"And what it all comes down to
Is that everything's gonna be fine, fine fine"
Nobody walks in L.A. Not that Missing Persons took the stage. Dale and Terry Bozzio have been divorced for eons.
But we're still here.
Broken, battered and excoriated. Prior to the fires L.A. was considered a hellhole.
But if you lived here...
We've been home for a month, in shock. It's like a death in the family. Traffic has been light, until the recent rains you never knew if conflagration was just around the corner.
But these shows were booked weeks ago, on the schedule. Fundraisers sans politics. No elected officials. No politics. Just people, performers and LOS ANGELES!
If you don't live here you don't get it, if you've only visited here, you don't get it. But if you live here, even though you complain about the traffic...there's nowhere you'd rather live. But it's an internal feeling as opposed to a communal one. Although Randy Newman wrote an ironic song, there is no I Love L.A. campaign, that's for New York, other places that have to convince themselves they're the best. California knows... Maybe it's not the best city in the world, but living is easy, it's a giant suburb, no one's in your face and the weather...
And even though they're part of the same nation, the people in Los Angeles are different from those on the east coast, especially the natives. They're always friendly, but they don't immediately invite you over for dinner, everybody's in their own silo living their own life.
But last night...
Sure, Green Day started the show, with Billie Eilish sitting in, but the first peak came when Billy Crystal took the stage. Appearing everywhere usually with no edge, this was different. Billy was in his sweats, the same clothes he left his house in that fateful day. It was personal. That set the tone, it was personal for everybody in attendance.
And then...
"I'm broke, but I'm happy
I'm poor, but I'm kind
I'm short, but I'm healthy, yeah
I'm high, but I'm grounded
I'm sane, but I'm overwhelmed
I'm lost, but I'm hopeful, baby"
"Jagged Little Pill" came out thirty years ago this June. And although Alanis's second LP made a dent, and she had that phenomenal soundtrack song "Uninvited" thereafter...she hasn't topped the charts since. But "Jagged Little Pill" is so iconic. It evidences the values of L.A. In that you come from the hinterlands to make it. Oftentimes broke, but super-hungry. And few triumph, but those that do maintain a base in L.A. Sure, they might have more than one house, but they're Angelenos, through and through. Like Joni Mitchell, she's lived in L.A. for decades. Because once you've gotten a taste...it's hard to leave. It's just too comfortable, just too good.
So Alanis is no different from 1995. Her hair is still long. She's smiling and moving her body like in the videos...
But you'd expect...I don't know, "You Oughta Know," with maybe Flea coming in from the wings to replicate his bass part. But when I heard that intro...SHE'S PLAYING HAND IN POCKET, MY FAVORITE SONG!
I immediately jumped to my feet, thrust my arms in the air and sang along.
And I wasn't the only one. We'd all lived through the experience. This was not a gig for kids, we remember the nineties.
And I'm looking at the assembled multitude and I can't stop smiling, we are here, we will survive, I'm tingling while I write this.
"And what it all boils down to
Is that no one's really got it all figured out just yet"
Ain't that the truth, but as we stood and shook, sang at the top of our lungs, one thing was for sure...WE'RE GONNA! We're gonna figure it out, we're gonna rebuild, the rest of the country is gonna hate us, but it's clear...WE'RE GONNA GET THE LAST LAUGH!
2
And then Anderson.Paak comes out wailing on the drums, with Sheila E. out front doing the act she did with Prince back in the day. The energy is palpable. And it's good...
But then came the second highlight of the night. From the side of the stage came...DR. DRE??
You've got to know what Dre means to L.A. You've got to know he's out of sight. Sure, he played the Super Bowl, but he doesn't go on tour, he's an elder statesman. And his hair has touches of gray, but he's out front on the mic and...
WOW!
Even if you hated rap you got it. This was the essence, from the Palisades to Altadena to Compton... This is L.A.
And when they went into "California Love"... You knew it was coming, but still it was shocking, 2Pac was not there, but I'm sure he was in the sky with his arms crossed, happy. There was a sensation of triumph, but sans compromise. There was no pandering, they were doing it their way.
Which is our way.
Then Joni Mitchell did a low-key "Both Sides Now" and Dawes came out and played an energetic "Time Spent in Los Angeles." They were not as big as the rest of the acts on the stage, but born Angelenos.
And then came the transplants, Stephen Stills and Mike Campbell to do "For What It's Worth," not that stinging single of Buffalo Springfield, but the more energized take Stills has performed recently at the Bowl and the Greek. And the one thing that no one ever acknowledges is how great a player he is, and he's going at it with Mike and then...
Graham Nash comes out and they do "Teach Your Children." Not one of my favorite Crosby, Stills & Nash songs, but it sounds close to the record, as if there was a direct line from '69 to '25. But then I went to Wikipedia and... Stephen Stills turned 80 on January 3rd. Graham Nash is going to be 83 in February. Seeing them there on stage...
Stills has been there and done that. He shows up now and again, but... What is his life about? You've proved your mettle...some acts have a need to stay current, but when you've been to the mountaintop, what do you have to prove?
And it wasn't clear everybody there knew "For What It's Worth." And I'd say it was a changing of the guard, but it was more akin to a last hurrah. Times have moved on.
The younger generation dominated at Intuit, but over here on the other side of SoFi...
3
Which is when the action switched to down the block. Starting with Rod Stewart.
That's the kind of night it was. Talent didn't appear in order of star power. You could be a heavyweight and play early.
Rod joked about playing a new song and went into "Maggie May"...
And his hair still stands up, and he got the notes across with his sandpaper voice, but the backup band...was women straight out of a Robert Palmer video and youngsters. Everybody delivered, but Wikipedia told me Rod turned 80 on January 10th. He's not trying to look young, he's had no plastic surgery, although his legs are super-skinny, but...this ain't gonna go on for much longer folks.
And then back to the Forum. From this point on, the venues switched off. At Intuit there'd be a bit of fire footage, an introduction and...
This is when I looked at my watch.
It was too late on the east coast. We were in it alone...same as it ever was.
We'll tune in early for the east coast events, but when we rev it up on the west coast...the rest of the country is turning in. They've got no idea what is going on out here, they don't even think about us. But as evidenced by the performers on stage, the people in the audience...
THIS IS WHERE IT'S HAPPENING!
It's a hiding in plain sight secret.
And at the Forum John Mayer took the stage acoustically. And after playing his songs "Neon" and "Gravity," he intro'ed the song from the legendary transplant who stayed here, never went back to Florida...
"She's a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She's a good girl, crazy about Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too"
Tom Petty didn't live on the westside, but Encino. The San Fernando Valley, which was never and still is not hip.
Sure, Tom ultimately decamped for Malibu, but...
"It's a long day livin' in Reseda
There's a freeway runnin' through the yard"
I remember using my mother's Redken shampoo. Right there on the plastic bottle it said it was made in Van Nuys, California. Seemed exotic in the tub in Connecticut, but if you've ever been here... That's where they used to make Camaros, there's nothing special about Van Nuys.
And there's nothing special about Reseda, even though it's suburban sans industrialization.
It's like an inside joke. Tom was encapsulating Southern California. It's not special, there's very little history, everybody moved here and established roots and...
"All the vampires walkin' through the Valley
Move west down Ventura Boulevard"
That got a hoot, that's the main artery in the Valley, there's not a soul who doesn't know it, hasn't driven down its endless length.
We were all singing along...
"And I'm free
Free fallin'
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'"
Yes we were. That's the essence of SoCal, the lack of constriction, the FREEDOM!
4
And then back to Intuit for Earth, Wind & Fire and this is when it became clear you had to be there. It's one thing to watch it on the big screen, it's quite another thing to be in attendance.
And then back to the Forum for the Black Crowes. And watching the now gray-haired Chris Robinson on stage... It was a lesson in rock performance, rock charisma.
And then the Crowes backed up John Fogerty who always kills, but then...
Slash came out with his top hat and he and Rich sat down with their acoustics as they and Chris performed GOING TO CALIFORNIA!
Even Robert Plant got it:
"Made up my mind to make a new start
Going to California with an aching in my heart
Someone told me there's a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair"
There most certainly was, and still is.
They were standing on a hill, in this case a stage, in my mountain of dreams... That's the L.A. landscape, the mountains and the canyons. The wilds. The possibilities. Nature.
And earlier Pink played "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" after doing a very good version of "Me and Bobby McGhee."
How strange, two Zeppelin songs and neither Robert nor Jimmy were there, never mind John Paul Jones.
And I'm thinking about seeing the band on their last tour in the summer of '77 in this very building. But Jimmy was 81 on January 9th, he's never going on tour again, we'll be lucky if we see him live much at all.
Gracie Abrams and Tate McRae did not work at all on the big screen from Intuit. It almost looked like they were embarrassed to be there, with all the legends showing us how it was done.
And Katy Perry couldn't get the tone right.
But Jelly Roll killed. The energy was palpable, even though it was from a distance.
He played his recent hit, "I Am Not Okay," the one he talked about on Howard Stern, but he followed that up with... HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS!
In those Hollywood Hills...
This Bob Seger song was unavoidable on the radio of the seventies, the five rock stations in Los Angeles.
And sure, Travis Barker was pounding the skins, but Jelly Roll was truly carrying the weight. This portly 40 year old putting to shame the popsters in the Spotify Top 50. Jelly Roll had been around the block, experienced the challenges of life, you believed he believed in what he was singing. It didn't seem that the young audience at Intuit even got "Hollywood Nights," that was nearly fifty years ago, then again it's hard to judge audience response from a TV screen. But Jelly Roll...he was not a break from the continuum, but right on it, in the tradition.
5
Gwen Stefani and No Doubt evidenced energy. They did "Don't Speak," the girls were on her side.
But not like they were with Stevie Nicks...
Man, you should have seen the faces. Every woman standing, smiling, singing along at the top of their lungs.
Stevie is a woman who made it in a man's world without sacrificing, without playing by their rules, she was a beacon for women then and still is. The highlight was "Landslide"... And you're never going to hear Fleetwood Mac perform this again, so this is as good as it's going to get.
As for the Nirvana tribute... It represented Dave Grohl's re-emergence from his self-imposed exile. This was an unbilled surprise, but really it was time for Dave to take the front of the stage with the Foos. This seemed like a baby step.
As for the Chili Peppers...
They are California. And they demonstrated this by playing "Dani California," "Californication" and "Under the Bridge."
But by this time people had started to leave. Grohl et al... This was more punk than mainstream, and L.A. is a punk town, but not everybody is a punker. Then again, that's what's great about L.A., all this music, all these people, they can coexist.
Then again, maybe people were worn out. They could only handle so many peaks. This was not your average concert. This was household names, one after another, performing only a couple of songs, which most knew by heart...this was the concert of your dreams.
And there was no hang whatsoever. You were too busy watching. I did got to the bathroom at one point during one of the Intuit transmissions, but otherwise I was eyes front and ears open.
How much money will be raised?
Well, the final numbers are not in, but...
Ultimately it was not about the money, it was about the healing. Bringing us all together, seeing each other, acknowledging the city we love and giving us all hope.
We will rebuild. Not quickly, but faster than you expect.
Those outside the state will say we're crazy for building in fire areas. They'll talk about stringent California building codes. They'll keep poking holes.
Just like they do with anything that is great.
We know this.
Most people are afraid to pick up and come here, leave their past behind and search for their dreams.
But we did.
Some of us made it, some of us did not.
But ultimately it didn't matter.
Because we're here.
AND WE AIN'T GOING ANYWHERE!
--
Visit the archive: lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, Unsubscribe
To change your email address this link
No comments:
Post a Comment