Proving that Bob Lefsetz was dead wrong, Taylor Swift wowed the Grammy audience and this viewer with spot-on sassy singing, banjo strumming, and choreography on Mean. She’s just so darn good at her performance and good looking to boot.
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Bob Dylan performing at Grammy Awards 2011
UPDATED – When I read the news Bob Dylan was performing at the 2011 Grammy Awards, I winced.
Dylan has never acquitted himself well at these award shows, except when he tapes ahead of time. Continue reading
Pomplamoose capture Christmas for Hyundai
By Bob Lefsetz,
Felice wants an Equus.
We’re sitting around the table at dinner, shooting the shit, and Stephen starts complaining that his Smart Car is just too anemic, he puts the pedal to the metal and nothing happens for seconds, he’s got to buy something new. Therein, the great L.A. car debate is engendered.
Felice drives a Lexus GS300. A 2002. You could drive that car forever, but she’s beginning to become annoyed by the rattles. And you can’t buy a new Lexus.
BECAUSE TOYOTA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT PEOPLE!
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Allie Willis and Pomplamoose recording Jungle Animals
When Bob Lefsetz was extolling the virtues of Pomplamoose recently, he dissed their collaborator Allee Willis as “You know Allee, the eccentric who writes hit tunes. Does anybody need a hit tune anymore?”
Allee Willis more than eccentric. She is one of the original innovators of music on the internet and a very creative multi-discipline artist. Songwriter Bruce Roberts jumped to Allie’s defense. Lefsetz posted his comment as well.
“I read your Pomplamoose with Allee Willis piece and think that you’ve mischaracterized Willis’ role by just portraying her as an old-school pop songwriter who came into write with the Internet savvy Pomplamoose. Or worse yet “an eccentric who writes hit tunes” and you wonder what would happen if they brought Diane Warren in.”
“Willis was absolutely the first, no exaggeration here, THE FIRST, pop artist to preach the collapse of the record industry because of the impact of the Internet as early as 1991. She was the first to think about and experiment with music as a social and interactive art form.” Continue reading
Jungle Animal with Pomplamoose with Allee Willis
“Well, for now, we’ve got Allee Willis. And the resulting confection marries indie sensibility with pop craft and the result makes you smile, and isn’t that what music is all about? Watching this video makes you want to create yourself. Like so many in the business did in high school, tuned up their guitars and formed bands in the basement.”
“That’s the scene today. Not world domination, but high school. You remember high school, don’t you? When you cared not a whit about money, didn’t have a job and got deep into your passions, developed who you were? You loved the offbeat, you told your friends about your new finds, and you analyzed the lyrics endlessly.” Bob Lefsetz Video follows the break
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Editor – EMI is is desperate financial trouble and may fall into the hands of its creditors. We have no idea if this is an April Fools Joke. The only references on the web are linking back to Bob Lefsetz.
Bob Lefsetz – And the Beatles join the iTunes Store just in time for Saturday’s iPad launch.
The deal… Just like with Apple’s purchase of Lala, no hard numbers have been released. But both Citi and Terra Firma are happy. Citi gets its money back, and Guy Hands gets to save face, Terra Firma’s covenant breaches become irrelevant, there’s no need to raise and inject new capital and by selling to Jobs, et al, Hands gets to spin the concept that this was his plan all along.
Yes, the catalog license was just a ruse. Because, after all, everyone knows that Mr. Hands is smarter than Doug Morris and Mel Lewinter. Lucian Grainge? He’s a glorified A&R guy with a bean counter mentality. Hands played the Universal boys like a fiddle. Do you really think he’d place the Fab Four’s music in the hands of such charlatans? When he can put it in its rightful place, in the bosom of Steve Jobs, and see it live forever? Continue reading
Alex Chilton singing The Letter in 2006
Bob Lefsetz wrote a remembrance for Alex Chilton that struck a chord with fans and friends of Alex Chilton first as a musical star with the Box Tops and Big Star. Lefsetz tells how the music hit him, which is how we remember artists. What was I doing the year of that hit. “Who was I going with” kind of remembrance. He makes a passing comment about Chilton’s health and finances.
“We have a fantasy that our heroes live on a higher plane, live a better life than us…that they’re surrounded by bucks and babes.
“But watching Alex Chilton perform you were struck that his life was much more difficult than yours. He had to go from town to town, playing to appreciative, but tiny audiences, who loved him, but that love won’t keep you warm at night, it won’t pay your bills, it won’t pay your health insurance. Continue reading