who is Bob Lefsetz?

Who's mixerman? I think Lefsetz is a retired music biz attorney.

One of his pet themes is that only individuals whom he says audiences perceive as 'real' will have lasting careers. He says this does not include American Idol performers and most rappers and pop acts.

Nelly Furtado Thursday 6/7/07 The WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY Gross: $316,400 4,992/4,992 (100% Ticket prices: $65.00/$45.00 That was her best gig. In Boston, she did 3,644 out of 6,500 (56.1%). In Sayreville, NJ, she did 1,165 out of 2,050 (56.8%). In Detroit, she did 1,761 out of 2,585 (68.1%). In Grand Prairie, TX, she did 2,375 out of 2,503 (94.9%). In other words, she did SHITTY! And these weren't big halls to begin with, positively small, THEATRES! Her album has sold 1,873,719 copies, it's still number 50 on the chart A YEAR LATER! In other words, record sales don't mean shit. Work with Timbaland all you want. Have a hit on Top Forty radio that fewer people are listening to every day. Most people are not paying attention. They don't think you're REAL! Real acts don't conspire with a multitude of people, the usual suspects, to create their of the moment music. No one's even going to REMEMBER her tracks half a decade from now. No one's even going to PLAY them! (Have you heard Eminem recently?) It's not about music being stolen, that's not the big story in the music business today. It's about the bifurcation in its soul. Touring used to reflect record sales. No longer is this the case. And the real acts, the lasting acts, can all do good live business. The public got the memo, the press has not. As for the major labels? If they want a taste of every piece of the pie they've got to be trustworthy, have the act's best interests at heart. Ain't that a laugh.

so bob thinks the PUBLIC wants REAL, but it's hard to notice that said public has responded to THE REAL BOB himself by leaving ZERO COMMENTS so far on his latest blog post. ZERO COMMENTS on the post before that. ZERO COMMENTS on his LAST FOUR POSTS, in fact. the one before that elicited ONE COMMENT. so maybe everyone's talking about him but NO ONE CARES. most people are not paying attention. in other words, capital-letter posts about THE REAL don't mean shit. on the other hand, matthew fluxblog, champion of the pop, the artificial, the unreal, got 14 COMMENTS on his most recent posts. and 20 COMMENTS on the one before that. and 12 comments for his thoughts on KELLY CLARKSON. take that, bob!

So who's READING these blogs? The Arizona girl you met at UCLA you secretly wanted to fuck? NO! That aging A&R rep with the combover whose ass you wanted to kick cos he thought he was DOWN with the kids? NO-ONE who CARES about MUSIC reads BLOGS! They're too busy LIVING! And what do they want as their soundtrack to life? Music about LOVE - love gained, love lost, love refrigerated briefly prior to baking. LOVE is what keeps us coming back to music. NOT blogs. NOT UCLA postgrad programs. NOT even Arizona girls. And especially not Matthew fucking PERPETUA.

Who's mixerman?

http://www.mixerman.net/diaries_main.php

With just a few changes to the word lists, Lefsetz could pass for a SubGenius spewbot.

ctrl-f HITS not found

Bob always quotes 2 types of e-mail responses he gets (as many folks receive his stuff via e-mail rather than looking at his site)--from retired or current folks in the biz, or from ordinary folks who tell him how much they love 'real' music and then proceed to enthuse about the most bland middlebrow rock. The tone in both types of responses are often pretty amusing.

But I'll take T.I. over Rory Gallagher

Any sane person would. (Which says it all.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=laBpl0TPaNg

I never heard of this guy until yesterday, but his old timer shtick is kind of entertaining, I read it hearing the voice of Bob "The Kid Stays In The Picture" Evans, and then think of the Martin Landau character from Entourage.

Subscribed a couple of weeks ago after someone mentioned him on the Radiohead thread, I tried, but I just don't get it, unsubscribed again.

Random thoughts that go nowhere, boasting about scoring a tour jacket from a 70's Clapton tour, comments from people who apparently do get what he means, irrelevant grumpy old man stuff, nothing I want to read about several times a day.

Am I missing something or is that it?

His rants against the music biz, while largely predictable at this point, are often entertaining reading. Same goes for his stories of his life and his nostalgia.

omg somebody's gotta imagebomb this dude and his ridiculous opinions

Article on Lefsetz in the Washington Post

The fact that he is "one of the music industry's most influential analysts" speaks volumes. If you pretend you're reading an Onion editorial his pieces are entertaining though.

When I worked at Rhino, I'd hear stories about Bob's refusals to edit his histrionic rants. Consequently, most 'casts were 90 percent wall-bouncing froth over Spirit's Dr. Sardonicus and tear-soaked Aspen weekends in '75 when MUSIC and LOVE were REAL and YOUNG, 10 percent contributions from actual Rhino employees.

He's like Lsetz, the Dean of Music Analysis.

Oh not that guy again. There was also this interesting take on Feist.

ugh.

he reminds me of ben gazzara as jackie treehorn: "we used to have a little thing called production values... FEELINGS..."

That and the Onion editorial comment both made me roffle.

howard_beale.jpg

I kinda like reading his rants as SubGenius devival art but the guy can't be bothered to put the full text of his posts in his RSS feed so screw it.

LOL at his anti-Ticketmaster rant. Welcome to 1994 Bob!

oh man is he ever happy about the new Tom Petty

Mudcrutch vs. Tin Machine

I'm officially starting the trend of calling them The Crutch.

dudes don't harsh The Crutch

dude, The Crutch killed it last nite at the cow palace

Pure seventies. Pure magic.

dude the crutch don't know any other way to rock.

Pure seventies. Pure magic.

this was totally my favorite line

Kind of sums it all up, doesn't it?

White Room

by Bob Lefsetz

The sixties were different. They were light, and dark, and nothing in between. Today we live in the gray. In the onslaught of media, nothing sticks out, nothing is in relief, we're all hiding in our bunkers, trying to figure it all out. But, in the sixties, we ventured out, we wanted to experience IT ALL!

In the sixties there was context. It wasn't like today, where without a major hype campaign nobody knows the story. We only had three TV networks. "Rolling Stone" didn't come on the scene until the end of the decade. There were limited media outlets, and we paid attention. The big breakthrough was FM underground radio, and you were lucky if you had an outlet in your community, where you could hear Cream.

Cream was something you heard about from your friends. You went over to somebody's house and they played you "Sunshine Of Your Love". Pete Townshend eventually sang about one note, pure and easy, playing so free, but really it was one RIFF that people lined up behind. And that riff, the one that got it all started, was the one from "Sunshine Of Your Love".

Listen to "Sunshine Of Your Love" today, you'll be STUNNED how little is on the record. God, it sounds like there were NO overdubs, just a power trio laying it down. Still, it wasn't just the notes Clapton was playing, it was the SOUND of those notes. There was a RICHNESS in this hard rock, a SWEETNESS! This wasn't music for boys only, this was music for EVERYBODY with genitals. It had such a weird effect on you, hearing this sound, you felt it in different parts of your body, your brain, your lower abdomen and your groin. Right after the set-up, after the richness, there's this bit of distortion in the guitar, you feel like you're in it for the long haul, to climax, four minutes hence.

Hearing "Sunshine Of Your Love" you had to buy "Disraeli Gears". And that's when you discovered it, the essence, opening side two.

Today the label picks the track, and what's left of radio takes instruction, it's all a CAMPAIGN, which you're AWARE OF! But listening to FM back then was like listening to XM today. Your relationship is with the DEEJAY! Not his voice, not his inane rap like on Sirius, but his CHOICES! That's why we love people, because of who they ARE! And when you heard "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" on the radio your life was made, the same way when Mike Marrone plays some obscure cut that only I thought I knew it makes my day.

One can argue quite strongly the first Cream album is the best. The sound isn't as good as "Disraeli Gears", but overall the songs are BETTER!

But after "Disraeli Gears", the songs got worse. Except for the unexpected "Badge", NOTHING was the caliber of what came before. Still, there was a huge hit on "Wheels Of Fire", a simple song, but one with a monster riff so exquisite that we were touched once again. It was just the SOUND of Clapton's guitar, it sounded like he was WEEPING! But then Ginger hit the drum, and Jack sang richly. Yes, as great as Clapton was, Jack's vocals were a key element of the band.

The dude who made available the MP3s of the Royal Albert Hall show left three out, the last three numbers of the concert. He hopped to, posted them on the site, and I just downloaded them, and heard "White Room".

I don't understand flying around the world to see a band. That's not what rock and roll is about. Rock and roll is about scraping up every dollar you've got, eating the equivalent of dog food just so you can AFFORD to go to the gig. The gig isn't an afterthought, ONE thing you can acquire, experience, but the ONLY thing!

While we were experiencing flower power in the U.S., the Brits were experiencing rain. The music from across the pond was different from ours. It wasn't sunny, it was dark. Made in the U.K., it was America's dark underbelly. It coexisted with Monkees hits. It was necessary, for balance.

Flying across the pond forty years later has NO darkness. Unless you saved up every last dollar you had and slept on the street in order to go.

And, going was SO much different then. You went ALL THE TIME! Because the tickets were CHEAP! Under five bucks. The concert experience wasn't about preferred parking and alcohol, it was about the MUSIC!

And that music can be heard in Cream's rendition of "White Room" on May 5th.

Eric gets that unique guitar sound. But really, it's Ginger's drums. You can hear the FEROCITY!

And then, on top of it all, in comes Jack.

Oh, he's singing along, all those words you remember. And then you hear it...

"I'll wait in this place where the sun never shines Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves"

I'm waiting for this place to return. Where business trumps art. Where creativity is revered over music. Where the messiah returns.

Religious zealots think the messiah is going to come from heaven. Down to save us.

But I don't believe that. I don't believe in a higher power. I believe in people. Their ability to triumph, do the right thing, against incredible odds.

Here, just before the show is over, almost two hours into it, having deliv ered upon expectations, Cream FINALLY throws off the limitations and just RIPS! THIS is music-making. When you're no longer going by the rehearsal, when you're just WINGING IT! When you stop concentrating on being together, do your own thing and it all FALLS INTO PLACE!

And a little over halfway through the number, Eric finally takes center stage, he finally WAILS! Not in the way he has for the past thirty years, but the way he did with John Mayall, as a SIDEMAN! In the tradition of great bluesmen, he's taking his LICKS! He's just part of the club.

And all these years later, it's still a championship team.

How many of his letters start out with something about the sixties or the classic era being "different"?

Lefzetz meets Pitchfork, world implodes.

this guy's paragraph breaks are so psychotic.

someone needs to get the Pitchfork Reviews Reviews guy and Bob Lefsetz together

Have you heard of the Weeknd?

is this revive actually from 2011

Psychotic Paragraph Breaks would be a good name for a genre.

I still read his column all the time. Setting aside his stylistic tendencies towards a hranguing tone, I like his open, straightforward style, his siding with a certain kind of artist who doesn't particularly want to be a publicity hound, and his fairly enlightened and, these days, quite rare advice about the importance of concentrating on developing your craft over a long period of time. It's a tonic to all those 'Zap Pow Future Music Biz 2.0 Ideas Machine' type blogs. Also: how often do you get this forward looking, optimistic, rallying kind of pep talk from an avowed baby boomer? He recently he even got turned on to Deadmau5, which was a delightful thing to behold. So my view of him is that he's a character, and not without a certain uncanny capacity to hit on the important things to do with art and the creative process that get lost in the wake of internetty and publicity oriented stuff.

thing is even when he talks and talks about ART and CREATIVITY he still sounds like a suit who knows to pay lip service to those values as opposed to a serious music buff. also this is his idea of insight in October 2011:

Throw out all your twentieth century thinking.

There’s more ways to make money in music than selling discs.

But the old players can’t see this.

So they’re going to be left behind.

and his next line is

Ian Rogers never worked at a major label.

not at a label, but he he worked for a major label act for the first five years of his career, worked with major labels at Yahoo, and works with major label acts now. not to denigrate the dude's genuine forward-thinking in any way, but Lefsetz' point is offset by Rogers' cashflow having pretty much always originated at majors, no?

i always imagine this guy as looking like the monopoly guy, except dressed as a parrothead.

even when he has the occasional point there's not much sadder than people whose central motivation is making sure you know that whatever the kids believe, that's what they believe too

The 10,000 Hour Rule"
In Hamburg, we had to play for eight hours

He is so obsessed with this point from Gladwell's Outliers book regarding what you have to do to be good at something

does malcolm gladwell have a use besides blowing the minds of first year business majors?

You can turn him upside down and scrub out your toilet.

does malcolm gladwell have a use besides blowing the minds of first year business majors?

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown

You might be right, but he still writes for the New Yorker so more folks than just college kids quote him. A parent of a kid on my son's high school baseball team is frequently quoting him to me.

x-post-- yep that hair of Gladwell's is something

Lefsetz on films —

There have been reams of pages utilizing "One Battle After Another" as an illustration of a failure of the audience, that people just won't come out to see a great movie. Having now watched it on HBO...

I was hipped by Harold that it was a disappointment. He went to see it in the theatre. Something I choose not to do. Not only do I find the experience passé, how do you expect me to sit for two hours and forty two minutes without getting up to pee? If you want to make a series, do so, but don't give us these lengthy, extended films that are a chore to watch in one sitting.

The cinematography was rich. But I watched it on an iPad and I didn’t feel that I was missing anything.

that one belongs in the lefsetz hall of fame

ICE!

It’s very simple. It’s Grammy weekend, just like with “We Are the World” forty years ago, we’ve got to get all the nominees, the presenters, the stars of today, peopled with a few from yesteryear, into a studio to sing a song and… If someone can write an instant hit, great. But if not, we get everybody on a soundstage and they sing Edwin Starr’s “War,” with new lyrics.

“ICE

What is it good for?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!”

This song is such a slam dunk that Bruce has already covered it! It was an anti-Vietnam anthem. Just change the lyrics and…

Terrified that I sound like that when I have ideas

Got 3/4 of the way through his new podcast before realising he was talking to the guitarist from Goose not Geese...

Lef still hasn't realized...

It's very simple.

It was an anti-Vietnam anthem.

always wondered what that song was about

I thought it was about war?

actually it's a song about nothing

didn't realize bob leftsetz was a phonk head pic.twitter.com/cRwxYnKZn5

— jaime brooks (@elite_gz) March 9, 2026

REO Speedwagon guy Kevin wrote in to agree with Lef on something

Michael Jackson is the new Marilyn Monroe. However with far superior talent and creative track record. Marilyn was never taken seriously as an actress until "The Misfits." Sure, her scene in "The Seven Year Itch" became iconic in a prudish era, but it didn't require much in the way of acting.

But Monroe was troubled. With multiple marriages that did not seem to square, like with Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley and his dermatologist's assistant, Debbie Rowe.

And both employed plastic surgery to alter their appearance.

And both were notoriously exotic and troubled, people that were human, but that we couldn't quite relate to, they were iconic.

I mean Marilyn Monroe was a presence, but she didn't become a legend until she passed prematurely, of an overdose, before the drug scourge hit the middle class suburbs. Jackson died too soon too, and his death was so bizarre...getting propofol to sleep?

So what exactly was the story with these two people.

It's not exactly clear.

And since they're gone, we can't talk to them, we can't excavate the truth, we're left with questions.

Lefsetz piece keeps going and I haven't read more (yet!)

Was Jackson's death really that bizarre?

So what exactly was the story with these two people.

It's not exactly clear.

this is really next level even for Bob

amazing recreation of the "compare and contrast two historical figures" high school essay assignment

Im summary, Michael Jackson is a land of contrasts

https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2026/04/28/the-michael-jackson-biopic/

for those who want to read his whole Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe compare and contrast

Oy veh. From his latest-

So a few days back I saw the "30 Greatest Living American Songwriters" article in the "New York Times" app. I wasn't expecting much, then again, it is the "New York Times." The same "Times" that is bending over backwards to be pro-Palestinian, even though its majordomo is Jewish. And the anti-tech spin, the denigration of social media, the playing to its educated, upper middle class audience drives me wild. It's self-reinforcing delusion.

And when it comes to music...

I know some of these writers, one especially, is a self-satisfied overeducated hip-hop fan. Funny how it's the white men who are all in on hip-hop, busy analyzing it and boosting it in a way that those in the culture, those who make it, do not. Are they drawn to the edgy danger, that is so far from their roots, that they would never truly get close to? I don't know, but I expected to see a number of hip-hop writers. Then again, when I think of songwriters... Lyrics are important, but if you're sampling or someone else is creating the beats are you truly a songwriter? I mean you're a lyricists...but I don't want to get too deep into the weeds here.

But this is the "New York Times."

hard to believe that lefsetz is getting even worse

lol I read that whole column, it's loaded with lefsetz classics & can't maintain focus for longer than three sentences

I wonder who the self satisfied over educated hip hop fan is.

JCLC has done an evil thing by tempting me to look at Bob’s latest and oh god. does he think that randomly dropping a classic lefsetzism is a way to join paragraphs between takes on disparate topics, or does his brain just pop one of those out and he forgets what he was talking about?

also amazing that he is ostensibly commenting on the nytimes list and the article asking why Randy Newman was not on it, but then proceeds to avoid commenting on the list himself other than saying they picked the wrong Paul Simon songs

About six weeks ago my shrink asked me about a piece I wrote that resonated with my audience, that he himself had read. He asked me what made it different. I thought about it for a while and then I said it was WARM!

his shrink either has the easiest or worst job on the planet. maybe both!

or does his brain just pop one of those out and he forgets what he was talking about?

Now what you’ve got to know about Lefsetz is the hoi palloi hasn’t had that spirit since 1969, nuff said. Like Dylan said, if you’re not busy living, you’re busy dying, but that means nada now. Nuff said.

Yoko? People forget that they had some jams on that album with the nudity. Was nudity ever that shocking?

“Buying Gas” is his “Drums>Space.”

the conceit that he thinks the music list was done dirty because it was all time and not all-time songwriters because they did a 2000+ movie list (which missed all the greats!) is funny. i’m obviously a strong proponent of the idea that any list is beholden to the time, place, and people creating the list, but the entire idea of canon wrecked his mind

he can’t bring himself to address that in the context of this being 2026 and the editorial voice is the nytimes other than to pivot and imply they’re all rabid anti-zionists (they are not)

Widow’s Bay

Did you watch this fakokta show?

I have a policy. If Felice wants to watch something, I will give it a shot, assuming the show has high Rotten Tomatoes ratings and is fully available.

So why am I bothering to piss on Clive Davis, especially upon his death?

BECAUSE HE WAS THE ANTITHESIS OF EVERYTHING I LOVE ABOUT THE MUSIC AND THIS BUSINESS!

But are any of Clive’s acts playing the Sphere?

Thesis, Antithesis, Clive Davis: the Lefsetzian dialectic