who is Bob Lefsetz?

But I've got to warn you. There are SEA CUCUMBERS!

Oh, you wear reef shoes. But littered on the bottom of the ocean are these...well, CUCUMBERS! But they're alive. And squishy. And they urinate. And it's almost so gross you don't want to go in. You CERTAINLY don't want to step on one.

...

"Dvorak-style amalgam of ex-ATN writers taking the piss" is the FUNNIEST PHRASE I HAVE READ ALL DAY though i don't know why.

He also turns up on the Rhino podcast with hystronic tirades about The State Of Things and endless flashbacks to his life in the 70s when things were So Much Better. In short, he's one of the Ghost World record collectors only with an income.

You know what brings you back, again and again, to Bob Lefsetz? It's the PASSION. Oh, you can try to stay away. You can subscribe to a million other blogs. You can tell yourself that music's changed, or that you've changed, or that you don't understand anymore. But you know what? It's not that you've got older - it's that your generation has lost touch! They've SOLD OUT. And it's the KIDS on the INTERNET with thei iPods and their Blackberries who are reminding you why you got into this WHOLE CRAZY FUCKING BUSINESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. It's the MUSIC! Oh, you can tell yourself it isn't. BUT IT IS. And if you don't listen, you and every other exec LEECHING off the hindquarters of a MEMORY is going to BITE THE FUCKING DUST!

Heheh.
I unsubscribed offa the Lef'Letter again awhile ago.

Seriously though his blog is my fave industry read and has been for a while now.

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

Another thread on him. Also, Chuck mentioned and quoted a recent Lefsetz country music and Sirius radio thing on the Rolling Country thread.

His most recent column begins 'I was at the psychiatrist today...'. Magnificent. We are Lefsetz FANATICS at our house. Oh, you can laugh. But that's because you're HISTORY.

How about that T.I. diatribe...Is he right about touring rock bands having more sustained longevity than rappers or pop acts?

But I'll take T.I. over Rory Gallagher and many of the washed-up blooz-rockers and classic-rock dudes he loves.

Is he right about touring rock bands having more sustained longevity than rappers or pop acts?...YES

...he must have a lot of time on his hands and he reminds me of mixerman

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.

outfits, makeup, hard drives

The younger generation looks at music differently. They either like it and listen to it or they don't like it and don't listen to it.

lol

riveting stuff.

The kids are alright

ok that's all time classic Bob right there

"These cows are small, but those are far away."

"Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."

huh, I thought Bob was older but he's my parents' age

this guy would be a great guest for the adam friedland show

100%

Furthermore, “Anora” gets the strip club reality down pat. The customers are marks. The strippers feign interest for dollars. If you don’t know someone who was convinced that a stripper truly loved them, that they’d made a connection which would survive outside the club, you’ve never met a man who went to a strip club.

More detail than we could ever want about Lef's personal life.

skill issue

Part of Lef's email re Taylor Swift reacquiring her music

And if you think Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun are evil, not only do you not know the men, but you don't know business. Taylor could have bought her masters at multiple points along the way, BUT SHE DIDN'T WANT TO PAY FAIR MARKET VALUE FOR THEM!

I really don't want to make this about Swift. It's great that she owns her records. Everybody should. And I could go deep into an analysis of costs and royalties and the way the labels screw you, but...

How could this guy Rob Sheffield drink the kool-aid? I won't say he got it wrong so much as he's caught up in the hysteria, believing there is meaning here when there is very little. Everything is negotiable and everything is for sale. Period. It's just a matter of the number.

But the same people reading Sheffield's article are the same people raging against Live Nation about ticket prices, when the reason they're high is because of market demand, and the prices are set by the acts!

But the acts can't be guilty.

And neither can Taylor Swift.

It's considered to be black and white, when almost always it's chiaroscuro.

Sans Scott Borchetta the odds of Taylor Swift having made it are slim to none. Borchetta is an ace promotion person who was committed nearly full time to breaking Swift. Acts don't become worldwide phenomena without help. Of course at the core there's Taylor's talent (along with Liz Rose's and Max Martin's and other players/creators), but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

A brilliant Scott Borchetta FROM A BETTER VANISHED TIME!

EXACTLY!

showing his hand defending live nation in the middle of his little rant

He loves bringing up his take and showing his hand on ticket prices and never acknowledges any truth to any criticism of it. He always defends Live Nation and Spotify. He always blames the the music acts for high ticket prices, and he never shows sympathy for music acts in dealing with Spotify.

i could forgive him for a lot of the other shit, but yeah, that's irredeemable

also dying at "this guy Rob Sheffield"

oh, you mean the guy who has writing about and appearing on tv to talk about music for decades?

this is the guy who said that "most people haven't heard of" rihanna

If you mean out of everyone who has ever lived he might be right

also dying at "this guy Rob Sheffield"

also found that hysterical especially following this

And if you think Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun are evil, not only do you not know the men

i actually did know scooter braun growing up and i can reassure anyone wondering, in so far as it's accurate to describe people that way, he is in fact evil

Wait, had you revealed this fact before? (Not that you had to but suddenly I'm all 'okay this is new!')

probably not. ama. we went to summer camp together, he was a major tool. also he went by scott, scooter is a brand-building affectation

Bob's implication he knows these men is pretty funny. are they replying to his newsletter and gassing him up when he talks shit about Taylor Swift? that's not something a good guy would do

He's hung out with them in the VIP section of LA House of Blues, and they both told him he was the most VI of the P's there for the secret Don Henley concert.

checks out

>showing his hand defending live nation in the middle of his little rant

Bro has an undying love for Irving Azoff.

D'Angelo displays intellectual faculties

Doubtless he says he’s articulate too.

Intellectual faculties are pro-Hamas I hear

Lefsetz on band Lord Huron's song "Bag of Bones"

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59wcc2Ml-yk

It's hypnotic.

You know it when you hear it, this track stuck out in Jeff Pollack's weekly pick of five. Nothing else resonated, but this did.

Not that I was in a good mood. Usually that determines whether you're receptive to new music, you have to be open to it, and that usually requires you to be settled and reflective, ready to slow down and spend some time in our fast-paced world where you slide through TikTok videos.

So what level do we want to analyze "Bag of Bones" on? The vocal, the instrumentation, the changes?

I'll throw all that out, that's being too professional, that's not how the audience listens to a record, for them it's a question of whether it resonates, how it makes them feel, and if they like it they'll play it again and again until it reveals itself further, deciphering a line here and there until it all makes sense.

Or it does not.

Now if you click on the YouTube edition of "Bag of Bones" you can turn on closed captioning and read the lyrics and...

One thing is for sure, this is not the words of the Spotify Top 50, there's no element of self-congratulation, domination, the singer is not a world-beater, anything but. This is alienation, this is rock and roll.

A sound that was ultimately eviscerated by MTV. Mood and feel didn't work well there. Maybe Nine Inch Nails' "Closer," but the video was innovative and the sound was new and... Setting your mind free, adrift, that does not square with video, it's the antithesis of today's fast-paced world, it's the other.

You want a respite from the freeway of life. You want to take the off-ramp into the wilderness and slow down and contemplate today's existence, where there's too much news and everybody's out for themselves and compassion is dead and...

That's modern life.

What's a poor boy to do?

LISTEN TO A RECORD!

Actually, the younger generations are all about creation, and I applaud that, but it's quite different from listening, being passive. And that's the essence of music...it's coming out of the speakers into your ears, it's personal, how does it make you feel?

In truth, although somewhat striking, the video does a disservice to "Bag of Bones." The track works better without images. But you need a video today as part of your promotional attack, but one thing is for sure, this is not the eighties, this video was made on the cheap, it was more about conception than seeing money spent on the screen.

Now Lord Huron's been at it for over a decade. Even the rock bands of yore didn't take this long to break. Then again, what is the status of Lord Huron? They're certainly not a household name, but clicking through their site I can see they do great business in the sheds and they are playing Madison Square Garden, although there are plenty of seats still available, but not on the floor, up close.

So what is the experience you're going to have at the show?

Maybe this is the kind of show you get stoned for. It's not about dancing and shooting selfies, but letting the music wash over you.

But this is not Phish, this is not a jam band, "Bag of Bones" is closer to "Rooster" than "You Enjoy Myself." You don't need to be a fan of the band, be deeply invested in the band's history to enjoy "Bag of Bones."

I don't want to overstate the case. "Bag of Bones" is not "Rooster." But both exist in their own space, you invest yourself in them or...you don't.

It's no longer a zero sum game. You're no longer on MTV or not, you're no longer on the radio or not, you can survive quite nicely if you're not in the Spotify Top 50.

Is being a musician enough, or are you in it for the trappings?

There are not trappings for most. Maybe some dope and sex, but you're not going to be featured on TMZ unless maybe you die.

"Bag of Bones" is in a long tradition of rock that began with FM radio in the late sixties. Chart statistics were not primary, there might be a guy chomping a cigar somewhere, but he couldn't tell the band what to do creatively, no way, and the act had a clear line separating what was right from what was wrong, what they'd do and what they wouldn't.

Maybe that's overstating the case with Lord Huron, but...

My inbox will be filled with people telling me "Bag of Bones" is sh*t. People will be vicious. But the joke will be on them, you're wasting time hating on something? Why waste all that energy...no one has to listen to anything they don't want to anymore, you've got yours and I've got mine.

So "Bag of Bones" gives a glimpse of what once was. Makes me believe in rock and roll, because once again it's the antithesis of what is being hyped today. This isn't the only kind of music I like to listen to, but I've got a wide spot in my heart for it, this fills a niche, exercises a muscle, activates a part of me that had been dormant, and it feels so good, not in an exuberant way, but an interior way. You get what I mean?

Every time someone bumps this thread I am reminded that I have forgotten that this guy exists, and then I click on the thread, and then I wonder why I did that.

The POWER of the LEF!

That sure was writing

I have an acquaintance that for awhile--like ten or so years ago--used to follow Lord Huron around on tour.

i'm more upset learning about this horrible band than anything the Lef wrote

Every time someone bumps this thread I am reminded that I have forgotten that this guy exists, and then I click on the thread, and then I wonder why I did that.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 9:11 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I am mesmerized by his complete and total inability to distinguish between the slightest emotional whims or impulses that pass through his brain, and grand important pronouncements about the state of the world/the music industry/human nature.

I really loved the movie Grizzly Man, and generally love character studies of people who are so deep into their own reality that they have no conception of how far afield it is from the realities of other people, or, uh, actual objective reality. I think following this thread hits those particular pleasure centers of my brain.

eagles man: the lefsetz story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4-e4nlfdRI
(iykyk)

Wow, that's about as dad as rock gets.

that Eagleman ad just totally warped my brain, many thanks

I'm loath to tell people about Libby, the same way I'm loath to tell them the models of coffee yogurt I eat. Twice I've said what kind of coffee yogurt I prefer and then found it unavailable at my local market while my inbox was filled with testimonials from readers on how much they loved this brand and flavor.

The coffee achievers

i'm loath to tell people about [your local library]

the models of coffee yogurt I eat

The Dannon coffee yogurt is obviously the ideal, and it's already impossible to find anywhere near me *shrug*

Lefsetz is always defending Spotify, as if he was an executive there, even when their stock price goes down. He also loves to take shots at musicians especially ones who criticize Spotify..

If you read the music business press yesterday's Spotify numbers are a step in the wrong direction, if not a veritable disaster, a wake-up call. But if you read the business press...

"Spotify’s Crown Lies Heavy, but It’s Still the Streaming King - Latest results trip up expensive stock, but the company still has growth opportunities to tap"

Here are the money quotes:

"The Swedish company is on top of the streaming world, with 696 million monthly active users at the end of the second quarter, compared with 310.5 million people subscribing to Netflix’s various tiers of service."

And:

"The same survey highlighted Spotify’s stickiness, with the lowest percentage of customers saying a $1-a-month price hike would compel them to cancel their subscriptions."

Spotify won the war, it's only disgruntled musicians and their poorly informed fans who don't acknowledge this.

The labels LOVE Spotify. It's their number one account...

Lef hoarding the gulp-on-the-run coffee GoGurt sleeves