, I think you’re bang on. Not every album was great. Other than those few 80s hits you mentioned I skipped a decade with Elton until Lion King. I love the fact that he’s still recording and trying things.  I’ve seen the band live many times and was fortunate to meet Elton in Oshawa Ontario of all places once. But for me it’s about the memories of the great songs that I create playlists for on Spotify. Because I know longer own any music, I rent it monthly and that’s ok. And yes McCartney has had many stiffs but nobody who’s in the game that long bats 1000. Not in any industry

Ross Winters

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But did you see the network special (I know, I know, ‘network’ = bad word in the Lefsetz-sphere) w/ Elton and Brandi debuting the album live in front of a celebrity-filled crowd in London? Yeesh, I winced with all of the Elton fawning & worshipping going on. Almost sure Elton wasn’t a fan of it either. (Bet the editor of that special had to do ALOT of work.) But hey, silver lining? You just hepped me to RHINO BUCKET! After reading your missive, I did a quick YouTube play of the debut album and fell hard for it. Dug deep on Discogs to find a reasonably-priced vinyl copy from…wait for it…Australia. Ironic that I had to order a debut album from a Van Nuys band that sounds like Australia’s AC/DC and have it shipped from ‘down under’ back to me here in Burbank. But for this neanderthal of a vinyl fanatic? Totally worth the effort. Appreciate the hot tip, Bob! Cheers, Mark Atherlay, Burbank, CA.

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I watched Elton and Brandi Carlile on SNL. In my opinion they sucked but that didn’t stop me from watching their two hour special the next Monday.  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I have never been a fan of Brandi’s.  She tries way too hard. I know, I know…her Joni stuff.  But it’s a no for me.

So I started taking notes while watching the show, (I write a music post every Saturday on Facebook.).  The first thing I wrote was “sounds like music for a Disney movie”.  What’s interesting is later, they showed a clip of Brandi and Elton rehearsing and Elton said,  “Is it too Lion King?”.

Yes brother…didn’t you have advisors to tell you that? – I’m right here baby!

I will say that Elton still sounded incredible – like no other.  And his piano playing obviously is next level – he is the maestro.  I loved hearing him sing his (albeit, overplayed) songs but what’s wrong with the odd deep track EJ?  Ugh!

As my sister-in-law, said : I like old Elton, that’s about it.  Me too!

Elton, when asked how he wants to be remembered, said:  “I don’t want Crocodile f*cking Rock written on my tombstone.  I just want it to say, I was a great dad”.  That, I loved.

And now I will go spin my Captain Fantastic album.

Shari Siskind

Toronto

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I just listened to it on Apple Music. How great is that. I read your article and can go and listen to the whole album without leaving my recliner. I liked two songs, “Never too late” and “someone to belong too”.  They had pop hooks, and pleasing melodies ok lyrics and were easy listening and I added them to a new playlist, along with “A little light”.  These three I will enjoy even more as they become more familiar. All the others were ok, but for me, now 80 years young, and a former music reviewer for alternate print media, they sounded like two super star talents trying too hard to be relevant using today’s studio created packaged sound.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of both artists and especially Elton. In the 60s I was the manager of a San Francisco department store, The Emporium’s TV and music area. Every week to boost album sales I would put in the front of the department on a rack, my pick of favorite albums. When “Mad Man across the Water” first came out I was so enamored with the album and especially “Tiny Dancer” that I filled the rack that held ten Albums with only this one. Plus, I started playing the album in the department for background music, which was not allowed in the store. Well, we sold out immediately and I called our music distributor to send me more and more. To shorten the story, I got an award from our music distributor for selling the most of that album in a month, even more than Tower Records. Plus the store manager let me continue to play albums as background music in the department.

Alan Segal

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Hey!  The comment about your relationship with Elton at the end reminded me of this paragraph I read in the Financial Times this past weekend; “Kissinger was a juggler; Brzezinski a boxer. When the latter accused Kissinger of “acrobatics” during the Nixon years, they nearly fell out. In spite of their often irascible disputes, the Republican and Democratic sparring partners never stinted on dinners at Sans Souci, a French restaurant (since closed) near the White House. You went there to be seen. “One always learns more from ‘friendly critics’ than from uncritical friends,” Kissinger wrote to Brzezinski after one such meal in the early 1970s. It is hard to imagine such a garrulous frenemyship in today’s Washington. ”

Maybe Elton has a thick enough skin to know that you are a “friendly critic”.

Take care, Bob.

Michael Craig

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You’re probably right about everything re: a one listen it.

Of course in your mind you’re right about everything.

If you do not believe it,
just ask yourself.

I don’t understand artists obsession with the “album format” either.

But …..

“They should’ve just hired me. “

The arrogance and hubris

After all those classic albums you’ve produced with one listen hits.

How can Elton and Brandi not have understood.

I mean they might’ve used Rick Rubin

But not choosing you.
Unbelievable

Cranky Old Uncle Bob rides agin

Keep setting the world straight.

Jack Haynes

Tune in tomorrow April 19th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

https://www.atomic.com/en-us/shop/product/bent-100-aa6650.html#color=37703

1

These are FANTASTIC soft snow skis.

Welcome to closing weekend at Vail, where we are in the midst of a raging snowstorm after two weeks of unseasonably high temperatures. Colorado is not like Vermont. Where you eke out your last runs on narrow white ribbons while the landscape around you comes awake from the winter and is finally turning green. No, Vail closes with plenty of snow, they’re just lacking CUSTOMERS!

People can’t wait to get out on the hill in November and December when conditions are shaky, but when there’s plenty of snow in the spring, they’re contemplating golf and…

But this week has been much more crowded than the previous few. Because of the Mexicans. From Mexico. Vail caters to them. They’re here for Easter break. And they’re RICH!

Little kids wearing Bogner clothing. High class brand names everywhere. Sometimes you feel like an alien in your own town.

Not that it’s really crowded. Is there ever truly a lift line? But like I said, it was empty and now that they’ve closed down two-thirds of the mountain…

Yes, they do that to save money.

Anyway, today I took out the Bent Chetlers. Wary of the conditions. Afraid they would be the legendary dust on crust. That’s a term all dedicated skiers know and are afraid of. When it’s rock solid underneath, with just a smattering of snow flakes on top. It’s even worse in the spring, because the surface underneath has melted, refrozen and is not smooth and…

It wasn’t that bad, I was pleasantly surprised. Not that you could not feel the crust underneath.

I was thinking of taking out the Peak 104s, because they hold like motherf*ckers. But none of my skis are as lively and playful as the Bent Chetler 100s, and they’d been utterly fantastic in the crud we’d had, so…

I donned them. And kept thinking about writing about them, and here we are.

I’d been planning to post a review all season, but I wanted to ski them in all conditions, I wanted to get a definitive take. But riding the lift today I felt if I wrote about skis…that would be tone-deaf in light of the political turmoil in our nation. But then I was riding Chair 3, and the flakes were coming down and Mother Nature didn’t seem to care about the folly of men, so I said to myself what the f*ck, I’ll put fingers to keyboard, because if I wait…I might never be inspired again.

2

So Chris Benchetler wanted to send me a pair of his skis. He’s got his own model, the Bent Chetler, with Atomic. Chris used to be with K2, but Atomic gave him a lot of opportunity, and Chris can now live off the royalties alone.

What made the model was the 120. Which you really don’t need inbounds, at a resort.

Okay, let me explain how this works. Skis have lengths and waists. The lengths are in centimeters and the widths are in millimeters.

Before the shaped ski revolution of the nineties and early two thousands, we all skied on narrow waisted boards, oftentimes in the sixtysomething range. But then snowboarding became all the rage. And innovative ski makers decided to learn a lesson from the upstarts, they started infusing skis with radical sidecuts.

Now skis always had sidecuts. And expert skiers could use these to their advantage. You laid the ski up on edge, and you carved a turn. Very few people could do this. But now with shaped skis, EVERYBODY can do it. There’s a plethora of great skiers on the mountain. If you mastered the skills of yore you could complain, except that the shaped skis render such a better experience.

Presently there’s a debate how wide you should go. Commentators want the public to go shorter, for more maneuverability and fewer injuries. Not that the public listens, they still want wide boards and…

If you go to Sun Valley, which gets very little snow (there’s a ton of snowmaking), the runs are usually firm and everybody skis on narrow skis. Furthermore, that’s what they sell in the shops.

In the old days, every shop had every model. Now, no shop has every brand and model. You might read about a ski but be unable to buy it.

And in Vail, it’s nearly impossible to find a ski for sale or rent that’s narrower than eightysomething at the waist. Because Vail is vast and broad and…

Vail didn’t used to compete with Aspen. John Glenn implored Felice’s parents to buy a condo here after burning out on the scene in Sun Valley, where every Hollywood celebrity went if they weren’t in Aspen.

But Aspen is different from Sun Valley. Sun Valley is relatively quiet. Whereas…

Aspen is a scene. Hippies through the seventies, then the wealthy moved in and…

Aspen is a great town with great skiing, but it’s inconvenient. There are four separate mountains and getting to them…

Vail is all of a piece. It’s all connected.

And it’s relatively flat. That’s the beef amongst elite skiers, Willy Schaeffler, the legendary ski coach at DU, pooh-poohed the mountain because of its lack of steepness.

But it turns out that most people don’t want steep slopes.

And Vail has the Back Bowls. They may call them bowls at a few other ski areas, but there’s no comparison in the U.S. Whistler? Whistler has some great bowls. But otherwise, you have to go to Europe for skiing like this. Vast and wide open. Legendary.

And then they added Blue Sky Basin and sealed the deal.

Vail is close to Denver, you can come for the day, even though now the traffic is horrendous, whereas you wouldn’t do this with Aspen, it’s too far.

And Vail has turned into a megalopolis, an endless valley of development. And the original village is a copy of Zermatt, and there’s an ersatz element.

But… Vail has a legendary bump run, Highline, which is never groomed. And if you want something steeper, you can go to Beaver Creek next door, but no one ever does. The locals ski Vail, they drive right by Beaver Creek for the sheer quantity of terrain, the greater quantity of snow and…

That’s Vail.

3

The standard Vail ski is 100mm. Actually, somewhere between 94 and 100. Because at this width, you can ski all the terrain Vail has to offer. From groomers to deep powder. A ski of this width is not perfect for almost anything, except for a few inches of powder, but it’s a great compromise, because when you go either narrower or wider that ski will be bad in the powder/crud or on the groomers respectively.

So when you read about the need to go to narrow skis… Maybe at your ski area, but not in Vail.

And the truth is dedicated skiers have a quiver of skis. Multiple pairs for multiple conditions. I know you can’t fathom that but…

Why not have a dedicated powder ski. I’ve got my 116 K2s which are great.

And I’ve got another K2, the 108ti Mindbender which is a dream. It turns like a much narrower ski, but will plow through almost everything. I don’t use it as a groomer ski, but it’s just fine on groomers on days where the powder becomes skied out or I’m making a few runs with people afraid of…

Oh, despite all the hoopla about powder, the average skier is afraid of it.

But it gets worse. Unless you go helicopter skiing, if you get in line before the lift opens and rush you’ll get one untracked run, if you’re a student of the mountain and lucky, maybe two. And the powder is not always like in the movies. The snow can be heavy and…

The best powder in the country is in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons in Utah. Because of the low moisture content.

But at Alta and Snowbird the powder gets skied out nearly immediately. Vail is so vast you can always find untracked, or good crud, even days after a storm, even though you might have to go into the trees. Then again, despite Steamboat being famous for tree skiing, there are TONS of trees to ski in at Vail.

And in the middle of February, we got 50″ of snow in a matter of days. At times it was so deep that it became overwhelming, I was on my 108s jus wishing I was on my 116s.

Equipment makes a difference, skis make a difference, then again I can’t tell you how many avid skiers are terrible. Because they learned in the pre-shaped ski era and refuse to utilize the modern sidecut, or they never took lessons, I’m a big believer in lessons.

But the better you are, the more advantage you can take of equipment. And the boots! They’re more comfortable than ever before. Not that they’re always so comfortable.

But if you’ve got a great pair of boots with great response, which usually means a tight fit, you can take advantage of the skis and…

4

I purchased a new pair of boots this season, the new Lange RS130. This was the first time the boot was redesigned in years! And for the first time, it could be designed from the ground up, without needing to be able to be tweaked for the detuned RX model. Last year Lange introduced the Shadow, a true revolution, and if you’re a good recreational skier, I’d check it out, not that every boot fits every foot, but the Shadow is legendary for being comfortable.

The new Lange RS130s replaced my old Lange RS130s, whose liners were wearing out. They were the best boots I ever had. But the new ones…

Let’s just say I’ve wrestled with a few fit issues, but the performance is amazing, OFF THE CHARTS!

I’ve got two pairs of K2 Mindbenders, the only difference is the paint job. But the new ones turn so much better than the old ones. It didn’t make any sense. But a couple of days ago I took the old ones out with the new boots and VOILA!, it’s the boots!

But no one likes to admit that equipment makes such a difference. Mikaela Shiffrin goes through 80 pairs of skis a year but if you start talking about having multiple pairs the hoi polloi says it makes no difference, that it’s about the skier.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Which is why I took out those old 99mm K2 Mindbenders the other day, the ones with the old paint job. You see the Bent Chetlers… When I skied them in the bumps, the forebody of the skis…just didn’t come around, just didn’t flex like I wanted them to. Was it me or the skis?

Turned out it was the skis. The Mindbenders didn’t get thrown by the bumps, the forebody flexed. And now we finally get to the point.

5

Chris Benchetler wanted to send me a pair of his 110 Grateful Dead skis. Thanks Chris, fantastic, but I’ve already got a pair of 108s and 110s and how often do I go out on a ski this width anyway, I’d prefer it if you sent me your 100s.

And then there was the issue of length, because the Bent Chetlers have a turned up tail and a shorter running surface for the same listed length. My everyday skis tend to be 172s or so. But we decided the 179 Bent Chetlers would be best. Thank god, anything shorter… Yes, skis can be too short. As a matter of fact, many ski on skis that are not long enough. But those details are for another day.

And I got the skis and then the bindings and I took them out on a bright sunny day in February and…I HATED THEM!

I mean you start on a new pair of skis on the groomers, to get a feel, and I just couldn’t get a feel for the Bent Chetlers. They just didn’t carve like any other ski. I was tempted to go back to the ski valet and change them out, but I figured best to ski them in every condition to be sure.

And I made it back to Blue Sky Basin, which is so far that it closes just after two PM, so people can make it back to the base, but is a so-called “wilderness” experience. With more features like rocks and trees left in the landscape, and less grooming.

So I pointed the Bent Chetlers down In the Wuides, a broad usually windswept slope that narrows into a bump field and…

WHAT A REVELATION!

I could throw the Bent Chetlers through the bumps, through the crud, better than any other pair of skis I had.

And then I took them into truly terrible snow from Siberia into Mongolia Bowl, where no one in their right mind would go, where there was a combination of deep bumps and untracked and a surface that had sat in the sun too long and…I could throw the skis around with confidence.

But every day?

The Bent Chetlers were not for me.

6

But then it got hot. Almost a month ago. I’ve still got the blister on my lip as testimony. And looking for a bit of variety, I took out the Bent Chetlers. And in the spring crud? PHENOMENAL!

Okay, crud is cut-up powder. Spring crud? It’s like a slurpee. But in places the slurpee can be inches deep.

The Bent Chetlers just plowed through this stuff. Furthermore, THEY WERE FUN!

Fun, playful.

At this point in time, the most popular brands of skis are Nordica and Blizzard. Their signature models, the Enforcers and the Anomalys, are like tanks. Stiff, two layers of metal. They’re steady, they’ll plow through anything. They’re not quite dead, but they are not my idea of a good ski.

If you’re happy on these models, more to you. Then again, you probably haven’t skied on anything else. You just bought what was popular.

I like a livelier ski, with more pop.

As for the Bent Chetlers… They have no metal! Metal speaks to torsional rigidity, it’s what allows your ski to hold on the hard snow. Which is one reason the Bent Chetlers are not so great on the hard snow.

But they’re light… Not that lightness is everything, I’m actually against it, the best boots are heavy and I’ve found light skis to be too skittish. But the thing with the Bent Chetler 100s is…you can just throw them around, they bounce, they’re FUN!

Yes, skiing is fun with any equipment, but with the Bent Chetlers you get this elation, this smile on your face, this happiness, that you will never ever get with the Enforcer or Anomaly. You feel the skis swing, you feel like you’re dancing. You’re cutting and slashing down the mountain with almost no effort. Feeling like you’re the only person on the hill who is having this experience, that everybody else is missing out.

So today, I finally skied the Bent Chetlers in powder/crud. UNBELIEVABLE! They just plow through the stuff with no effort. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of skis, but nothing like this. They made this condition nearly effortless. And I kept thinking how I was going to tell you, and now I have, but with an unbelievably lengthy digressive intro.

7

The Bent Chetler 100 is really a soft snow ski. Unless you ski where it’s soft all the time, it’s best as a second pair of skis. Especially if you’re on the east coast.

But now I realize I missed out. Because I can envision what the Bent Chetler 110 is like. I’m thinking about skiing down Forever in Sun Down Bowl  (named such because Pepi Gramshammer skied it and said it went on FOREVER) in nearly two feet of powder on my K2 108s back in February, and now I know it would be so much easier on the Bent Chetlers.

Not that the Bent Chetlers are a secret. Some people say it’s the best-selling ski available. (Then again, there are five models in the family.) Not that you see so many in Vail. But every once in a while, someone looks me in the eye and says “You’re on Bent Chetlers.” Because insiders, those with a quiver, those who study the game, they’re hip to the ski. There’s an aura, a magic to the Bent Chetlers.

But they’re different from anything else.

I’m still a bit flummoxed by the somewhat stiff forebody. I guess it was designed this way for powder and crud, maybe this is evidence of no compromise. But the competition has a more even flex.

Not that the Bent Chetlers are stiff.

8

Okay. I’ve skied on the Bent Chetlers for about 20 days. But I haven’t communicated with Chris about them. I don’t want him to think I’m ungrateful. But I didn’t want to weigh in until I had a total read on the skis. It took me a while to figure them out.

But skiing in the crud these past two weeks and the powder today…

I couldn’t hold back. They’re the best skis in these conditions I’ve ever been on!

But they’re not made for every condition. Or should I say there are better skis for other conditions.

Which is why you must have multiple pairs, a quiver.

But people will say you’re rich.

Like when I mentioned my Langes a month or so ago, I got an e-mail saying I was a turd, because everyone knows you buy your ski boots at a discount in the spring. Maybe amateurs… Because there’s an issue of INVENTORY! I could barely get my RS130s in early December, they had to be trucked from another store.

Everybody’s got an opinion.

And everybody’s got preferences.

Don’t ski, doesn’t matter to me. Buy the usual logic, it’s cold and expensive and you could get hurt.

But skiing has never been cheaper. And the experience has never been better, with the high-speed lifts and the shaped skis and…

You’re missing out.

On the elation and the thrill.

I can talk about this forever, and I think I just did!