who is Bob Lefsetz?

i saw this one recently and i was just awestruck by how dumb this guy is

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/05/10/are-foodies-quietly-killing-rock-and-roll/

― jay-z's ansari (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:54 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

late to this one, but

There are no restaurant business schools that I’m aware of.

that is probably because you are as dumb as a bag of rocks, bob.

Going to the show is expensive. But food has gone downmarket. You can eat gourmet at a food truck for under ten bucks. Try seeing a music star live for that price.

I guess 'star' is the operative word in there but ... lol.

There is eating at a food truck and then there is going to Le Bernardin. There is going to a dive bar and then there is going to a big stadium show.

oh man that whole thing is amazing.

In other words, as Bob Dylan sang, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” Quote me some lyrics from today’s artists.

Point proven.

The LEF is tweeting from Ibiza!!!!

Bob Lefsetz ‏@Lefsetz 24 May

Listening to Sven Vath. Great insight and honesty. English not his first language, but he expresses better than most Americans. #imsibiza

There's nothing that I love more than a fat old 60 something dude from LA regurgitating the same hackneyed wonder about Ibiza that my fucked up student friends did 20 years ago.
Talk about being on the ball...

Sven Vath! Richie Hawtin! All night parties! The Beach! E!

friends with Angelina Jolie!!!!!!!

http://www.examiner.com/article/angelina-jolie-former-bodyguard-claims-she-has-an-imaginary-friend-named-lefsetz?cid=taboola_inbound

did I never drop my Lefsetz is Vizzini science itt?

― Fred by Durst (The Reverend), Thursday, May 2, 2013 11:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

?

― jay-z's ansari (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, May 3, 2013 6:42 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

please do

― curmudgeon, Friday, May 3, 2013 7:05 AM Bookmark

Vizzini from The Princess Bride! He looks like Vizzini and you can read all of his posts in #vizzinivoice and they work perfectly.

lol

"At first, Lefsetz was a dog, then turned into a cat, then into an elephant, then an alien, and now is a full-blooded imaginary human."

Bob Lefsetz came to Minneapolis!!! I didn't see him...but he came here...and learned....something.....about....something i guess.

Minneapolis

It’s cold here!

I could feel it in the gap between the jetway and the plane, the blast of not quite frigid air that told me I was not in California anymore.

What’s interesting about the new connected world is that you can live anywhere. Once upon a time, if you weren’t in L.A. or New York you were off the grid. The outskirts were a good place to raise children, but chances were you were never going to be anything more than a big fish in a small pond.

But those days are history. The Internet works everywhere. As does cable TV. You can be hip anywhere. As well as completely out of it in the metropolis. With the onslaught of information chances are some kid in his basement in the midwest is much more savvy than you are on the coast. Which is why Spotify can be started in Stockholm, where the broadband speeds dwarfed those in the United States. That’s what we all desire these days, a fast connection. That’s why you must upgrade from your iPhone 4 or 4s to a 5, for the LTE. It’s like surfing at home. Well, a U.S. home.

And there are rich people everywhere. We’re driving along the banks of the Mississippi (I know how to spell it because of the song!) and on the St. Paul side are manses so big and beautiful, that you contemplate moving.

Not that Minneapolis was ever backward. It was always hip.

But always cold.

But the one thing they don’t tell you is that just as cold as it is in the winter, that’s how hot it is in the summer!

And since the advent of global warming, it’s not as cold as it used to be, but everything’s relative.

And where did I learn about Minnesota?

College! Going to school with Dodd Cosgrove, whose father ran Jolly Green Giant, and the kids from Wayzata, they taught me how to pronounce it!

And “The Heartbreak Kid.” Forget the remake, the initial Charles Grodin flick is incredible. The final scene is priceless, when he’s in Minnesota, giving his spiel to the blue bloods, this Jewish sporting goods retailer… But the highlight is the beach scene, where Grodin lays his towel down amidst endless sand and suddenly feels a shadow… And he looks up and it’s Cybill Shepherd saying “You’re lying in my spot!” That’s what all males are looking for, a female to say we’re lying in their spot. For all the machismo, most men are weak. If you’re waiting for the man to move first, you’re gonna wait a very long time, if not forever. Want a date with a guy? CALL HIM!

Or text him or e-mail him or…

Wendy, that’s my sister, is a Facebook addict. I asked how the population was over there. She said in the last year so many have dropped out. I’m about done with Twitter, because I post and get no reaction, it’s too frustrating. As for Facebook, I only play with a fake name, looking up those I used to know.

And the colors! We don’t get them in Los Angeles. Even Colorado is not the same thing. But Minneapolis is like the east coast, and I’ve hit it perfectly, at its peak, when the trees are blazing and the leaves are still on.

And we’re driving across the bridge and Wendy laments that winter is coming. How does she know? The clouds! They’re flat, not puffy. The long tunnel is beginning.

And we drove under the new Guthrie, with its cantilever over the roadway.

And we saw the bridge that fell… In a cannot do nation, it was inspiring to see the replacement. It’s lit up at night. Thoroughfare as celebration. And there’s a memorial to the fallen. I got out and looked at the blue columns, with a short bio for each of the deceased.

And I know David Byrne is railing about the Internet. And Thom Yorke has doubled down on his hatred of Spotify. And track sales are dropping, because of YouTube streaming, if nothing else. And once upon a time we bought records, then tapes, then CDs, then MP3s and now…everything is available at our fingertips. It used to be important to get an iPhone, now a Samsung Galaxy is good enough. The tech comes and goes.

But the people, the culture, the society, remain.

They know that in Minneapolis.

man that's really something

it really is something that you wrote there, bob

we know that in minneapolis

we do

That’s what all males are looking for, a female to say we’re lying in their spot.

The fall foliage does look really good right now, I think cuz we had a dry summer? Is that how it works?

Internet seems to still be working as well.

this literally might be the most incoherent thing i've ever read

I’m about done with Twitter

just a guy thinking bout minneapolis...

I can't believe he didn't mention Prince, who is apparently an artist of some note from this area who doesn't get a lot of press

ever heard the replacements man? they wrote songs from the heart...songs about regular guys down and out in a dive bar, scrappin it out in the midwest, not about fancy parties with supermodels in los angeles

if you haven't i recommend you start with "Gary Got a Boner"

did Dodd Cosgrove play keys in Lipps Inc or do i have that wrong

from his wiki - good poll potential:

In 2007, Lefsetz and Kid Rock engaged in an email feud but have since reconciled. [5][6][7]

In 2009, Lefsetz and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons exchanged insults via e-mail and in person at the Canadian Music Week conference, and they debated officially at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.[8] [9]

In 2010, Taylor Swift wrote the song Mean, reputedly in response to Lefsetz's accusation after her 2010 Grammy performance that she uses Auto-Tune. [10]

In 2013, Lesfetz visited Minneapolis.

In 2014, Lefsetz became done with Twitter (projected).

so how DO you pronounce Wayzata?

In 2028, Lefstez stood on a street corner yelling that President-Elect Swift once wrote a song about him (projected).

no wonder the record industry loves lefsetz if he keeps getting into fights with artists that are exceptionally good at playing the record industry

he stands for all the davids who dare to face the royalty-seeking goliaths

sleeve: why-ZET-uh

excellent school district!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Giant

i wonder if lefsetz has heard this?

In 1963, a 7" 33rp lp record,"When Pea Pickers get together" was released. Side 1 was a medley of popular country songs, while side 2 was the story of how Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Jolly Green Giant collaborated on writing his signature TV song, narrated and sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford. The jacket for the record gives the official "biography" of the Jolly Green Giant.

i worked at a green giant canning factory one summer

Wayzata Ryder

1953, Connecticut April 22, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born
2007, Lefsetz, at the age of 50-something, begins blogging
In 2007, Lefsetz and Kid Rock engage in an email feud but reconcile
In 2009, Lefsetz and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons exchange insults via e-mail and in person at the Canadian Music Week conference, and they debate officially at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
In 2010, Taylor Swift wrote the song Mean, reputedly in response to Lefsetz's accusation after her 2010 Grammy performance that she uses Auto-Tune.
1985, Austrian rock singer Falco records ... Rock Me Amadeus!

Ha, I fucked that up, but probably because I amused myself so much while I was putting it together. Salieri version!

Sadness.

You don't hear it in hip-hop.

You don' hear it in Katy Perry's music, wherein she's roaring about girl power.

That makes me sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stgrSjynPKs

"Shift Chris Barron or girls break units, sell-by date."-BobBot

x-post re sadness, I left out a line

And I will say at points in this video Miley Cyrus is oversinging, but there's a subtle element, a quality of that summertime sadness.

Sadness.

You don't hear it in hip-hop.

have we talked about this twitter? i'm a big fan: https://twitter.com/fakeboblefsetz

FOLLOWED

fake account is amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWR01JcSIGI

The Lef is just riffin' here, gang.

http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/katy-perrys-prism-a-good-example-of-how-albums-dont-work-anymore-1200824933/

i clicked on this article without knowing it was by lefsetz and got halfway through it before i was like 'this is horseshit, it sounds like lefsetz' and looked at the byline

Lol first sentence he says in that q&a "I don't believe in self-promotion."

the part where he's telling a story about "hanging with" the former head of mtv and having a bangladeshi-taxi-style revelation that people don't listen to the radio anymore, and he suddenly pauses to say "you done with your call?" to an insufficiently respectful conferencegoer, is top-tier lefsetz

i'll give an example. irving azoff again. let's go back ten years. steve jobs wants the eagles. UP HIS BUTT UNBELIEVABLY, ok? i buy a computer, i got a problem with it, i call irving. "get ahold of steve," ok? and he says, i can't get him on the phone since i made the eagles deal. that's the way it works.

lefsetz waxes rhapsodic on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees - Lefsetz in extremis, a document to be parsed by future generations

Hallelujah, they finally get it right.

I’m not saying Yes doesn’t belong inside, and Deep Purple for the riff to “Smoke On The Water” alone, but it’s been years since there was no controversy and everyone agreed.

Except for maybe Kiss.

But the point is there’s no hip-hop, no jazz, no Madonna, no questionables like Patti Smith, everyone is deserving and it’s about time.

NIRVANA

No questions asked. An automatic.

Let this be a lesson to the industry, that we should focus on individuals as opposed to money and commitments. If so, Kurt Cobain would be alive today.

Just try going on the road. Playing to an adoring throng and then getting in the bus with the same dudes you’ve known since high school, trying to come down to do it all over again. It takes drugs. And if you’re doing drugs it’s just a matter of time until you die.

Kurt was pushed too hard. And felt so alone. That’s the conundrum of stardom, oftentimes you’re the only one left inside, the world spins around you and you’re frequently oblivious.

I know nothing about his death you don’t, but I will say this guy had an ability to fuse melody and punk in a way that the public just could not resist. Add in the ability to emote with his voice and you have possibly the last rock superstar.

Not that Krist and Dave didn’t help. But there are only a few true superstars, and Kurt Cobain was one of them.

Come as you are. Please. Don’t dress up. Don’t make a deal with a fashion house. Don’t do endorsements. Keep it punk.

That’s why we believed in Nirvana. Because Kurt believed in rock and roll. Too bad he won’t be at the induction ceremony.

CAT STEVENS

And where do the children play?

He wrote “The First Cut Is The Deepest” before anybody knew who he was.

Ditto “Trouble,” featured in the classic “Harold and Maude.”

And if you didn’t play “Tea For The Tillerman” incessantly, you weren’t alive. Back when rock was a state of mind more than a sound. Yes, Cat Stevens was truly rock and roll.

As for becoming a Muslim… Story is he committed himself to God after nearly drowning. Near-death experiences will change you. And at least he’s still alive.

The albums got worse as time went on. But there were so many hits, such a sound, that this guy would be successful in any era.

He might not have found that “Hard Headed Woman,” but we were enraptured by his search.

The hit was “Wild World,” but “Sad Lisa” was so seventies, so great, when you didn’t have to boast and play to the last row, but could be intimate, to the point where we were all leaning in.

But my favorite track on “Tea For The Tillerman” is the closer, the title cut, only a bit longer than a minute, you had no choice but to drop the needle on the LP and listen to it again.

PETER GABRIEL

The road less taken.

He quit Genesis just when the band was getting traction.

And the third solo album is the best, with “Biko,” but he’s never done anything you can shrug your shoulders at and say NEXT!

Too much talent, it’s too bad he’s not still making new, original music. But the problem is the audience is not ready for it. But Gabriel has got a hard core of fans possibly exceeding those of any other act on this list, in intensity if not numbers. Proving you can shoot high instead of dumbing it down.

Wanna tip? Listen to “Secret World Live,” one of the top ten live albums ever, one which no one seems to know about. Especially the extended versions of “Secret World” and “In Your Eyes.”

But it all comes down to “Solsbury Hill.”

I was feeling part of the scenery

Alienation. It’s the essence of rock and roll. If these people could fit in, play on the football team, date a cheerleader, we’d never have this exquisite greatness.

I walked right out of the machinery

That’s what we all did. We weren’t best friends with our parents, they were clueless, we were forging our own path.

My heart going boom, boom, boom

Do you feel alive? Too many are somnambulant. But the best music wakes us up.

Hey,’ he said ‘Grab your things
I’ve come to take you home’

Here we go! Pack up your old kit bag. We’re gonna go down the rabbit hole of rock and roll. To the Fillmore, to Woodstock, to the arena, to the stadium, not every once in a while, but all the time, because rock and roll was the most important thing in our lives, superior to our automobiles, more important than technology.

We’re going home.

Just put on the record and…LISTEN!

LINDA RONSTADT

Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream

The waiting truly is the hardest part. The fact that Linda Ronstadt wasn’t inducted upon initial eligibility is a travesty. That she had to get sick for these moribund men to vote her in… These same men who jerked off to her, who didn’t even need a picture, who could just close their eyes, because she was just that ubiquitous, everyone knew the cute style icon the men wanted to impress and the girls wanted to befriend. Linda Ronstadt was the seventies’ biggest female rock star. Hell, only Zeppelin and the Eagles were in her league. But men hate letting the women inside. Then again, Linda never begged. She snorted cocaine and screwed the desirable people just like the guys. Which is why she was always an insider and the idiots on this committee are not. Because musicians comprise a club, and the fans are not included, not the critics, only the writers, players and singers. They’re who we want to be. And inside the inner sanctum…it’s all jokes and references and life in a lane so fast only the strong survive.

If I were Linda Ronstadt I’d give the R&RHOF the middle finger and refuse to show up.

But she will.

And I know she won’t be conciliatory. I know she’ll tell it like it is. She’s not afraid to be three dimensional, to speak her truth, which is why she’s a star and you’re not.

HALL & OATES

You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
You can rely on the old man’s money
You can rely on the old man’s money
It’s a bitch girl, but it’s gone too far

To hear this sound emanating from the radio was…enough to make you drive immediately to buy the album, “Bigger Than Both Of Us,” which it truly was. Hall & Oates went from obscurity to superstardom. Even better, after falling all the way back down, even having to play clubs, they came all the way back, with the infectious “You Make My Dreams” and so much more…

It was the “Royals” of yesteryear. You only had to hear a few notes.

What I want you’ve got
Though it might be hard to handle

Yes, it was hard for the wannabes of the twenty first century to admit how much talent the band actually had, how good a voice Daryl Hall possessed. This isn’t yacht rock, unless the term represents something so good it rains down money to the point where you can buy one!

Hall & Oates are so good.

Come on, who had that many hits.

And now they’ve got this victory lap. This inclusion. Just when they’d given up on it.

Because the sound has been burgeoning, become deafening. Hell, who wouldn’t want to be invited to Daryl’s house?

KISS

Induct Bill Aucoin. Come on, if you’re including Brian Epstein and my buddy Andrew Loog Oldham, without whom there’d be no Beatles or Stones, Aucoin deserves to be in too, for without him there’d be no Kiss.

Which might be okay.

But still, even I will admit I liked “Rock And Roll All Nite.” It was a band for those who missed the sixties. And despite Gene Simmons being the number one blowhard in music, the guy with no sense of humor about himself, they had a string of hits.

My favorite?

LICK IT UP!

Don’t wanna wait ’til you know me better

This is the ESSENCE of Motley Crue, which played Kiss’s role in the MTV eighties. Come on, let’s throw off our inhibitions, take off our clothes in this pre-AIDs era and have some fun!

You gotta live like you’re on vacation

Before the baby boomers, life was boring. A sentence. But rock and roll said NO MAS! Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy. Except a ticket to the show. Where the amps are big and powerful and the songs are known by heart and you’re amongst your brethren and there’s nowhere you’d rather be.

So…LICK IT UP!

Come on. Life is short. Discover what you’re into, and go full bore, to the max. This is what all of the above inductees did. They didn’t play it safe, have a fall back position, they just went for greatness.

And we followed them.

P.S. The E Street Band. My only point is if we’re gonna induct them, how about the rest of the backup bands? This is b.s., evidence that the R&RHOF is east coast-centric, driven by Jann Wenner and Jon Landau and the holier than thou who think we’re listening.

We are not. You don’t have to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to mean something to people. You just have to reach deep down inside and throw your innermost feelings down on wax. Do it right, and it’s life itself.

That’s rock and roll.

Rock ain’t money… Unless you’re peeling off hundreds to pay hotel damages.

Rock ain’t awards… If you need a Grammy to justify your existence, you lead a sorry little life.

Rock is about ATTITUDE! And SOUND!

Are you willing to do it your way? Not worried about what anybody says? Whether it be Simon Cowell or Doug Morris or Dr. Luke? Are you willing to piss all over the powers-that-be, stand up and lead?

Then you’re ready to rock and roll.

And I’ve only got one message for you. Go straight down to Guitar Center, buy that Les Paul or Stratocaster, and plug it into that Marshall or Fender and TURN IT UP!

Drive your parents crazy.

It’s not about tattoos.

It’s not about clothing.

It’s about what’s inside!

It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.

But if you do…we wanna party with you all night and every day.

You show us everything you’ve got
You keep on dancing and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we’ll drive you crazy

Yes, there’s no rock and roll without an audience.

You keep on shouting, you keep on shouting

I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day

I certainly do. And so do you.

And there’s no better place to start than with the above inductees. If you’re not happy with these acts, if you don’t want to listen to their music, I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU!