A Few Comments On Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Free No. 10

Ain't no use a-talkin' to me.
It's just like talkin' to you.

Last week as I read about JFK and the space race, various thoughts fluttered through my head like butterflies, which I often feel obligated to capture and pin down. While reading, the Dylan line, "what if the Russians get up there first" from "I Shall Be Free No. 10" got me scurrying to find the rest of that stanza.

Well, turns out he sang  about the streets of heaven being lined with gold, and
I ask you how things could get much worse 
If the Russians happen to get up there first 
Wowee! pretty scary!

It's actually a mixed metaphor. No one at that time was worried about Russians getting to heaven first. On the other hand, plenty of people, ever since Sputnik, were anxious about the Russians being the first to land men on the moon.

* * * *
If you're not familiar with "I Shall Be Free No. 10," the fifth track on Another Side of Bob Dylan, you really should give it a listen.

I frequently get insights about Dylan songs at Tony Atwood's Untold Dylan blog/website. In this entry he notes how Dylan recorded several additional songs that didn't appear on the album, which has been a custom of his. What I recall, from another source, is how he recorded many, if not most, of the songs here in one take.

I remember a friend who years ago commented that there were always a few throw away songs on Dylan's albums. I found this a curious statement and can't say I ever bought into that. I mean, there were songs that didn't move me or that I didn't connect to, but I couldn't call them throwaways. Or I never considered them in that terse of a dismissal.

As for this song, I don't see it that way at all. It's perfectly in line with a number of other amusing pieces, such as Talkin' World War III Blues and his Bear Mountain Picnic rag. And what's Bob Dylan's 115th Dream if it's not a mix of comic wit and satire.

When I hear I Shall Be Free #10 I'm immediately curious what #9, #8, #7 and the rest were like. Without doubt it's a sequel to I Shall Be Free of sorts.

1962. Photo Ted Russell. William Pagel Archives.

Atwood points out echoes of Lead Belly and Chuck Berry in the song.

As much fun as the song is, understand where Atwood is coming from when he he says "it was a bit of a bore to listen to over and over when one played the LP." That is, after the first few listens, you already get all the punch lines and want to move on. For some reason I don't tire of it.

I am that way with "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" on Bringing It All Back Home sometimes. The sequence of Dylan tunes beginning at Tambourine Man is so potent still that I get impatient waiting for it to arrive and skip 115th Dream.

* * * *
With "I Shall Be Free No. 10" each stanza has its own comedic feature. The first stanza plays off being common. The second springboards off the champion boxer's celebrity. Stanza three is our light-hearted Cold War scenario spoof. "Wowee! Pretty scary!" Stanza four is a playful reversal of the usual quip about who can and can't live in the house next door.

Stanzas five and six are just plain hilarious, playful and weird. And like the song, it's another side of Bob Dylan. Comin' to think about it, so's the rest. And guess what? It is what it is.

* * * *
Author Tim Cain, in his 2006 article Bob Dylan is a funny, funny man: XM radio reveals humor in enexpected places, also cites I Shall Be Free, among other things. The article was written in response to Dylan's radio hour along with the release of Modern Times.

The late John Bushey, host of the KUMD radio show Highway 61 Revisited, loved Dylan's sense of humor also. On one occasion when I was a guest on his show, John wanted to play a song from a live concert in France in which Dylan spends the first four minutes tuning his guitar. John asked me with a grin, "Do you think I can get away with this?"

There's humor woven all through Dylan's lyrics. Just listening to the dialogue between God and Abraham ought to be a clue. A bit later, "Howard just pointed with his gun. That way, down Highway 61." Who are all those crazy characters anyways?

When I interviewed Bob this spring he didn't say a word.
Photo courtesy Michael Anderson.

Maggie's Farm has some hilarious characters, too. Maggie's pa is one of them. "Well, he puts his cigar out in your face just for kicks .His bedroom window it is made out of bricks.  The National Guard stands around his door--"

What makes his comic side work so well is that it serves as comic relief from the sobering nature of much of his content. Find me one example of Dylan singing with a cheerful tone, "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." Yet right in the middle of that song we have a line that continued to get laughs decades later. "But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked."

That last humorous image brings to mind (for me) Kevin Kline's interrupted shower in the movie Dave when the First Lady (Sigourney Weaver) confronts him, perfectly demonstrating the double meaning of the word "exposed."

Louie Kemp, in his book Dylan & Me, has more than a few comic anecdotes in it revealing this other side of Bob Dylan. Kemp insists that the Bob Dylan everyone knows publicly is just a persona. Where one ends and the other begins--the person and the persona--is not my problem.

Here's the song. You can find an outtake on YouTube in the links at the bottom of the page.

I Shall Be Free No. 10

I’m just average, common too
I’m just like him, the same as you
I’m everybody’s brother and son
I ain’t different from anyone
It ain’t no use a-talking to me
It’s just the same as talking to you

I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said “Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I’m gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you’d better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won’t even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen”

Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first
Wowee! pretty scary!

Now, I’m liberal, but to a degree
I want ev’rybody to be free
But if you think that I’ll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I’m crazy!
I wouldn’t let him do it for all the farms in Cuba

Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He’s a weird monkey, very funky

I sat with my high-heeled sneakers on
Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun
I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist
And my wig-hat was falling in my face
But they wouldn’t let me on the tennis court

I got a woman, she’s so mean
She sticks my boots in the washing machine
Sticks me with buckshot when I’m nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She’s funny, wants my money, calls me “honey”

Now I got a friend who spends his life
Stabbing my picture with a bowie knife
Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
When my name comes up he pretends to barf
I’ve got a million friends!

Now they asked me to read a poem
At the sorority sisters’ home
I got knocked down and my head was swimmin’
I wound up with the Dean of Women
Yippee! I’m a poet, and I know it
Hope I don’t blow it

I’m gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I’m gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course
Carry The New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds

Now you’re probably wondering by now
Just what this song is all about
What’s probably got you baffled more
Is what this thing here is for
It’s nothing
It’s something I learned over in England

Copyright © 1971 by Special Rider Music; renewed 1999 by Special Rider Music

Related Links
Humorous Bob Dylan Lyrics
Jokerman: The Humor of Bob Dylan
Tony Attwood's take on this song.
And this Outtake you can find on YouTube

And the beat goes on.

Louis Kemp's Dylan & Me Book Signing: Bringing It All Back Home

Filming for Making It Up North. Chairs and lights set up on the Armory
drill hall stage where Buddy Holly performed January 31, 1959.
L to R: Louis Kemp, Karen Sunderman and cameraman Steve Ash.

Thursday August 15 Louis Kemp, businessman and former Duluthian, returned to his hometown to promote his new book, Dylan and Me.

Kemp arrived in Duluth shortly after the lunch hour with a full schedule ahead of him. His first stop: the Duluth Armory drill hall where he and teen chum Bobby Zimmerman saw Buddy Holly perform on January 31, 1959.

The structure was built in 1915, a drill hall that could be used year round. The stage was added in 1940, from which presidents and countless entertainers spoke or performed. The list of names includes Harry Truman, Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, Liberace, Sonny & Cher,  Diana Ross & the Supremes, Eleanor Roosevelt and a host of other famous persons. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Karen Sunderman, award-winning host of Making It Up North, a show that airs on public television, sat with Louie to discuss his new book about the friendship he shared over a period of 50 years. But first, the author stood near the stage and pointed across the drill hall to the door where he and Bobby entered from the far side and wove through the gathered masses toward the very front.

Kemp shows Armory director Mark Poirier the door he and Bobby
entered that night. The wind chill was 44 below outside.

Louie then pointed and walked over to the spot where he believes that they were standing that fateful night. “As close as possible. There was nothing between us and the stage,” he said. “The goal was to see the concert, not to dance and kibbitz.”

Armory director Mark Poirier brought to Louie a star with the Armory insignia in it that had been created by the Forging Community which is housed in the Armory Annex. The star was placed on this that spot Louie indicated.

Some of what Kemp shared had been mentioned in other stories, how “Bobby listened to the radio stations coming out of the South late at night.” And the story of how Bobby would say he was going to be a rock and roll star. Other stories were new, and the book has many of those. Kemp shared that as teens the tight-knit Jewish community would have a lot of open houses. Many of these homes would have pianos and it wouldn’t be long before Bobby was at the piano, playing. But while playing he’d push the boundaries and, according to Kemp, “Every open house we went to we’d get kicked out of.”

A forged star with the Armory logo was placed on the floor
where the two young chums watched the concert.

While interviewing the author Karen Sunderman kept asking questions about Dylan, and Kemp would always rebuff, stating, “Dylan is a persona. To me he was Bobby.”

“I’ve met lots of big names with big egos. Bobby Zimmerman has no ego,” he said. “He knows he has a gift from God. He’s just a conduit.”

Of the book itself, Kemp states that he wanted people to see the human side of Bobby Zimmerman. He was prompted to write it by a friend who was dying, who had heard many of these stories. “When are you going to write this book? Promise me you’re gonna write this book.”

Karpeles from the balcony. Photo credit: Michael Anderson

AFTER an hour at the Armory there was a trip to the Jewish cemetery where Louis Kemp’s parents and grandparents lay, about 20 paces from the grave marker for Abe and Beatty Zimmerman.

From there we drove to the neighborhood where Louie grew up. The house sits in the middle of the block across the street from a park on the East Hillside. Bobby used to come to this house and visit during their teen years, play in the park or Monopoly upstairs. (I have it on good authority that Bob's favorite Monopoly piece was the Scotty dog.)

A little after 5:00 we arrived at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum for the main event. The former Christian Science church building was already collecting a good crowd by the time we arrived. The reception, sponsored by Valentini's and Super One Liquor, included music by Gene LaFond, Amy Grillo and Dave Bennett while Louie autographed copies of his book.

This was a reunion of sorts, as Gene used to perform with Larry Kegan, who is prominently featured in the book, another friend from Herzl Camp. Gene also had a chance to be on a portion of the Rolling Thunder Revue of which Louie was the producer. (Bob said to him, "You can sell fish. You can sell tickets.)

The event itself was sponsored by the Duluth Dylan Fest Committee and a continuation of the John Bushey Memorial Lecture Series, honoring the legacy of John Bushey, who hosted the Dylan-themed Highway 61 Revisited on KUMD for 26 years. We were calling this an Encore event.

It also signified the final night of Bill Pagel's exhibition of Dylan memorabilia, which included handwritten lyrics to Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues and Desolation Row. It was a nice touch when Gene sang Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues.

August 15 was also the 50th anniversary of the start of Woodstock. In my opening remarks I made note of this and reminded everyone that the emergency room to St. Luke's Hospital is directly across the street, in the event that they failed to heed the warnings about the brown acid.

With that Louie Kemp came to the microphone and spent 45 minutes to an hour reading favorite passages and stories from his book.

His shirt reads, "Duluth Minnesota. It's Where My Story Began."
Bob Zimmerman's story began here, too. Six years in the upstairs of a duplex
in the Central Hillside and where Louie would spend the night.

With Jim and Barb Bushey, brother and sister of the late John Bushey, 

* * * *

Even some of Louie's former employees from Kemp Fisheries came out.

* * * *

Matt Steichen and clan. He and his wife Jennifer met at a Dylan concert.

* * * *

Geno, Louie, Amy and the author of Ennyman's Territory.

Learning something new every day. It's all good.

All the evening event photos were taken by Michael Anderson 

with the exception of the Matt Steichen family.

Louie Kemp Book Signing Agenda for Thursday Evening at Karpeles

Joan, Louie, Bob and a pooch.

C.S. Lewis, in his book The Four Loves, dissects the meanings of the four Greek words that have been translated as "love" in the English language. They are Storge (Affection Love), Phileo (Friendship Love), Eros (Romantic Love) and Agape (Divine Love).

Friendship love begins as a kind of companionship. What I remember most about Lewis' description of Phileo is how you may go separate ways, but when your lives cross again ten years later, that resonance, that special bond you shared will pick up precisely where you left off.

When I moved to New Jersey in 1964, the year I turned 12, it was the beginning of a companionship relationship with the kid next door who was 11 and a grade behind me. The six years Tom and I were neighbors we shared many adventures, some pretty wild ones. After graduation, his life and mine diverged significantly. I was college bound, he was to become a biker.

Over the course of many decades we may have gotten together once every ten years, but that special bond we built as kids had been established. As different as our lives were--I had a career in advertising and PR, he a borderline outlaw with a heart of gold--it was always good to re-connect.

This is what I saw in Louie Kemp's Dylan & Me. For myself, the big takeaway was how Bobby Zimmerman never got so famous that he was too cool for her Herzl Camp companions Larry and Louie. Their lives were not parallel, but they periodically intersected, most notably in the Rolling Thunder Revue.

* * * *

Duluth Armory, where Louie and Bob went to see Buddy Holly
and the Winter Dance Party.

Tomorrow evening, August 15, Louie Kemp will be speaking at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum as part of the John Bushey Memorial Lecture Series.

The event will kick off at 5:30 PM with music by Gene LaFond, Amy Grillo and Dave Bennett, followed by the lecture from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. Following the lecture Louie Kemp will be on hand to sell and sign his new memoir hot off the press.

Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum is located at 902 East First Street in Duluth. The evening’s agenda is:
5:30-6:30 PM Reception and Music with Gene LaFond and Amy Grillo (includes refreshments and appetizers courtesy Valentini's and Super One Liquor.)
6:30-7:30 PM Louie Kemp Lecture
7:30-8:30 PM Book signing

The event is free.

This will be the last chance to see the 2019 Bob Dylan Exhibit from the William Pagel Archives.
Books will be for sale that evening.

 To learn more about Louie Kemp’s book visit: www.dylanandme.com

Promo Copy from Announcement
This uniquely intimate lecture and memoir of a lifelong friendship with Bob Dylan offers never-before-told stories, behind-the-scenes glimpses, rare photos, and affectionate anecdotes about one of the key figures in American music and letters. With a cast of characters that includes Marlon Brando, Cher, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Dennis Hopper, Louie's mother, and many more, Dylan & Me is a "backstage pass" to Louie and Bob's life, friendships, and music by the guy who was there every step of the way.

* * * *

Karpeles will be Louie Kemp's fifth stop on this Minnesota Tour, having signed books at four locations in the Twin Cities this week. You can read some of the reviews and interviews that have been shared by clicking on the following links:

Bob Dylan’s Best Friend Louie Kemp Breaks Silence With New Book ‘Dylan And Me’
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-louie-kemp-book-dylan-and-me-845876/

Louis Kemp Memoir Pulls Back the Curtain on Bob Dylan
https://jewishjournal.com/culture/books/302395/louis-kemp-memoir-pulls-back-the-curtain-on-bob-dylan/

From summer camp to stardom, his friendship with Bob Dylan spanned 50 years
http://www.startribune.com/from-summer-camp-to-stardom-his-friendship-with-bob-dylan-spanned-50-years/528519651/

10 things we learned about Bob Dylan from his friend's book
http://www.startribune.com/10-things-we-learned-about-bob-dylan-from-his-friend-s-book/528516501/

The Astonishingly Menschy Side Of Bob Dylan . by Dan Epstein
https://forward.com/culture/427215/the-astonishingly-menschy-side-of-bob-dylan/

WCCO Interview: Louie Kemp Details Bob Dylan Friendship In New Book
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/4142600-louie-kemp-details-bob-dylan-friendship-in-new-book/

Geno and Amy to Open for Louie Kemp @ Karpeles Thursday Eve Here in Duluth

When I heard that Gene LaFond and Amy Grillo would be performing this Thursday to "open" for Louie Kemp's lecture and book signing, the news struck a chord for me. It was an "oh-so-right" decision.

Louie Kemp will be in Minneapolis this week to promote his just released book Dylan & Me, a story which begins at the Herzl Jewish summer camp when Louie was 11 and Bobby Zimmerman 12. After four book signings in the Twin Cities Kemp will return to his original home town to relive a few moments, and then share his story at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum  on the corner of First Street and Ninth Avenue East.

Kemp's book is a collection of memories and anecdotes beginning at camp and weaving through 50 years. In addition to the Kemp-Bobby Zimmerman connection there emerges a third character who was part of this early saga, Larry Kegan, a friend whom "Bobby" (as Louie calls him throughout the book) also remained loyal to over the decades. 

All this to say that Gene LaFond is a musician and songwriter himself who regularly performed with Larry Kegan in the Twin Cities music scene. 

LaFond first saw Dylan as a teen when Bobby was not yet Dylan. "I used to see him at The Scholar in Dinkytown when I was in high school. I didn’t know him then. He was still Bob Zimmerman at that time. Then I met him in 1975 on the Rolling Thunder tour with Larry."

The Rolling Thunder Revue brought the trio of Herzl Camp trouble-makers--Kegan, Kemp and Zimmerman--together once more. Kemp was producer of the ground-breaking tour (now a documentary by Martin Scorsese) and Kegan was along for the first part of the ride, with Gene LaFond his sidekick. 

For LaFond meeting Bob and being on the start of the RTR was a zeitgeist. "It was amazing to meet somebody that I’d idolized all that time and then to realize he’s just a human being. It was a real eye opener. And it gave me a lot of confidence that I could write songs, too. It was the start of my inspiration to write songs. I’d been playing for years but not really doing a lot of original stuff."

This past week I was listening to Gene and Amy's 2016 CD The Northland Sessions featuring a cover shot reminiscent of a good cop/bad cop pair in Hollywood films. The black and white, grey with a touch of red color scheme is identical to Dylan's Love & Theft. (Not intentional, Gene says. They liked the photo, taken by Geri Johnson Pudrug--an old friend of Amy's-- at the Chisholm Discovery Center.)

Amy Grillo grew up in Hibbing. Gene said, "We met at Dylan days in Hibbing when I brought Ramblin’ Jack Elliott up there to perform. Mutual love of music led us to start writing together. We moved to the north shore about 5 years ago."

Their modest home is walking distance from the Nelson French property just up the road. Music is central in both homes, with French assembling periodic concerts at what he calls Rocky Wall Productions. Courtney Yasmineh was the most recent featured artist there.

Grillo likewise said that music has been the centerpiece of their relationship, "a love of music, songwriting and Bob Dylan."

At least eight of the songs on The Northland Sessions are collaborations between the two. Since I just happened to be reading about how Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote songs together* I had to ask what the process was for she and Gene. Grillo stated that for her "collaboration is a practice in trying to stay out of the way of each other’s ideas and welcome together the creative spirit when it decides to grace us with a visit." She added, "Gene is a really talented melody maker."

Two of the songs are her own compositions, and many give the impression that they're glad to have found one another later in life.

It's noteworthy how many others contributed to this CD, including the late Lonnie Knight and our dear Northland friend Scarlet Rivera. (No she's not from here but everyone here is always happy to have her be part of our extended family.)

* * * *

Cropped book cover shot.

Louie Kemp's talk and book signing is part of the John Bushey Memorial Lecture Series. It's being billed as a Memorial Encore for the lectures usually held in conjunction with Duluth Dylan Fest each May. The event will run from 5:30-8:30 pm. Here is the FB Event Page for more details.

Related Links
Gene LaFond Talks About Larry Kegan
Louie Kemp's Memoir: Dylan & Me (Grateful Web)
More to come.

Louie Kemp To Visit Duluth as Part of His Dylan & Me Book Launch in Two Weeks

RTR luggage tags were designed by Louie Kemp for the tour.

Every picture tells a story, they say. For me, the two most telling photos about Louie Kemp and his new book Dylan & Me are the one from Herzl Camp where the two met when they were just kids, and any of the shots from three decades later when Bob was best man at Louie's wedding here in Duluth.

On August 15 Louie Kemp will be sharing more stories and photos here in a special evening featuring music and a book signing as part of the John Bushey Memorial Lecture Series. It's being billed as an Encore for the memorial lectures usually held in conjunction with Duluth Dylan Fest each May.

Herzl Camp with Larry, Bobby and Louie center stage.

"He was twelve years old and he had a guitar. He would go around telling everybody that he was going to be a rock-and-roll star. I was eleven and I believed him.” -- Louis Kemp

The full title of the book is Dylan & Me: 50 Years of Adventures. The event will take place at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum on the evening of Thursday, August 15. Hosted by the Duluth Dylan Fest committee, the John Bushey Memorial Encore Lecture with Louie Kemp will give Northlanders the opportunity to hear first-hand never-before-heard stories about Bob Dylan.

Beginning at 5:30 p.m. there will be a reception featuring music by Gene LaFond and Amy Grillo with guest guitarist Dave Bennett at 5:30 p.m.  What makes this a cool deal is that Gene LaFond used to perform with the late Larry Kegan who was also a buddy of Bobby Zimmerman from Herzl Camp days. There's a sense of reunion taking place because Larry and Geno were there at the beginning portion of the Rolling Thunder Revue of which Louie was the producer.

The release of Martin Scorsese's Rolling Thunder Revue documentary in June was the perfect kickoff for Louie's book release. Both Larry Kegan and Louie briefly fill the screen at different moments. In one scene Bob Dylan and Larry are in the back of a van singing a Hank Williams song, Larry the big guy in the red shirt. If you had X-ray vision you could see Gene LaFond on the other side of the wall, driving the van as the two old friends sing together.

Best man (Left) at Louie's wedding, 1983.

Louie Kemp's Dylan & Me promises to deliver stories not shared in the multitude of other Dylan bios. One chapter is devoted to the night he and Bob attended the Winter Dance Party at the Duluth Armory just days before "the music died."

The lecture will begin at 6:30 p.m. followed by a Q&A period and book signing.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to see the William Pagel Archives’ Bob Dylan Exhibit featuring original handwritten lyrics, personal letters and other rare documents. Pagel was recently in the news when he acquired the house Abe and Beatty Zimmerman called home where Bob grew up in Hibbing. About ten years ago Pagel purchased the Zimmerman's Duluth home where Bob lived till he was six.

The Kemp name is well-known in Duluth. Louie's grandfather had a Lake Superior fishing operation the grew to be one of the largest and most successful in the country. Louie left college shortly before graduating college to take over the family business, expanding it into Alaska. His 350-foot mothership, the M/V Bering Trader, was the largest-capacity seafood processor in Alaskan waters in its day. An ancillary enterprise, the Louis Kemp Seafood Company, created the thriving market for imitation King Crab in the United States. (Ask me about my crab quiche sometime. It's yummy.)

All this to say Louie Kemp, whose roots were here, is returning August to share stories from his years of friendship with Bob, and the public is invited.

EdNote: The William Pagel Archives exhibit is free to the public, on display till August 15. Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum is located at 902 East First Street in the former Christian Science church building across from St. Lukes Hospital.

What Do These Four Non-Fiction Books Have In Common?

Over the years I’ve many times mulled over the question as to why so many people watched Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Or why people read tabloids. The answer to that question is at the end of this brief read. Basically, it’s the answer you get when find what these four books have in common.

Reporter: A Memoir 

by Seymour Hersh

I’ll Be Back Right After This: My Memoir 

by Pat O’Brien

The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife 

Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice

by Rebecca Musser

Dylan and Me: 50 Years of Adventures 

by Louie Kemp

* * * *

The first book is a memoir of a hardworking journalist with a determined work ethic and insatiable hunger to get at the truth, who unveiled significant stories like My Lai and Abu Ghraib. His books and journalism cover everything from Camelot to the war on Terrorism.

The next is the memoir of a kid from a broken home who rubbed shoulders with many of the most well-known people of the last half century including Oprah, Muhammed Ali, Mickey Mantle, the Beatles, the Stones, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Timothy Leary and many more. A radio and TV announcer who rubbed shoulders (and sometimes more) with the rich and famous.

Third in the list is an inside account of what its like inside the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Mormons censored polygamy in 1890, but the “true believers” in this Fundamentalist sect went underground, much like the bootleggers during Prohibition. What was it like to be wife 19 for an 84 year old leader who takes 46 more wives afterwards?

The last is a book by Louie Kemp who became fast friends with young Bobby Zimmerman at a Jewish summer camp with they were breaking into their early teens. Their friendship of several decades includes many remarkable phases in the life of this kid who would grow up to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

* * * * 

Did you catch the common denominator”

It’s not that complicated.

The common denominator is not “great writing.” By this I mean carefully crafted and beautiful sentences, such as those penned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. No, rather, it’s this: each book takes readers places they would never get to see or experiences in their normal lives. 

Hersh brings us inside the halls of Washington, Hanoi during the Vietnam War, to Abu Ghraib, the Washington Press Room, to meetings with influential editors for the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Washington Post. We meet Lt. William Calley of My Lai and many more familiar names from the front page news stories of our lifetimes.

Pat O’Brien’s book is a string of stories as well, populated by a different set of characters. His stories are insider stories about people we know, have heard about, as the appear and recede in his own life story.

Rebecca Musser’s book became a tedious read, but her life circumstances were so unusual that you feel compelled to keep turning the pages. The lifestyle of this group of people was so foreign to our “normal” lives that it was hard to get your head around. 

Louie Kemp’s book is not yet out, but it appears to promise new stories not yet covered in the dozens of other bios of one of the most analyzed and written about songwriters of the past 100 years. Of the four, this likely has a narrower target audience. Nevertheless, its many readers will be motivated by the same drive that attracts readers to these other books, stories about people and places we ourselves have never been. (EdNote: Louis Kemp will be in the Twin Cities at four events in Mid-August. Details Here.)

They’re all about storytelling, stories that take us places we’ve never been or could never go. We’re curious creatures by nature and these kinds of books whet our appetite, entice us, and promise to give us something in return for having invested time turning the pages. 

What do you think?