{"id":4080,"date":"2011-04-27T06:45:48","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T14:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=4080"},"modified":"2011-04-27T06:52:56","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T14:52:56","slug":"leonard-bernstein-deconstructs-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/27\/leonard-bernstein-deconstructs-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Bernstein Deconstructs Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Note: Sometimes you’ve got to leave the best stuff out.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what I learned from Carl Reiner on Costas years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 But the quote I excerpted from this program resonates in my head, and even though it doesn’t fit in below, I want to lay it on you now:<\/p>\n

"When it’s good, it’s irresistible."<\/p>\n

That’s Leonard Bernstein on rock music.\u00c2\u00a0 Some things never change.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what’s wrong with too much you e-mail me about, too much hyped by the mainstream, it’s not irresistible.\u00c2\u00a0 But Leonard Bernstein in this program is.\u00c2\u00a0 Watch it.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I was reading in "BusinessWeek" about an engineer who left Facebook because it was all about the ads.\u00c2\u00a0 That just wasn’t fulfilling enough for a Harvard math major.<\/p>\n

He could have stayed.\u00c2\u00a0 He could have cashed in, or cashed out, however you choose to define an IPO.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, he left to build a new architecture, that would reveal secrets heretofore unknown.<\/p>\n

I have a theory.\u00c2\u00a0 Our country became about the money when Ronald Reagan legitimized greed.\u00c2\u00a0 He lowered taxes, and not only allowed the flourishing of the junk bond house Drexel Burnham Lambert, he turned the heads of baby boomers, who were no longer concerned about loving their brothers and world peace, but about getting a bigger house in a better neighborhood with a foreign car in the driveway preferably all behind a tall wall.<\/p>\n

In other words, the baby boomers were co-opted.\u00c2\u00a0 The generation that rebelled against its forebears became them.\u00c2\u00a0 And their progeny grew up in a land of plenty, focused on the dollar, and now they want theirs.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether it be in Silicon Valley, or on the "Jersey Shore" or in Hollywood, where pretty faces are duking it out to be told what to do by Jimmy Iovine right now.<\/p>\n

But it used to be different.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be the baby boomers were restless, they wanted more, and they expressed their desires, their rebellion, through music.<\/p>\n

The Leonard Bernstein special I’m linking you to is legendary.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though few people have ever seen it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s most famous for the debut of "Surf’s Up", with Brian Wilson playing the heretofore unreleased number alone on the piano.<\/p>\n

But what’s great about this show is not the testifying rock stars, but the denizen of the older generation, Leonard Bernstein, who says although 95% of the music is trash, 5% is fantastic.<\/p>\n

And we can stop there and posit that 1%, or .5% is good today, with everybody able to get into the game, but it’s not a business lesson I got from watching the maestro, but a musical one.<\/p>\n

Along with the rise in materialism in the eighties came a\u00c2\u00a0 denigration of education, of being smart, of critical analysis.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s cool to be dumb.\u00c2\u00a0 Just ask Snooki.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Sarah Palin, whose flock consists of idiots too stupid to realize the people they back are profiteers leaving them by the wayside.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you’re intelligent, if you’re educated, you can think about things, work them through your fingers and come to new, interesting conclusions.\u00c2\u00a0 You can debate economic policy instead of trying to prove Barack Obama was born in outer space.<\/p>\n

If this were the sixties, there’d be a rock group right now setting the record straight.<\/p>\n

Alas, it is not.<\/p>\n

But through the miracle of YouTube we can go right back to ’67, where we are captivated by Mr. Bernstein and his infatuation with rock and roll.<\/p>\n

It’s about smarts.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about education.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about charisma.<\/p>\n

Sure, you can sit back with your arms crossed and reference Radical Chic, you can cynically say Bernstein is reading from a script, but if you truly let go you’ll be taken into a magical world, where music matters and life is about sensation rather than money.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s Bernstein’s power.\u00c2\u00a0 He takes the Top Forty under his wing and soars to new heights and we go along with him, thrilled with each insight he reveals.<\/p>\n

This is not a man playing to the camera.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though he was not without his vain qualities, what truly makes Bernstein’s presentation magical is the way he gets caught up in the music.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not beats-oriented dance crap, made to play in the background, the songs he’s deconstructing are positively foreground.<\/p>\n

He references "Pretty Ballerina" and ties it to classical music.\u00c2\u00a0 He talks about the Beatles leaving out a beat.\u00c2\u00a0 He reveals the Arabic influences in "Paint It Black".\u00c2\u00a0 They’re all there, we know the records by heart, but Bernstein adds fillips that deepen our enjoyment, that make us smile.\u00c2\u00a0 And when he bangs out the notes on the piano and sings along in his less than perfect voice he’s caught up in the music just like you and me.<\/p>\n

How did we get so distracted?\u00c2\u00a0 How did we get so far off course?<\/p>\n

Well, in the sixties, kids weren’t their parents’ best friends.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d rebel against these plastic-surgeried ultra-thin moms, but somehow today’s kids think their parents are all right, that they haven’t sold out and greed is good.<\/p>\n

And there’s no draft.\u00c2\u00a0 Start sending kids involuntarily to be slaughtered and protest would rear its ugly head, acts selling out to corporations would be laughed off the map, like Up With People.<\/p>\n

And then there was MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Which made it about looks.<\/p>\n

And the CD.\u00c2\u00a0 Which rained down more money than previously was available in the music industry.<\/p>\n

And we’re running on fumes.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want innovation, just a pretty face.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what all these TV competitions are about. Blame Simon Cowell.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s playing to the lowest common denominator.\u00c2\u00a0 And if only Jimmy Iovine could hire someone as innovative as Neil Diamond to write today’s "I’m A Believer" for the "A.I." winner.<\/p>\n

But Bernstein goes on to say that the younger generation writes the music and owns it.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Diane Warren would be a loser in ’67.\u00c2\u00a0 Carole King had to stop writing for others and start doing it for herself.\u00c2\u00a0 The acts not only gained freedom in the studio, they started to own their songs as well as write them.\u00c2\u00a0 The money went to the act.<\/p>\n

And the public was enthralled.\u00c2\u00a0 Because we were looking for leaders.\u00c2\u00a0 Because musicians were the best and the brightest, speaking the truth and beholden to no one.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure music can come back.\u00c2\u00a0 When the man is Live Nation as opposed to a renegade concert promoter.\u00c2\u00a0 When the acts aren’t looking to be independent but to sell out, to whomever it takes to get paid and hopefully noticed.<\/p>\n

They don’t teach much music in school.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s hard to respect tripe like "My Humps".\u00c2\u00a0 But once upon a time, music changed the world.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the most vital art form.<\/p>\n

And it wasn’t about the industry, but the individual.\u00c2\u00a0 To see that just watch all six installments of this show.\u00c2\u00a0 When Bernstein is on, you’re riveted.\u00c2\u00a0 When the youngsters come on, you tune out.\u00c2\u00a0 Their music is great, but their analysis is dated.<\/p>\n

But the music was universal.\u00c2\u00a0 And it lasted.<\/p>\n

It’s referred to as classic rock.<\/p>\n

And instead of rebelling against it, today’s generation flocks to it.\u00c2\u00a0 For its originality, for its truth, for its honesty.<\/p>\n

Tune into a glorious time.\u00c2\u00a0 Hang in there through the faulty sound and the blank screen time.\u00c2\u00a0 Because when Bernstein talks, your heart will sing, you’ll feel fully alive, you’ll want to play these records all night.<\/p>\n

\n
Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 4<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 5<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 6<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: Sometimes you’ve got to leave the best stuff out.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what I learned from Carl Reiner on Costas years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 But the quote I excerpted from this program resonates in my head, and even though it doesn’t fit in below, I want to lay it on you now: "When it’s good, it’s irresistible." That’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-13O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4082,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080\/revisions\/4082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}