I think I’m gonna stop answering my e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 I just don’t want to get into arguments anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Between those who still believe and myself.<\/p>\n
There was a time when I lived to read "Rolling Stone", to be on the pulse.\u00c2\u00a0 Music was the most happening art form.\u00c2\u00a0 It not only soothed your soul, it informed you, it gave you insight, it helped you be who you wanted to be.<\/p>\n
This lasted for a very long time.\u00c2\u00a0 Until about the turn of the century.\u00c2\u00a0 And then it all fell apart.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s like Germany after the war.\u00c2\u00a0 A giant hole.\u00c2\u00a0 With carpetbaggers trying to make a buck.<\/p>\n
I’m preparing podcasts.\u00c2\u00a0 I was going to do one on Little River Band’s "It’s A Long Way There".\u00c2\u00a0 But I can only use thirty seconds of EMI music, and it’s an eight minute song, with MOVEMENTS!\u00c2\u00a0 So I kept pushing the button on my iPod, trying to see if what came up on shuffle would inspire me.<\/p>\n
I thought of doing a podcast on David Crosby’s "If I Could Only Remember My Name".\u00c2\u00a0 But there wasn’t enough story, and even though the album is experiencing a renaissance, it was still the worst of the initial CSNY solo records.<\/p>\n
And then I heard "Hand In Pocket".\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, the glorious SOUND!<\/p>\n
And then my iPod alighted on Alanis’ performance of "You Oughta Know" at the Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n
I want you to know<\/em><\/p>\n Oh, the INTIMACY!\u00c2\u00a0 It was like picking up the party line and overhearing a conversation between ex-lovers.\u00c2\u00a0 You were immediately drawn in, you were MESMERIZED!<\/p>\n I wish nothing but the best for you both<\/em><\/p>\n This is how we feel about the major labels, their employees.\u00c2\u00a0 We really wish them hell.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want to see them ride off into the sunset happily.\u00c2\u00a0 We want them to fall off the horse, we want to see them stomped in the mud.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they FUCKED UP OUR LIVES!<\/p>\n An older version of me Christina Aguilera acted perverted, there was just no art in it.\u00c2\u00a0 Strutting around on her chicken legs.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no inspiration, we learned nothing about ourselves.\u00c2\u00a0 But listening to Alanis we had to confront OUR OWN sexuality!\u00c2\u00a0 Where were WE on the continuum.\u00c2\u00a0 Was she really us, or was she further out there.<\/p>\n Would she go down on you in a theatre<\/em><\/p>\n If only Beck, if only Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would come up with a line so simple that cuts us to the quick.\u00c2\u00a0 We can see it.\u00c2\u00a0 Alanis on her hands and knees.\u00c2\u00a0 With his pants unzipped.\u00c2\u00a0 Performing an act we’ve all experienced but we’re not sure we want to hear about.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a Warhol moment, but in SONG! As honest, but more palatable than anything the Velvet Underground ever did.\u00c2\u00a0 This little middle class girl from Canada…<\/p>\n Does she speak eloquently<\/em><\/p>\n Eloquence is for also-rans.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about looks, not speech, not erudition.\u00c2\u00a0 God, how often has this word even APPEARED in lyrics?<\/p>\n And I’m here to remind you I discovered Alanis on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, she was also on KROQ.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody watches MTV anymore, it’s no longer an addiction, no longer an obligatory stop on the way through the dial.\u00c2\u00a0 As for KROQ, didn’t the iPod kill KROQ?<\/p>\n So where does this leave us?<\/p>\n With purveyors clamoring to sell us their wares like street vendors in a third world country.<\/p>\n And outsiders without any power trying to convince us the crap that only they can like, we should like.<\/p>\n And we turn to the media, crying out for guidance, but we’re told to post our thoughts on the Web, whether it be in blog form or YouTube video.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe somebody might pay attention.<\/p>\n You seem very well, things look peaceful Do I just tune out?\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s all so overwhelming.<\/p>\n One can read the myriad of reviewers at pitchforkmedia.com, but there are no standards, no way to decipher what’s really good.\u00c2\u00a0 And so many of the acts that rise from the boonies are not in the league of the classic acts that came before.<\/p>\n There used to be a mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 You didn’t HAVE to live in it, but it was there.\u00c2\u00a0 Now the Top Forty isn’t even mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s pop and urban.\u00c2\u00a0 And upon being derided that one isn’t infatuated with Beyonce, one ponders tuning out for all time.<\/p>\n You oughta know that things are really fucked up.\u00c2\u00a0 We marveled at Alanis’ Grammy performance of this song with a full orchestra ten years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Now common wisdom is the Grammys aren’t worth watching.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if we’re not watching the show, and MTV plays no music and we’ve tuned out radio, where do we go?\u00c2\u00a0 Our iPods only play what we already know.<\/p>\n Are you confused?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you disillusioned?<\/p>\n I am.<\/p>\n I want something to champion.\u00c2\u00a0 But everybody’s got a MySpace page, everybody’s sold out to Madison Avenue, there’s little to believe in, and there’s more coming down the pike every minute.<\/p>\n That’s the story of now.\u00c2\u00a0 The onslaught, the endless overwhelming media deluge.\u00c2\u00a0 Why watch the Oscars.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t "Newsweek" say TV was better than movies?\u00c2\u00a0 And doesn’t everything make it to TV eventually anyway?\u00c2\u00a0 Who is this show for?\u00c2\u00a0 The advertisers?<\/p>\n The Oscars are an anachronism.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like the moviegoing experience.\u00c2\u00a0 "The Departed" is not "The Godfather".\u00c2\u00a0 I know because of the lack of mania.\u00c2\u00a0 The last time there was credible mania was for "Pulp Fiction".\u00c2\u00a0 Ironically around the same time "Jagged Little Pill" was released.\u00c2\u00a0 In the midnineties.\u00c2\u00a0 When the mainstream and hipdom merged.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the mainstream took off by itself, becoming ever lower common denominator in search of the buck.\u00c2\u00a0 The money is all that matters now.\u00c2\u00a0 But how much do you need, and at what cost?<\/p>\n Who’s got time to play albums?\u00c2\u00a0 And which ones you should spin?\u00c2\u00a0 And none of this music seems to impact the culture.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a war going on but all we get is a dancing fool saying he’s going to bring sexy back.<\/p>\n Are you thinking of me when you fuck her<\/em><\/p>\n We’ve been forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 The purveyors play to the middlemen.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s sold to radio and the "Today Show" before us.\u00c2\u00a0 We get what companies pay Best Buy to stock.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, there’s the wild west of the Internet, but would you have moved to California in 1849?<\/p>\n My favorite track on "Jagged Little Pill" is not "You Oughta Know", but "Hand In Pocket".\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s a resonance in "You Oughta Know" that gives me shivers.\u00c2\u00a0 It was nine months after the last time I saw my then wife.\u00c2\u00a0 It was clear she was never coming back.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d honored the bond.\u00c2\u00a0 But that wasn’t enough.\u00c2\u00a0 I was left in the dust.\u00c2\u00a0 What to do with my feelings?<\/p>\n I found no outlet until "You Oughta Know".<\/p>\n How many albums did "Jagged Little Pill" sell?\u00c2\u00a0 Fifteen million in the U.S?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe more?<\/p>\n It wouldn’t move this many if it was released today.\u00c2\u00a0 There’d be no way to reach everybody.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, it would eclipse the work of the vapid Norah Jones.\u00c2\u00a0 It would put Rascal Flatts in its place.\u00c2\u00a0 It would illustrate that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are running on fumes.<\/p>\n That’s what the scene used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 A landscape outsiders tried to invade to blow our minds.<\/p>\n There’s no longer a scene, no landscape.\u00c2\u00a0 If you believe, you’re functioning in your own little backwater.<\/p>\n I don’t know the way out of this mess.<\/p>\n But I’m sure it’s not going to come from the usual suspects.<\/p>\n Someone’s going to realize it’s not a user-generated content world.\u00c2\u00a0 That we need order.\u00c2\u00a0 That living in a Tower Of Babel society is not rewarding, not fruitful.\u00c2\u00a0 That the human condition is to bond around excellence and revel it.<\/p>\n For now, like the teens rallying around Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, I’m genuflecting to the past.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the present is just INCOMPREHENSIBLE!<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think I’m gonna stop answering my e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 I just don’t want to get into arguments anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Between those who still believe and myself. There was a time when I lived to read "Rolling Stone", to be on the pulse.\u00c2\u00a0 Music was the most happening art form.\u00c2\u00a0 It not only soothed your soul, it informed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-bi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Is she perverted like me<\/em><\/p>\n
Of the mess you left when you went away
It’s not fair to deny me<\/em><\/p>\n
I’m not quite as well, I thought you should know<\/em><\/p>\n