GOOD READ Bob Lefsetz on LIVE EARTH
allmyrivals
Posts: 228
What a crock of shit this is. God, how can we save the earth when we can't even
save the MUSIC BUSINESS!
Maybe you weren't alive back in '69, but let me tell you, the reason Woodstock
was so appealing, why everybody was enticed, why it went from who cares to a
must go was the LINEUP, they had fucking EVERYBODY! Joe Cocker is getting
traction on FM radio with "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window"? Shit HE'S
gonna be there. The Who, cresting big time with "Tommy"? THEY'RE gonna be
there. The legendary Jefferson Airplane. The outre Country Joe and the Fish.
It was a HAPPENING!
I wouldn't cross the fucking street to see the lineup at the New York Live Earth
show. And phone me when Genesis and the Police hit the London stage, then I
might tune in.
God, remember when music had power, when music could change the world? How the
fuck is the world gonna change with these lame acts:
Kanye West. Oh, the press loves him, but we all know the only rapper with cred,
the one everybody truly wants to see, the genius, is Dr. Dre. And he ain't on
this bill.
AFI? Well, if there were more superstars, I'd give this band a pass. They've
got a cult audience. Then again, they were supposed to break through big time
last year, and they didn't.
Kelly Fucking Clarkson? Where's the cred here? Who's gonna follow this chick
ANYWHERE? Isn't she the one who won the TV talent contest, and then sang a hit
written by a fifty year old in Sweden?
Akon. Hit of the minute, forgotten tomorrow. Maybe forgotten by time this
concert actually happens on 7/7.
KT Tunstall. Love her, but she's a club act. She's swallowed whole by a venue
like Giants Stadium, her music becomes MEANINGLESS!
Alicia Keys... An overrated hack. Yup, she ripped off "It's A Man's Man's
Man's World" for her one big hit and she's only marginally more important than
Whitney Houston, Clive Davis' hype of a decade previous. Come on, sing a couple
of her original songs, I DARE YOU!
Ludacris. Loved him in "Crash", but isn't he ALREADY A HAS-BEEN?
Bon Jovi. "Slippery When Wet" is the best hair metal album ever cut. But Jon
Bon Jovi is a smiling idiot, he's WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS BUSINESS! Never takes
a stand for fear of alienating a potential audience member. THIS is the guy
who's gonna deliver us from the sun's rays? I don't think so. I wouldn't
follow this guy ANYWHERE!
Sheryl Crow. Come on, you knew she'd be on this bill. God, she can't be left
out, she can't be FORGOTTEN! Who's she appealing to here? Soccer moms whose
kids are already in college? Like her audience is gonna tune in to this
travesty?
Melissa Etheridge. I liked her better when she was an alienated lesbian
decrying the sad state of gays in society. Then she became the poster girl for
homosexuals, the one Bill Clinton trotted out again and again, and she lost her
edge. And a good deal of her fan base too.
Dave Matthews Band. Stars. Who don't do endorsements. Who people believe in.
Better it be JUST the Dave Matthews Band than the rest of these hacks. Didn't
we learn that with the package tours of the late nineties? That one plus one
doesn't equal three, oftentimes not even two, but one at most? Put Neil Young
or the Allman Brothers atop the hippie bill at H.O.R.D.E. and business goes
DOWN! Their fans won't come out. They don't want to endure crap, and they
think they're gonna get a short show. Yeah, like Dave's gonna play for three
hours here...
Rihanna. That's what we've got a RAINBOW COALITION! MTV is history. Yup,
originally MTV was rock only, then it expanded to Michael Jackson and black
music. But now all the scenes are ghettoized again, people interested in
Rihanna don't give a shit about Dave Matthews, and vice versa.
Fall Out Boy. Well, at least they're big NOW!
Roger Waters... Live 8 gets the whole band, and Live Earth gets the guy who
can't sing. Laughable.
Smashing Pumpkins. NOBODY CARES! The band is not doing the promoters a favor,
but just the opposite, the Pumpkins need EXPOSURE!
John Mayer. Sheryl Crow once removed. Like I'm supposed to believe in the guy
fucking Jessica Simpson.
The Police. The one certified killer headliner...
Hell, let's fly across the pond to England:
Beastie Boys. Maybe they're playing in the U.K. to hide the fact that very few
care in the U.S. anymore. They peaked OVER A DECADE AGO!
Black Eyed Peas. Make me puke. They can only appear if Alanis comes out and
does her parody of "My Humps".
Bloc Party. Legitimate. They've got traction in the U.K., they get a pass.
Corinne Bailey Rae. Bloc Party once removed. She has a career, but nobody's
gonna follow her ANYWHERE! This is just another promotional performance, who
can believe what a woman who writes such vapid lyrics has to say?
Damien Rice. "Cannonball" was years ago. He's past his peak.
David Gray. Damien Rice with a few more memorable tracks. He's over in the
U.S., although he does have some fumes in the U.K. But he's not a stadium act.
Duran Duran. Legitimate superstars. And hipper than Bon Jovi, which has NO
EDGE!
Foo Fighters. Maybe if Dave Grohl reunited with Krist and Courtney Love sang.
Foo Fighters are a second-rate band that wouldn't even be on a bill like this
twenty years ago.
Genesis. The Police of the U.K. show. Coming back from retirement. Stars.
Keane. God, they've got no career momentum.
Madonna. Surprising she's not best friends with Sheryl Crow, she wouldn't miss
an opportunity to hype herself, she's got to be at the PARTY! Too bad her music
is completely meaningless now. Even Lourdes is more cutting edge.
Paolo Nutini. There's a story here. How such a new act gets on this bill.
Someone was owed a favor here.
Razorlight. Reasonable traction in the U.K., okay.
Red Hot Chili Peppers. Stars. Even bigger in the U.K. than the U.S.
Snow Patrol. I dig them.
As you can see, the U.K. lineup far exceeds that of the U.S. Still, it falls
curiously flat. You see we just don't have STARS ANYMORE!
Oh, they could reunite the acts of the past. But you'd have to pay Jimmy and
Robert. And too many of the oldsters are TOO OLD!
Yup, this is what the modern era has delivered us. Few stars. And even fewer
you can believe in. Only Bon Jovi seems to have survived MTV. And in the
modern file-trading era, no one's bubbled up in the U.S. yet.
This ain't no Live Aid, this ain't no national holiday, this ain't no stay
inside and watch the tube all day affair.
God, just look at the Live Aid lineup:
Status Quo
Style Council _
Boomtown Rats
Adam Ant
INXS
Ultravox _
Loudness
Spandau Ballet
Bernard Watson
Joan Baez
Elvis Costello
The Hooters
_Opus
_Nik Kershaw _
The Four Tops _
B.B. King
_Billy Ocean
_Black Sabbath
_Sade
Run DMC
Sting
Rick Springfield
Phil Collins
REO Speedwagon
Howard Jones
Autograph
Bryan Ferry
Crosby, Still & Nash
Udo Lindenberg
Judas Priest
Paul Young - Alison Moyet_
Bryan Adams _
U2
The Beach Boys
Dire Straits & Sting
George Thorogood & the Destroyers/Bo Diddley/Albert Collins _
Queen
David Bowie/Mick Jagger
Simple Minds _
David Bowie
The Pretenders _
The Who _
Santana/Pat Metheny _
Elton John _
Ashford & Simpson/Teddy Pendergrass _
Elton John/Kiki Dee/Wham!
Madonna
Freddie Mercury/Brian May
Paul McCartney
McCartney/Bowie/Pete Townshend/Alison Moyet/Bob Geldof
Tom Petty
Kenny Loggins
The Cars
Neil Young
The Power Station
The Thompson Twins
Eric Clapton
Phil Collins
Robert Plant/Jimmy Page/John Paul Jones
Duran Duran
Patti LaBelle
Hall & Oates/Eddie Kendricks/David Ruffin
Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger/Tina Turner
Bob Dylan /Keith Richards/Ron Wood
Fuck the Live Earth lineup. They'd be better off trying to recreate this TWENTY
YEAR OLD SHOW! Even the complete has-beens are better than most of what's on
today's bill. Come on, who wouldn't rather see Ultravox than Akon or Kelly
Clarkson? And doesn't Status Quo still tour?
Live Nation and Kevin Wall are operating under the illusion that it's still
1985, that we live in one big happy world united by music. We don't. You want
stars, we've got 'em, they're just not musicians. Steve Jobs is bigger than any
of the acts on these new bills. And he's STILL HOT! He's not on a nostalgia
tour.
What a sad sad state of affairs we're in. When there's no music to believe in.
I say wipe the slate clean of the labels, the video channel employees and Live
Nation too. They're just trying to prop up what once was, even though the
underpinnings are completely rotten. We've got no belief in major music today.
Nothing that can sell a lick that anybody cares about. So why should we follow
these tools of the system when they stand up and tell us to fight global
warming? Aren't these the SAME culprits whored out to the Fortune 500 companies
who are PERPETUATING THE PROBLEM?
I saw the movie. If you want to get me riled up, let's all march on Washington,
protesting the policies of George W. Bush. Or stop buying SUVs. Do something
that counts rather than watch these idiots, slaves to the system, either live or
on the Web.
Where's John Lennon when you need him. Gimme some truth. Tell me that music's
been ruined, that there's nothing to believe in, and we've got to start all over
from SCRATCH!
save the MUSIC BUSINESS!
Maybe you weren't alive back in '69, but let me tell you, the reason Woodstock
was so appealing, why everybody was enticed, why it went from who cares to a
must go was the LINEUP, they had fucking EVERYBODY! Joe Cocker is getting
traction on FM radio with "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window"? Shit HE'S
gonna be there. The Who, cresting big time with "Tommy"? THEY'RE gonna be
there. The legendary Jefferson Airplane. The outre Country Joe and the Fish.
It was a HAPPENING!
I wouldn't cross the fucking street to see the lineup at the New York Live Earth
show. And phone me when Genesis and the Police hit the London stage, then I
might tune in.
God, remember when music had power, when music could change the world? How the
fuck is the world gonna change with these lame acts:
Kanye West. Oh, the press loves him, but we all know the only rapper with cred,
the one everybody truly wants to see, the genius, is Dr. Dre. And he ain't on
this bill.
AFI? Well, if there were more superstars, I'd give this band a pass. They've
got a cult audience. Then again, they were supposed to break through big time
last year, and they didn't.
Kelly Fucking Clarkson? Where's the cred here? Who's gonna follow this chick
ANYWHERE? Isn't she the one who won the TV talent contest, and then sang a hit
written by a fifty year old in Sweden?
Akon. Hit of the minute, forgotten tomorrow. Maybe forgotten by time this
concert actually happens on 7/7.
KT Tunstall. Love her, but she's a club act. She's swallowed whole by a venue
like Giants Stadium, her music becomes MEANINGLESS!
Alicia Keys... An overrated hack. Yup, she ripped off "It's A Man's Man's
Man's World" for her one big hit and she's only marginally more important than
Whitney Houston, Clive Davis' hype of a decade previous. Come on, sing a couple
of her original songs, I DARE YOU!
Ludacris. Loved him in "Crash", but isn't he ALREADY A HAS-BEEN?
Bon Jovi. "Slippery When Wet" is the best hair metal album ever cut. But Jon
Bon Jovi is a smiling idiot, he's WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS BUSINESS! Never takes
a stand for fear of alienating a potential audience member. THIS is the guy
who's gonna deliver us from the sun's rays? I don't think so. I wouldn't
follow this guy ANYWHERE!
Sheryl Crow. Come on, you knew she'd be on this bill. God, she can't be left
out, she can't be FORGOTTEN! Who's she appealing to here? Soccer moms whose
kids are already in college? Like her audience is gonna tune in to this
travesty?
Melissa Etheridge. I liked her better when she was an alienated lesbian
decrying the sad state of gays in society. Then she became the poster girl for
homosexuals, the one Bill Clinton trotted out again and again, and she lost her
edge. And a good deal of her fan base too.
Dave Matthews Band. Stars. Who don't do endorsements. Who people believe in.
Better it be JUST the Dave Matthews Band than the rest of these hacks. Didn't
we learn that with the package tours of the late nineties? That one plus one
doesn't equal three, oftentimes not even two, but one at most? Put Neil Young
or the Allman Brothers atop the hippie bill at H.O.R.D.E. and business goes
DOWN! Their fans won't come out. They don't want to endure crap, and they
think they're gonna get a short show. Yeah, like Dave's gonna play for three
hours here...
Rihanna. That's what we've got a RAINBOW COALITION! MTV is history. Yup,
originally MTV was rock only, then it expanded to Michael Jackson and black
music. But now all the scenes are ghettoized again, people interested in
Rihanna don't give a shit about Dave Matthews, and vice versa.
Fall Out Boy. Well, at least they're big NOW!
Roger Waters... Live 8 gets the whole band, and Live Earth gets the guy who
can't sing. Laughable.
Smashing Pumpkins. NOBODY CARES! The band is not doing the promoters a favor,
but just the opposite, the Pumpkins need EXPOSURE!
John Mayer. Sheryl Crow once removed. Like I'm supposed to believe in the guy
fucking Jessica Simpson.
The Police. The one certified killer headliner...
Hell, let's fly across the pond to England:
Beastie Boys. Maybe they're playing in the U.K. to hide the fact that very few
care in the U.S. anymore. They peaked OVER A DECADE AGO!
Black Eyed Peas. Make me puke. They can only appear if Alanis comes out and
does her parody of "My Humps".
Bloc Party. Legitimate. They've got traction in the U.K., they get a pass.
Corinne Bailey Rae. Bloc Party once removed. She has a career, but nobody's
gonna follow her ANYWHERE! This is just another promotional performance, who
can believe what a woman who writes such vapid lyrics has to say?
Damien Rice. "Cannonball" was years ago. He's past his peak.
David Gray. Damien Rice with a few more memorable tracks. He's over in the
U.S., although he does have some fumes in the U.K. But he's not a stadium act.
Duran Duran. Legitimate superstars. And hipper than Bon Jovi, which has NO
EDGE!
Foo Fighters. Maybe if Dave Grohl reunited with Krist and Courtney Love sang.
Foo Fighters are a second-rate band that wouldn't even be on a bill like this
twenty years ago.
Genesis. The Police of the U.K. show. Coming back from retirement. Stars.
Keane. God, they've got no career momentum.
Madonna. Surprising she's not best friends with Sheryl Crow, she wouldn't miss
an opportunity to hype herself, she's got to be at the PARTY! Too bad her music
is completely meaningless now. Even Lourdes is more cutting edge.
Paolo Nutini. There's a story here. How such a new act gets on this bill.
Someone was owed a favor here.
Razorlight. Reasonable traction in the U.K., okay.
Red Hot Chili Peppers. Stars. Even bigger in the U.K. than the U.S.
Snow Patrol. I dig them.
As you can see, the U.K. lineup far exceeds that of the U.S. Still, it falls
curiously flat. You see we just don't have STARS ANYMORE!
Oh, they could reunite the acts of the past. But you'd have to pay Jimmy and
Robert. And too many of the oldsters are TOO OLD!
Yup, this is what the modern era has delivered us. Few stars. And even fewer
you can believe in. Only Bon Jovi seems to have survived MTV. And in the
modern file-trading era, no one's bubbled up in the U.S. yet.
This ain't no Live Aid, this ain't no national holiday, this ain't no stay
inside and watch the tube all day affair.
God, just look at the Live Aid lineup:
Status Quo
Style Council _
Boomtown Rats
Adam Ant
INXS
Ultravox _
Loudness
Spandau Ballet
Bernard Watson
Joan Baez
Elvis Costello
The Hooters
_Opus
_Nik Kershaw _
The Four Tops _
B.B. King
_Billy Ocean
_Black Sabbath
_Sade
Run DMC
Sting
Rick Springfield
Phil Collins
REO Speedwagon
Howard Jones
Autograph
Bryan Ferry
Crosby, Still & Nash
Udo Lindenberg
Judas Priest
Paul Young - Alison Moyet_
Bryan Adams _
U2
The Beach Boys
Dire Straits & Sting
George Thorogood & the Destroyers/Bo Diddley/Albert Collins _
Queen
David Bowie/Mick Jagger
Simple Minds _
David Bowie
The Pretenders _
The Who _
Santana/Pat Metheny _
Elton John _
Ashford & Simpson/Teddy Pendergrass _
Elton John/Kiki Dee/Wham!
Madonna
Freddie Mercury/Brian May
Paul McCartney
McCartney/Bowie/Pete Townshend/Alison Moyet/Bob Geldof
Tom Petty
Kenny Loggins
The Cars
Neil Young
The Power Station
The Thompson Twins
Eric Clapton
Phil Collins
Robert Plant/Jimmy Page/John Paul Jones
Duran Duran
Patti LaBelle
Hall & Oates/Eddie Kendricks/David Ruffin
Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger/Tina Turner
Bob Dylan /Keith Richards/Ron Wood
Fuck the Live Earth lineup. They'd be better off trying to recreate this TWENTY
YEAR OLD SHOW! Even the complete has-beens are better than most of what's on
today's bill. Come on, who wouldn't rather see Ultravox than Akon or Kelly
Clarkson? And doesn't Status Quo still tour?
Live Nation and Kevin Wall are operating under the illusion that it's still
1985, that we live in one big happy world united by music. We don't. You want
stars, we've got 'em, they're just not musicians. Steve Jobs is bigger than any
of the acts on these new bills. And he's STILL HOT! He's not on a nostalgia
tour.
What a sad sad state of affairs we're in. When there's no music to believe in.
I say wipe the slate clean of the labels, the video channel employees and Live
Nation too. They're just trying to prop up what once was, even though the
underpinnings are completely rotten. We've got no belief in major music today.
Nothing that can sell a lick that anybody cares about. So why should we follow
these tools of the system when they stand up and tell us to fight global
warming? Aren't these the SAME culprits whored out to the Fortune 500 companies
who are PERPETUATING THE PROBLEM?
I saw the movie. If you want to get me riled up, let's all march on Washington,
protesting the policies of George W. Bush. Or stop buying SUVs. Do something
that counts rather than watch these idiots, slaves to the system, either live or
on the Web.
Where's John Lennon when you need him. Gimme some truth. Tell me that music's
been ruined, that there's nothing to believe in, and we've got to start all over
from SCRATCH!
EVENFLOW PSYCHO #0031
WHAAHYEAH!!
WHAAHYEAH!!
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Comments
WHAAHYEAH!!
http://www.myspace.com/thelastreel http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19604327965
may i say that this is a very true statement. I recently watched the US vs John Lennon a doc about how he protested the Vietnam War during the early seventies. During the early 70s John Lennon had balls, this mother fucker wrote songs like "Give Peace A Chance" and these songs were anthems for the anti-war movement. The system was afraid of the power of a radical innovative mind like John Lennon, and they started to tap his phones, follow him, tried to deport him as an undesirable for a then ten year old drug charge which was dropped, and even gave him death threats. It eventually led to him going into hiding and it even stiffiled his material a little, because Lennon feared for his life. But thats the problem now a days no one has the balls to challenge the system but the artists are out there, its just that they don't get the exposure. Exposure is hard when 4 corporations own 95% of the radiostations, and record contracts are based upon populairty of the genre and how fast an artist or band can hit the hook. This day in age really needs a rough edged punk band ala the Clash (something like the Doors, a more radical 80s U2, Pearl Jam could even be that band if they got a little more political and a little bit more angry) just stand up and say fuck you. No one has the balls to say
fuck you anymore
PS you are spot on about the Pumpkins and the Foos. Additionally, I really like how Muse had the balls to say "How is flying all these major bands to a concert save the planet when you are wasting all that time money and energy (wasted fuel) to get the thing organized"
And you're right, we need someone to say 'Fuck you'.
It is way more likely to be effective than this sort of scatter bomb approach. This may seem like the smart thing politically but it makes no fucking sense musically at all, and quite frankly if you want something like this to be effective, you are gonna need both.