Lefsetz Says It Like It Is!

Bob Lefsetz is an attorney who spent many years in the hierarchy of the corporate music industry. Several years ago, he started writing letters and sending them to friends. He now reaches thousands of people, including BluePower. He likes to rant and all too often, he is spot-on. Sometimes though, we disagree....welcome to America, and to Bob Lefsetz.

We thought you would like to see one of Bob's latest rants. He says what we would all like to say to these blasted companies.

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FedEx ReDux

I take it all back.

Too paranoid to have my bills paid automatically, not trusting my bank, the system, uptight about my money, I still pay my bills myself. I like to look at the invoice. You'd be stunned at the hidden charges you find.

Like AT&fuckingT. They slammed me once.

Do you know what slamming is? Bottom line, I switched to their long distance service, then canceled it the next day. But they don't cancel, they just bill you. Forseeminglyever. Until going through the inordinate number of lines on your phone bill you find out you're paying $8.95 a month for a service that you don't need, because you're buying it from someone else. Try getting your money back? It's like being in a Freddie Prinze routine. Endless hosannas of "It's not MY job!" That's America. You fight for reductions on principle, but then you give up. It's just not worth your time. To wait on hold and then speak to someone more ignorant on the subject than you, and they WORK THERE!

And end up fucking up the change anyway.

Ever change your cell phone plan? Turns out, if you do, your contract is extended. Well, there's been such a hubbub, they stopped that practice. Still, if you leave the country, if you go to an international plan temporarily, so you don't lose your house paying your BlackBerry bill, they always say they'll change your plan back, AUTOMATICALLY! But they never do.

So I read the bills.

And I'm reading a bill from FedEx. $13! I don't think I've gotten a bill that cheap from the overnight delivery service since the eighties. But before I pay it, let me make sure the package was actually delivered.

I'm not a tracking nut. Not with FedEx. They never fuck up. Not in my experience. But I haven't gotten my copier back, so maybe...

You can't track the package from this invoice. There's a bunch of numbers, my account number, an invoice number, but none of them work on FedEx's site.

So I call. 1-800-Go-FedEx, right?

And when I get the endless voice prompts, I keep saying "Operator", "Operator". My voice so low, it's like I'm the villain in a low budget horror movie. As if I were so dumb that my question could be answered by a computer. Finally, the canned chick realizes I don't want her help and transfers me to a real person.

Who can't help me either. He can't track my package. And this is FedEx?

This makes no sense to me. Just like the invoice itself. $13? I was quoted a price of over $30. But I figured it was my lucky day.

It wasn't.

Turns out the $13 was a "Weekly Service Charge".

Huh?

I shipped a package, now I'm gonna pay $50 a month for the privilege?

No, they're gonna cut me a break. They'll just charge me an extra $13 every time I send something.

Well, this sucks. Suddenly, what seems like a fair price is exorbitant. I might have forgone the whole process and just purchased a new copier, or used the copy feature in my 3-in-1 HP that I got free for buying an Apple computer.

NOWHERE on the Website was this charge revealed. I was on the phone with a "friendly" employee checking the price before I shipped... She didn't tell me either.

I feel abused.

When did this start?

With car rental companies. The quoted price is really half the price of a rental. Then hotels. And Ticketmaster. What kind of disease does our country have? One of dishonesty? I guess if Bill Clinton can lie about getting a blow job and Obama's appointees can "forget" to pay their taxes, it's all right for companies to rip us off, bill us extra charges after we've used their services. It's the American way, after all.

Or go to the doctor. Lord only knows what the final bill will be.

Just tell me what I owe.

If you're afraid I'm gonna balk, then your price is too high. And maybe you deserve to go bankrupt.

Like this works in personal relationships. Oh, HONEY! I was faithful 364 nights this year, but one evening in Canada I shtupped a waitress. It doesn't count, you shouldn't be upset, because if you read the prenup, which I was gonna have you sign, but didn't, you'll see that I'm entitled to one night of infidelity a year, as long as it happens on foreign soil.

Tell the wife to shrug and forget that one.

Or, it's like the IRS suddenly wanting an extra five grand. Because the country needs it. TELL ME FIRST!

But you can't raise taxes. That's a dirty word. So you just don't fix the roads and find some other way to get the money from us.

We go to school and learn honesty. We labor over math, getting finite answers. Then we enter the real world and none of that applies. I guess these companies figure we can't do math. And many Americans can't. Figuring the calculator in their cell phones will help them balance their checkbook after using their ATM card to buy tchotchkes they don't need.

But almost nobody balances his checkbook, it's too hard, it's too time-consuming.

I paid the bill, but next time I'm using UPS.

Original article: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2009/01/27/fedex/



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CONCORD RECORDS TO RELEASE DEFINITIVE RAY CHARLES ANTHOLOGY:
RAY CHARLES – GENIUS: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION,
FEATURING 21 HITS FROM HIS MOST CELEBRATED ERA

Set due in stores April 7. Most songs available digitally for the first time.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Commencing an extensive Ray Charles reissue program for 2009, Concord Records will release a 21-song anthology of hits titled Ray Charles — Genius: The Ultimate Ray Charles Collection. The volume, slated for a street date of April 7, 2009, presents Charles’ most influential recordings for the Atlantic and ABC-Paramount labels including 1955’s “I Got a Woman” plus “Busted,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “Hit the Road Jack” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” concluding with his signature 1972 rendition of “America the Beautiful.” All are digitally remastered from the original tapes.

Late last year, Concord Music Group announced it had entered into an exclusive arrangement with the Ray Charles Foundation to develop the artist’s post-1960 catalog, which contains his classic work for the ABC-Paramount and Tangerine labels. In addition to planning a series of CD reissues, Concord will make the catalog available digitally for the first time ever.

Ray Charles — Genius: The Ultimate Ray Charles Collection chronicles the high points in Charles’ catalog. As noted jazz writer Don Heckman writes in his liner notes, “The first feeling that comes to mind after even a short glance at the titles included here is a sense of wonder. The diversity of the material is impressive in its own right — blues, of course, transformed gospel songs, country tunes, an American Songbook standard, a Beatles classic and a climactic American anthem. But more than that, it’s what he does with all these variegated numbers. Good singers can do great interpretations. Great singers like Charles possess the material in a way that makes a song their own, while remaining true to the essence of each.”

Ten of the tracks on this collection made it to #1 on the R&B charts and three songs hit #1 on the pop chart. “That may sound like nothing more than numbers,” says Heckman, “but it represents an extraordinary string of successes in which Charles released a Top 10 R&B single in almost every year between 1954-67, and a Top 10 pop single almost every year between 1959-67.”

The album contains 21 of Charles’ biggest hits, each within its own unique history and meaning. “Hit the Road Jack,” penned by Percy Mayfield, a #1 pop hit and a 1961 Grammy winner for Charles, opens the collection. Also included are “What I’d Say (Part 1),” ranked #10 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; the classic “Busted”; “I Can’t Stop Loving You” from the album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, which reached #1 on R&B and pop charts; the Bobby Sharp composition “Unchain My Heart”; Charles’ signature rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind, another #1 pop hit; “I Got a Woman” which was Charles’ first #1 R&B hit and was later sampled by Kanye West; “You Are My Sunshine,” the Jimmie Davis standard that Charles brought to #1 R&B; a soulful edition of Hank Williams’ “Take These Chains From My Heart”; the offbeat “Hide Nor Hair”; Ashford & Simpson’s “Let’s Go Get Stoned,” a #1 R&B hit by Charles; “You Don’t Know Me,” earlier a hit for Jerry Vale, which charted #2 pop; “Hallelujah I Love Her So,” originally a gospel hymn; “Crying Time,” a Buck Owens song which Charles brought to #6 on the pop charts; the funky “I’m a Fool for You,” which charted #1 R&B; “One Mint Julep,” Charles’ version of The Clovers’ hit with a big band arrangement by Quincy Jones; “Here We Go Again,” sung as a duet with Betty Carter; “Yesterday,” the Paul McCartney classic, in which Charles, according to Heckman, “embraces the song’s deep inner heart”; and finally his 1972 signature recording of “America the Beautiful,” the perfect ending and relevant once again.

Genius: The Ultimate Ray Charles Collection will be packaged in a handsome embossed digipack and presented with a 24-page collectors’ book of rare photos and Heckman’s notes.

“Genius Loves Company was Ray Charles' highest selling record ever,"
said Valerie Ervin, President of the Ray Charles Foundation. "In addition to the artistic quality of the music, the release was matched by Concord's skill in finding new ways to market in the increasingly challenging environment.
Their incomparable ability to innovate will also be seen in the upcoming
releases."

Concord will release several other Ray Charles reissues this year including Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, Volumes 1 & 2, The Genius Hits the Road, A Message to the People and Genius + Soul = Jazz & More.

# # #

For more information on Concord Music Group’s Ray Charles reissue series, please contact:

Joel Amsterdam, Concord Records
310-385-4206
jamsterdam@concordrecords.com

Cary Baker, conqueroo
323-656-1600
cary@conqueroo.com

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If you are an aspiring guitarist....please be sure to check out BluePower's Company Store. We have our first basic guitar lesson now available with more lessons being added soon. Help yourself....and help BluePower as well.

BluePower Presents....The Stax Story!

There's an old saying
That goes like so
Keep trying
And you'll get where you want to go
When things get rough
Buckle down
Don't give up
You can conquer the world with your original sound.
They knocked at the front door
And couldn't get in
They heard a sound and went to the back door
And the sound let them in.

(This is an unattributed poem from an early Stax Records publicity release.)

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In 1961, I had the good fortune of working for a great gentleman and famous record promotion man, Joe Galkin.

We were traveling through the deep south, promoting along the way when we came to Memphis, Tennessee. Joe said the first stop we were going make was at some friends of his who had just started a small record label named Satellite.

We pulled into the black section of Memphis and turned onto McLemore Street and stopped in front of an old theatre; The Capitol. Inside The Capitol was a small record store. I was introduced a white lady whose name was Estelle Axton. She was selling records to a couple of young folks while the music blared through the small store.

Little did I know at the time that this was the humble beginning of what would become one of the most powerful music driven companies in the world....Stax Records.

There is no one in the world who has not heard a Stax record. This company also became one of the most important driving agencies for political change in the USA. Certainly a great deal more than Motown until Marvin Gaye was allowed to release his famous What's Goin' On LP.

Stax Records. The name today is still rich in associations. Carla and Rufus Thomas, Sam and Dave, Booker T. and the MG's, Otis Redding....the roll call could go on and on. A tiny label that started out in 1960 renting a unused movie theater in a shabby neighborhood that was going from white to black.

On the theater marquee would soon appear in giant letters of red plastic,

SOULSVILLE U.S.A.

BluePower is presenting these three shows in order that our listeners may hear all three shows with just one click. Once again....The music says it all!

John Rhys/BluePower.com

Part One....The Stax Story!
Part Two....The Stax Story!
Part Three....The Stax Story!

Parts of intro piece compliments of Peter Guralnick from his wonderful book....Sweet Soul Music.

Click here to go directly to....Concord Music Group!

Click here to go directly to....The Stax Museum!
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If you are an aspiring guitarist....please be sure to check out BluePower's Company Store. We have our first basic guitar lesson now available with more lessons being added soon. Help yourself....and help BluePower as well.