The Upside of Ignorance; the Downside of Knowledge

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
    the more knowledge, the more grief.
--Ecclesiastes 1:18

"Ignorance is bliss; 't is folly to be wise."
--Thomas Gray

* * * 

It's interesting. We live in what has been called the information age. We're completely inundated with information on nearly anything we want to learn more about. Has this made us happier?  

There are a variety of ways in which ignorance can be more satisfying than knowledge. Here are a few examples that I've observed.

In my article Data Analytics: The Three Most Important People in the Room, I show one way in which company decision makers can be happily self-deceived by ignoring the risk factors with regard to a desired decision. 

As has often been noted, "we don't know what we don't know." Sometimes this ignorance is simply a lack of experience. Sometimes, it is the result of our own efforts to block out what we don't want to hear. 

In the political realm two instances come to mind. When the governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, some of his efforts to make a positive impact were thwarted because he brought his own team of people he trusted to Washington, people who didn't really understand how to get things done in the Federal realm. They were ignorant because of their lack of experience inside the Beltway.

According to Michael Lewis in The Fifth Risk, this ignorance of how things work at the Federal level was amplified more than ten-fold when Donald Trump was elected because it was a willful ignorance. The incoming president didn't understand the complexity involved in the transition process. When former governor Chris Christie saw this he stepped up to assist in what is generally one of the biggest challenges of a new administration. According to Lewis, the newly elected president chose to shut his ears.  

Lewis went on to cite Jared Kushner's surprise that when taking over the government the incoming leadership team has to appoint all new department heads to run everything. Kushner assumed that the people working there would still be at their posts, as would happen when a new CEO takes over a company. 

A reviewer of The Fifth Risk at Amazon.com wrote these thoughts, which were the impetus for today's blog post:

Willful ignorance plays a role in these looming disasters. If your ambition is to maximize short-term gains without regard to the long-term cost, you are better off not knowing those costs. If you want to preserve your personal immunity to the hard problems, it’s better never to really understand those problems. There is upside to ignorance, and downside to knowledge. Knowledge makes life messier. It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes to shrink the world to a worldview.

* * * 

It happens in boardrooms. It happens in government. It happens in life. There are no sure things when it comes to the future. Life involves risk. How to find the balance between worrying too much and too little about every little thing is just one problem we face. If we knew how many ways our little world could be upended in the next 24 hours, we might never be able to sleep. 

Some disasters are unavoidable. Others, however, are set in motion by willful ignorance. 

For example, an acquaintance of mine was hospitalized for eight days due to a health-related condition that he'd ignored. It almost cost him his life. When I spoke with him afterwards, his sage advice was this: "Don't ignore the signs."

Disasters (generally) don't just happen. Whether running a country or just taking care of your own day-to-day health--both physical and mental--you usually have clues when things need to be addressed.  

* * * 

All these things reminded me of the Rolling Stones hit single, "Mother's Little Helper".

     "Kids are different today, " I hear every mother say
     Mother needs something today to calm her down
     And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill
     She goes running for the shelter of her mother's little helper

And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day  

The song is about pill-popping as a way of escape. Of course there are other ways people self-medicate, choosing to avoid rather than face issues. The end result, whether it's a car, a business, your health or a relationship, is a breakdown.

* * * 

Life is hard, and knowledge can be painful. How we choose to address all the issues that we grapple with is up to us.  

One useful starting point might be what is known as The Serenity Prayer.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept   

the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can, 

And wisdom to know the difference.”

Influences: How Well Do You Understand How You Became Who You Are?

The book Pretexts by French author and Nobel Prize winner André Gide (1869-1951) is a collection of essays and observations on literature and morality. The book opens with a set of four talks he gave on influence, the limits of art, the importance of the public and the evolution of the theater.

In the first essay he discusses influences in general and the influence of literature more specifically. It's an essay I've read several times over the years, and a theme I've often pondered. I think, for example of how not all things influence people the same way. For example, why does a magnet have such a powerful effect on steel and no effect whatsoever on wood?  So it is that advertising or news stories--fake or real-- stir some people and while others remain completely indifferent.

Interestingly, Gide cites the example of Goethe, the great German writer and statesman, being completely indifferent to Beethoven's music and moved by "the pure and smiling tenderness" of Mozart. He did not understand Beethoven's passion, nor did he comprehend what Beethoven's music was all about as it swelled out of him. The anecdote shows how greatness is not always understood or appreciated.

This is why in our time we have musical genres that inspire some and leave others cold. I think immediately of Dylan and Hip Hop. Some people get it, and others don't.

Even the most common influences influence people differently. An example would be winter weather here in the Northland. For some, the short days, snow and cold leave them depressed. Others get invigorated. "Bring it on," they say, either because of their passion for winter activities like snowmobiling and skiing, or because of the pristine beauty of fresh snowfall and the aesthetic sense which is awakened.

So we see that places and seasons impact people differently.

What Gide suggests is that growing means becoming more open to the wider world, to people and places, to other influences beyond our tiny sphere. He goes so far as to say, "Those who fear influences and shy away from them are tacitly confessing the poverty of their souls."

For this reason, Gide encourages us to explore. Great minds do not fear influences.

This may be why dogmatists become so hardened in their ways. They fear influences, locking themselves within themselves. Foreign cultures enrich us, and reveal other ways of being fully human. Whether traveling abroad (or living abroad for a season) or simply getting to know people different from your own circle, each experience of real engagement provides an opportunity for growth.

* * * *

Centerville All Stars at the Red Mug

I believe many of us are unaware of many things that have been influences on our own lives. The influence of our parents is fairly straightforward, usually. I have these characteristics from my dad, these from my mom. The influence of our neighborhoods is similarly straightforward, usually. Cultural influences, however, are frequently less evident. I will leave you with one example.

How much have you been influenced by African culture? If you are a white American, I'll guess that you don't think about it all that much. I'd also propose that whatever answer you guess, that it is three, four or five times more than that.

When cultures conquer other cultures, the conquered culture is not really destroyed. It is carried within the hearts of the dispersed. From there it seeps out into the culture of the conqueror. Christianity did not spread in Rome by conquering Rome with the sword. As Rome fell, the conquering "hordes" from the North got infected with this "good news" that had begun to pervade the Roman empire, and in turn even the ruthless Vikings became infected with it so that Christianity became vibrant in the Scandinavian region.

In a similar fashion, the ruthless slave trade removed blacks from Africa, transplanting them here where that which was in their hearts similarly emerged. Over time, the music of Africa has come to permeate nearly all facets of Western music.

During the past century music has come to be one of the biggest influences in our culture. Jim Morrison, who became the voice of The Doors, chose to be a rock singer because though he considered poetry his art, the audience for poetry was a sliver of what the audience for music was. When a poem is read, it is usually read once or twice, and occasionally studied in school. But when you produce a hit song, people can hear it hundreds of times.

Who among us has not had music running through their heads at least for a portion of each day?

The first generation of Africans in the Western hemisphere carried African music in the heart, but as their culture and music intermingled with other forms of music all varieties of permutations emerged. From origins such as Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia we had field hollers, spirituals, gospel and country and rural blues. Jazz was birthed in New Orleans through its own set of special circumstances, and as African Americans moved northward, cities such as Chicago, Memphis, Kansas City, New York and Detroit produced new variations on African influenced music, evolving into Swing, Soul and Hip Hop.

Features of African American music that we take for granted today but which originated in Africa include "call and response," rhythmic syncopation, as well as vocal and instrumental improv. Drumming was likewise a central part of West African culture.

The big irony is how this "American Roots" music became adopted by youth in Europe so that we had The Beatles and Rolling Stones seeking inspiration from the rhythm and blues records produced by Chicago's Chess Records. In fact, my first Rolling Stones album (their second) had an instrumental track titled 2120 So. Michigan Avenue, the address of Chess Records at that time. (I love the harmonica riff.)

I've hardly scratched the surface here. Seriously. I myself was only recently introduced to these concepts via a presentation by jazz singer Bruce Henry at a November Magnolia Salon event in Carlton. Bruce is a teacher who has developed an extensive curriculum (20 lessons) that takes you deep into the roots of all varieties of music from military music, ragtime, Dixieland, Gospel, Big Band Swing, civil rights protest music, Afro-Cuban jazz, funk, Motown and rap. You can find more information on this program at www.evolutionofafricanamericanmusic.com

Until you open yourself up, you really don't know how much you don't know.

Life is for learning. Embrace it.

More Buddy Holly Fingerprints: Not Fade Away Never Seems To Fade

It's remembered as "the day the music died." Born Charles Hardin Holley, we knew him as Buddy Holly, and by age 22 he was making music history. Buddy Holly and the Crickets were the hottest thing in rock 'n' roll. Unfortunately, prodded by a financial pinch, he put together a new show with other stars and went on an ill-advised, mid-winter road tour across the Northland that ended in an Iowa cornfield.

One of the songs he wrote and was performing on that tour became the Rolling Stones' first U.S. single as well as the opening track on their first U.S. album. As a Jersey boy I'd always associated the song with the Stones. If I had never moved to Duluth two decades later I doubt that I'd have ever gotten this deep into the Buddy Holly story, for it was here in the Duluth Armory on that cold winter night that his look pierced a 17-year-old kid in the audience named Robert Zimmerman. It was just a spark, but the fire it ignited still burns.

Just this week I learned that at one time The Beatles played 40 different Buddy Holly songs, which seems unbelievable We know a few of his hits but he was prolific beyond what most folks realize. 

In a letter to Waylon Jennings, who was supposed to have been on the plane that took Buddy Holly's life, John Lennon stated how powerful Buddy Holly was as an innovator. When Buddy Holly and his Crickets came to England, no one had heard sounds like that. Ever. In this letter he told Waylon that the name Beatles came from the Crickets. "We were insects," he wrote. Lennon also noted that Buddy Holly showed that it was O.K. to wear glasses. "Think about it. I was Buddy Holly."

At the end of this month the Armory Arts and Music Center will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Winter Dance Party that took place at the Historic Armory in 1959, featuring Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and a host of others. Details are below at the end of this post.

Thinking about that Tribute to Buddy Holly concert (link is below) soon got me thinking about "Not Fade Away," which was originally recorded in May 1957 and released as the B-side of the hit single "Oh, Boy!"

In 1964, the Rolling Stones' cover of "Not Fade Away," with a strong Bo Diddley beat, was a major hit in Britain. It became the A-side of the band's first US single. It went on to become the opening track on the U.S. version of their first album here, dubbed England's Newest Hit Makers.

SO, for the fun of it and without further adieu, here are links to six YouTube videos  by various artists performing "Not Fade Away." Make time to enjoy them. I certainly enjoyed assembling them for you.

1.
Buddy Holly's recording of Not Fade Away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyTtFNGzFsE

2. 
The Rolling Stones on Mike Douglas in 1964. This is a "must watch" because you can see early on the entire future of the Stones in their interplay with Mike Douglas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6RWnGQ3XqQ

3.
Bob Dylan 40 years later with Bruce Springsteen guitarists Nils Lofgren and Steve Van Zandt in Zurich. Dylan has performed Not Fade Away more than 130 ties in his own concerts, an ongoing tribute to a man who inspired a generation of future musicians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wI0zf-puHg

4.
The Grateful Dead first performed it in 1968 at the Carousel Ballroom in 1968 and played it over 600 times in concert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTPndsG_KA4

5.
Let's not leave out Bo Diddly's R&B rendition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6YSAGZ1EtQ

6.
I tried to find a Jimi Hendrix version, if such things existed, and came across Noel Redding's version here. Redding and Mitch Mitchell backed Hendrix on bass and drums as the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It made me sad to see that this video, which was posted four years ago, had less than 350 views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2g-JBV5oq4

Listen to all six and you start to realize how special Buddy Holly was. Hit lit a spark and set off a firestorm. Conditions were right, of course. The emerging technology, combined with freewheeling imaginations, set a generation in motion.

Related Links
John Lennon's Letter to Waylon Jennings
Facebook page for the Armory-sponsored Tribute to the Music of Buddy Holly

The Rolling Stones Logo: A Masterful Example of the Concept of Branding

I'm not sure precisely where the concept of branding originated, but I do know that all of us who grew up on TV Westerns or Hollywood's wild west films will remember at least more than one incident where brands played a role. Cattle were branded for identification purposes so they could graze freely out on the open range and still remain known as yours, or Smitty's or Boss Hargrove's. Cattle ranchers used a branding iron to place their distinctive marks on their cattle. The mark was a deterrent to prevent rustlers from stealing their property.

The earliest accounts of branding livestock go back as far as the Egyptians. During a Cairo excavation Professor Edmund Archer uncovered photos of branding taking place in front of a pyramid, 6,000 B.C. Didn't know that the Egyptians invented the camera? (Here's a more accurate history of branding from the National Cowboy Museum. And yes, it mentions Egyptians.)

Just as cattle ranchers used imaginative and distinctive symbols to make their marks unique, so today we see that companies use branding to differentiate themselves from other companies. The best brands use a "mark" that not only differentiates them, but also tells who they are. When you see the logo, you see the essence of the company.

Often, colors help reinforce the brand. Companies with a strong "made in the USA" pedigree frequently have red, white & blue logos.

Back cover of the album Sticky Fingers.

While in Vegas this past week for the SEMA Show (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) we had gone to dinner one evening to a casino on the Strip filled with the usual glitz and glam of that city where everything is spectacle. Out of the corner of my eye I caught that famous Rolling Stones logo, a lascivious badge from the era of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.

During the evening I twice commented that Andy Warhol created that memorable image, and in both instances the person I said this to replied, "Oh, I didn't know that." Turns out that I was wrong. Andy Warhol designed the album cover for Sticky Fingers, the Stones' 11th album, and the first to feature this salacious in-your-face symbol. (Read the full story of that album cover design here.)

The creator of those famous lips was a Brit named Jon Pasche. Mick Jagger and company were seeking a new logo to replace the bland offerings of Decca Records. (No doubt the corporation had assembled a committee to come up with something for the Mickster, but as we know well, there are no statues in the park for great committees.) Jagger chose an alternate route to acquire something that would truly reflect the image of the Stones as a brand. Love it or hate it, it's memorable and a powerful example of strong brand recognition. (Here's another account of the story, with additional details.)

* * * *
There's a sense in which logos are the International language of our times. Effective logos communicate across language frontiers. They say something when our words are just gibberish.

For more on logos and branding, read this entertaining article about the backstory on twenty famous car logos. I'll bet you didn't know that the seven stars on the Subaru was based on the "seven sisters" of the Pleiades. (Warhol didn't do that one either.)

I've done a few logos myself over the course of my career. And I've had the privilege of working with a few great designers along the way. If you're a business in need of help with a strong logo design, I'd be happy to introduce you to a couple talented people who can satisfy your need, without excessive expense. Contact ennyman3 (at) gmail.com.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: A Little Moonlighting

Photos courtesy John Heino Photography

Soundtrack courtesy The Rolling Stones

"To each his Dulcinea, that he alone can name... to each a secret hiding place where he can find the haunting face to light his secret flame. For with his Dulcinea beside him, so to stand, a man can do quite anything, outfly the bird upon the wing, hold moonlight in his hand. Yet if you build your life on dreams, it's prudent to recall--a man with moonlight in his hand has nothing there at all. There is no Dulcinea, she's made of flame and air, and yet how lovely life would seem if ev'ry man could weave a dream to keep him from despair. To each his Dulcinea...though she's naught but flame and air!” ~The Man of La Mancha

The Biggest Barrier To Accomplishing Your Writing Dreams

"There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results." 
~ Ken Blanchard

I recently began reading a book about sobriety by Jack Canfield (co-author of the Chicken Soup series) and Dave Andrews. What's interesting about this book are the multitude of little thought-gems and practical insights that apply to things much larger than cutting back from drinking. The book is actually a 30-day project and the full title of the book is The 30-Day Sobriety Solution.

In chapter one the authors strive to pound home the idea that unless you are 100% committed you will fail. As I read this I couldn't help applying its message to many other aspects of life, including careers, and especially writing. Here's a section from the paragraph following the Ken Blanchard quote above:

This rule means that once you are 100% committed, there are no exceptions and no renegotiating. Not only does this rule make life easier and simpler, it frees you from inner conflict. Instead of debating over and over about whether you will or won't do something, like drinking, your decision is already made. The real power and value from this comes from all the energy you can now redirect to focus on what you actually want to create and accomplish in your life.

Over the course of a lifetime of writing I have met numerous people who told me, "I've been told my life should become a book." In most cases their stories really are remarkable and should be recorded and shared. These people know they are not writers, but have been led to believe they had a story to tell. And then there are the people who have told me they were planning to write The Great American Novel or some other important book they had inside them. One friend, who has never written a paragraph of fiction in his life, said he was going to quit his job, go to Florida and sit on a beach for four months to write his novel. Ha ha ha.

Writing is not the easiest occupation and it's far from the most lucrative. That doesn't mean you should not pursue a writing career. It may be that you want to simply improve one of the most important skills that apply to any career, the ability to translate jumbled or abstract ideas into concrete prose, into words that actually convey the nebulous notions in your head and heart. It ain't easy. Or I should say, it's not easy to do well.

The authors' next paragraph brings it home, though.

However, the moment your commitment drops to 99%, you open the door for the internal debate to begin, and when it comes... this is a debate that usually ends in a rationalization...

Right there, that's the problem, whether it's a relationship, a dream or an addiction of any kind, it's the rationalizing we do that brings us down.

Do you really want to be a writer? Or do you just tell yourself that and make excuses. Maybe it doesn't matter whether you write or not. Maybe you just like researching things. Or you like the feeling that is associated with saying you are going to be a writer.

I'm not saying you should not be a writer. What I am saying, however, is that i you have been talking about writing a book for five, ten, twenty or more years and have not done it, then you're just not committed. Total commitment is the only way to accomplish something hard. Either you're all in or you're out.

Yesterday I read a news item about Tuesday's passing of Phil Chess, co-founder of the influential Chess Records, and it reminded me of a story I read in Keith Richards' autobiography Life.  Richards stated that when he, Mick Jagger and another friend discovered the blues through Chess Records they didn't just listen to the music, they locked themselves up in an apartment until they learned how to play it. That is, they made a commitment. They were so committed, Richards states, that they didn't even allow one another to have girl friends. Their music was their life. Until they could play the music they loved, nothing else mattered.

If you're serious about writing the book you've been talking about all your life, it's time to prove it by making the 100% commitment necessary to move forward. It's a commitment that involves sacrifices, but it's worth the rewards.

Meantime, life goes on. Where do you see yourself five years from now? 

A Few Anecdotes About Charlie Watts Including the Time He Punched Mick in the Face

I don't like drum solos, to be honest with you, but if anybody ever told me he didn't like Buddy Rich I'd right away say go and see him, at least the once. ~ Charlie Watts

I was a Rolling Stones fan very early on, in part a over-reaction against those moptops so idolized by the girls in my junior high school (i.e John, Paul, George and Ringo). At one time I had all their albums from 12 x 5 through Goats Head Soup. I remember the impact 12 x 5 had on me, especially the opening cuts on each side, "Around and Around" and "2120 South Michigan Street", an instrumental jam set in motion by a Bill Wyman bass riff. The title of the song is drawn from the address of Chess Records where their favorite blues music was recorded.

The frontmen for the group were such that many people may have underestimated drummer Charlie Watts. Unlike the insane antics of drummers like Keith Moon, Watts was simply smooth.

Charlie Watts isn't someone I really knew much about, though 25 years ago I discovered he was more than just a drummer for a major rock band. In the library I found a CD featuring the Charlie Watts Orchestra, Live at Fulham Town Hall. Though the one customer review on Amazon gave it two stars, I personally enjoyed the album quite a bit.

This summer while reading Keith Richards' autobiography Life I relished hearing a few anecdotes about the Stones' drummer that I hadn't known before.

The manner in which Mick and Keith discovered each other is the stuff of legend, each being unaware that anyone else besides themselves was as intensely into the Chicago blues as much as they were. When they teamed up to form the seminal band, they entire lives were devoted to listening to and learning the music. Dating girls was off limits in the beginning. The only thing that mattered was the music.

In the beginning they had no gigs and to get a gig they needed a drummer. They had so little money they shoplifted food so they, along with bass player Dick Taylor, could spend their time practicing and not having to get jobs. The drummer they wanted was Charlie Watts, but Watts had paying gigs with two bands and wasn't about to give up his income to join these newbies. Richards knew Watts was the guy they wanted. He was the real deal and they achieved their aims, acquiring Watts and assembling the core of one of the great rock and roll bands of all time. (Yes, Brian Jones was abducted into the band around this time as well.)

Stories about the Stones are legion, from the massive drug use to their exile from England to the Jagger-Richards separation in the 80s. Charlie Watts as a professional drummer kept himself out of the maelstrom, living apart from the band as they were recording Exile on Main Street in the south of France. Like many musicians it's a night owl life. On one occasion, according to Richards, Mick was in the mood to do some recording -- at five in the morning -- so he called Watts on the phone and said, "Where's my drummer?" Says Richards, these were the days when Mick's ego had gotten onto everyone's nerves, that it seemed all was about him.

Watts got into his car and 20 minutes later arrived at the place. When Keith opened the door Watts walked right past him, went over to Mick, picked him up by the lapel and slugged him in the face. "Never call me your drummer again." Here's an excerpt from Life with Johnny Depp narrating how Keith remembered it.

Whether this happened the way Richards described it in his book may or may not be entirely accurate. In fact, the way I remember reading it this summer may also be suspect. Bill German, who produced a Stones fanzine called Beggar's Banquet, wrote that it happened like this.

Here's The Charlie Watts Quintet on Dennis Miller's show in 1994 and here's an interesting Boogie Woogie in Barcelona:

 And so it goes.

Photo credit:Poiseon Bild & Text (press photo by a photographer of the consulting company Poiseon AG in St. Gallen, Switzerland)) - Flickr: The ABC & D of Boogie Woogie (Herisau, 13. Januar 2010)

No Ordinary Life: Keith Richards' Autobiography Gives Rare Inside Account of the Stones and More

There's a reason Robin Leach's show was popular in the late eighties and nineties. He took people where they'd never been, and gave them a glimpse of a life they would never experience themselves. And this is exactly what Keith Richards' autobiography delivers, a life like no other, told straight up by a guy who epitomized the "sex, drugs and rock and roll" ethic. The book is called Life.

I am listening to the audio version of the book, co-authored by Richards and James Fox, read by Johnny Depp (first quarter) and Brit Joe Hurley.  Here are a few of the things that stood out for me or especially interested me, in no particular order.

1. The inside story of how Keith and Mick met and those early days of commitment to the Chicago blues are truly fascinating for rock historians. Keith, Mick and a fellow named Stu were so totally into learning the music their entire waking life was listening to music and practicing. They considered it a violation of their commitment to even go see girls. The shoplifted food in order to survive because they had no money and no gigs. Their biggest initial problem was how to acquire Charlie Watts as their drummer. He played real gigs that paid him and they couldn't pay him anything. This presented a serious problem, a problem they eventually resolved. And the rest, as they say, is history.

2. How Keith and Mick came to be songwriters was exceptionally interesting to me. For some reason I'd never taken the Jagger-Richards team seriously as writers. In reading Keith's account I came to appreciate far more deeply how serious he was about the craft of writing, and how the two worked together bring lyrics and riffs together.

Keith describes the process all writers go through in which they begin to see things from a more detached view, seeing every experience as an opportunity to translate life into a story or poem or, in his case, a song. Sometimes they wrote songs that didn't fit the image the Stones were crafting, and they gave those to others, such as As Tears Go By, which was initially recorded by Marianne Faithful.

3. The role Brian Jones played with the Stones was different from what I thought I knew. Initially he was added value for the boys, but when LSD washed over the scene in 1966 along with fame, Jones began a three year meltdown, never fully recovering his center. Though remarkably talented he became a liability to the group.

A year ago I picked up a copy of Anthony Scaduto's book on Mick Jagger, Everybody's Lucifer, which painted the darkest possible picture of the manner in which Jagger contributed to Brian Jones' death. Scaduto, a former crime reporter, gives the impression that Mick killed Brian Jones. Keith Richard's account of the events surrounding Brian's drowning may indeed have involved an accidental manslaughter, but nothing to do with Mick.

4.  The story of how Decca came to sign the Stones is quite hilarious. It's one of the great stories of rock history how Decca Records turned down the Beatles because, "The guitar is on the way out." By the time Andrew Loog Oldham brought the Stones to Decca, the Beatles were already a phenomenon and Decca was a laughingstock. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, these suits signed them up, no matter how much they hated what they stood for or disliked them.

5. Richard's perspective on Altamont makes the film Gimme Shelter complete.

6. How Exile on Main Street came to be is a lengthy part of the book. The British tax structure is what make them exiles. Some of the income was taxed at the 82% rate and another kind of income was being filched at a 98% tax rate. George Harrison wrote about this on Revolver: "There's one for you nineteen for me." I didn't realize Harrison wasn't kidding.

There's a lesson here. Critics of the rich want to force them to hand over their wealth through taxation. Why wouldn't they do what the Stones did? "Hey, this is bull--" That's a conundrum that will require creative thinking on the part of better minds than I.

7. Keith Richards has had more cold turkey experiences than any living human that I know of. He speaks graphically about many of these, and we understand that Dante's descriptions of hell may not have been far off. Richards experienced a life with many highs, but some pretty ugly rugged places along the way.

8. Details about drugs and women feature prominently in his life story. Of the former he says straight up, "Don't try this at home."

* * * *
Much more can be said, and you can read it all -- or hear it -- here.

The Publishers Weekly review at Amazon states:
Johnny Depp and Joe Hurley capture Richards's rock 'n' roll spirit in a wise, charming, and textured narration of the famed guitarist's memoir. Tracing Richards's trajectory from boyhood in England through the formation of the Stones to the band's rise to world domination, this audiobook is chock-full of frank revelations and enlightening stories behind the music. The three readers do superb turns—but the seemingly arbitrary switches between them can be jarring and confusing. Depp's narration is steady, well-paced, clear, and grounded. He produces a delicious range of voices for dialogue (most notably a drunk judge in Arkansas), and Richards himself sounds a bit like an elderly, bluesy Jack Sparrow. Hurley captures the voice of Richards throughout, narrating in a gritty, growl that is spot-on. And sections read by Richards are a real treat; his raspy voice is unmistakable and haunting. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

One of the other reviewers wrote this:
This memoir, written with the help of writer James Fox, is an intricately detailed account of Keith Richards life, both in and out of music-but mostly in. All the stories are here-the funny, the touching, the horrendous, and the amazing. Some are well known, some weren't even known to Richards-he only hears later, from others who were with him, what went on. And he's put it all in this book. Included are 32 pages of b&w and color photographs (including one of the band, with Jagger driving, in a vintage red convertible, across the Brooklyn Bridge) in two groups, plus photos throughout the book itself chronicling Richards' life. Also of interest is an early diary that Richards kept detailing the bands early gigs and impressions of the music the band played.

The book is called Life. There's nothing quite like it.

Was It Suicide or Was It Murder?

When I was a kid, and actually to this day since I am doing it now, I used to ask a trivia question about the Rolling Stones' 1965 hit single Satisfaction. "What was the name of the song on the B-side?" If you guessed, The Under-Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" you win. The 45 had a blue label with the London imprint.

It's a long time ago, but the original front man in the group was not Mick Jagger or the Jagger-Richards combo. The man, a youth actually, who put the Stones into the spotlight was Brian Jones. More than just a pretty face, he was a quite talented musician in his own right. He plays at least seventeen different instruments over the course of several early Stones albums.

Early on, however, their manager Andrew Loog Oldham felt that Jagger and Richards should be pushed closer to the spotlight and Jones accepted this re-arrangement of significance. In watching the Beatles rise to prominence he recognized that there were financial benefits to writing your own music. (Oldham proved influential in helping another famous rock star emerge, bringing Jimi Hendrix home to England at the urging of Keith Richards' girl friend. Hendrix's career ignited overseas.)

The flamboyant Jones was also a notorious party animal and did all the drugs that were in vogue at the time. He was highly visible in "the scene" and could be seen with all the top draws both East Coast and West Coast. In '67 he had a high profile relationship with Nico of the Velvet Underground, for example, and introduce Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Music Festival.

Ultimately, these "no boundaries" lifestyles take a toll, and Jones ended up at the bottom of a swimming pool after binging on alcohol and barbituates. Within a few short years, Jimi, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison would all join him on "the other side." Rock star self-destruction is undoubtedly a side effect of too much fame when mixed with the right concoction of personal instability, taking down many famous names. Just a few from the short history of Rock 'n Roll... John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Tim Buckley, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Rick Grech (Blind Faith), Brian Epstein (manager of the Beatles), Keith Moon (The Who), Kurt Cobain, Billy Holiday, Sid Vicious, and so many more.

When they found Jones in the bottom of that pool, the arc of his career had already declined. That it was a self-destructive act, or accident, seemed self-evident. His estrangement from the band, mood swings, and drug excesses led to an easy conclusion.

In the 1990's, however, a builder who had been present at that time, allegedly made a deathbed confession that he had killed Brian Jones. This led to a book, and then another. And yesterday, two months and forty years since that drowning, police re-opened the investigation of Brian Jones' death.

Was it suicide or was it murder? Will we ever really know?

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Woodstock Myths and Realities

For the past several weeks I’ve been planning to write something about Woodstock, simply because the theme seems obligatory at some point during the month of this 40th anniversary year. When I stumbled upon the article The backlash against Woodstock's 40th anniversary it seemed like a good start point.

Michael Lang’s article is mildly tinged with a cynical contempt for the overindulgent homilies to this symbolic moment in time. He begins in this manner:

Reaching the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock festival can only mean one thing: nostalgia. It’s been in plentiful supply during the past few months. Predictable retrospectives have been written. An obligatory Blu-ray DVD of Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary Woodstock has been released, with a multitude of extras and a hideously tacky dashiki cover. Even the director Ang Lee is capitalising on the occasion with his portrait of Elliot Tiber, a key figure in finding the festival site, in the forthcoming feature film Taking Woodstock. While those boxes of remembrance have all been ticked, an official 40th anniversary concert is off the agenda.

I myself bought into many of the hippie ideals of the time, but I wasn't blind to the manipulations that were taking place as well. The notion of city kids dropping out and living off the land in communes was a fantasy no one in their right minds could expect to work for raising families, but there were a few kernels of value within the ideals, such as living more simply, sharing, the importance of community among others. Unfortunately, in a broken world these ideals tend to deteriorate in the face of rank selfishness and irritating pettiness.

Lang points out that the commercialism surrounding the anniversary has been part of the Festival since the beginning. He also addresses the co-opting of the Flower people by political machinations.

In truth, the rebellious flower-power spirit so closely intertwined with the American pop culture of the 1960s was in its death throes by the time Woodstock happened. The youthful push towards liberal politics, social unity and higher states of consciousness reached a peak in 1967 with the Human Be-In, in San Francisco, which popularised hippie culture, giving rise to the so-called Summer of Love later in the year. Subsequently, the term “counterculture” became a part of the national idiom, but the hippie movement’s rapid growth also signalled its dilution. In 1968, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and the ensuing chaos at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, left political reformists floundering. The slaying of Martin Luther King Jr further polarised the civil-rights movement between nonviolent protesters and the growing “by any means necessary” contingent. Meanwhile, the nationwide unrest over the escalating Vietnam conflict grew ever more pronounced. Perhaps most damning for the hippie populace, however, was Nixon’s victory in the 1968 presidential election — something he achieved, in part, by appealing to that “silent majority” of the electorate who viewed the counterculture as an ugly blot on the American landscape.

The article is worth reading only as a balancing act against the nostalgic hype, though frankly it (the hype) has been much less than I expected actually. Forty years is about the right amount of time for nostalgia to come to fruition. Barbie and Slinky each made a brief comeback at forty.

For an alternate view of how the rock festival scene played out, check out the film Gimme Shelter, a documentary which follows the Rolling Stones who went on tour in late 1969, culminating in the ugly out-of-control free concert at Altamont Speedway in Oakland. Not pretty. And the Isle of Wight festival that followed was even more harrowing.

Hopefully idealism among youth will not be a passing fancy. I'll be more disappointed if we find our young people to be cynics from the getgo, attracted more to apathy than to dreams of a better future for those generations to come.

Battle of the Brands

"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr

About a month ago I read that Barbie turned fifty this year. In my opinion, she still looks pretty good for her age. A little nip and tuck along the chin line and some exercise to keep the muscle tone hasn't hurt any. She never seems to put on an ounce of weight, unlike a lot of other dolls, so apparently fame never led her to change her values, or or diet.

Back in the early Sixties my mom used to sew Barbie clothes for my cousins as well as other girls in the 'hood. For the purpose of fitting the clothes she sewed she had a couple Barbies we dressed for success, for the beach or for the ball at my mother's whim. Because it seemed unseemly to her, she eventually bought a Ken doll to keep her boys from playing with Barbie.

Barbie eventually became the unrivalled brand champion in the international toy category.

One of the hallmarks of capitalism is the manner in which companies battle for marketshare and top-of-mind awareness in consumers. In marketing, companies seek not only to define their brand, its name and assets, but also to place it in the center of the consumer's mind.

Branding is a way in which a company differentiates itself from the competition. You can see this in the variety of flavors in which rock and roll came to America in what is known as "the British Invasion." The Animals, Beau Brummels, Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix were groups which crossed the seas to win the hearts of young Americans, with varying degrees of success. (Hendrix himself was from Portland, but his group originated across the big pond.)

Over time, with the onslaught of fame and the music scene tabloids, the individuals within these groups became brands in and of themselves, again with varying degrees of success. Each of the Beatles went this route, Eric Burdon of the Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton. If you said Jagger, everyone would know what you meant. He was clearly defined -- the androgynous guy with big lips and hip walk -- and even became a caricature of himself. Keith Richards represented everything you didn't want your daughter to associate with. The Beatles played up their innocence and charm, though eventually their various personas emerged.

Brand images are not always a positive. The Standard Oil Company spent a great deal of money trying to come up with a unique company name that had no liabilities in any language. They came up with the word Exxon. Unfortunately for Exxon, the image that pops immediately to mind when much of the environmentally conscious public hears the word is Exxon Valdez. The 1989 oil spill off Alaska's Prince William Sound continues to rankle.

The top five global brands of 2008 were Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, General Electric and Nokia, in that order. Number six on the list was Toyota, the highest ranked automobile company. In 2001, Ford was the world's top automotive brand, listed eighth, one slot behind Disney. But today, slotted at 49, Ford exemplifies the U.S. auto industry which has slipped badly.

When we say beer, Anheuser-Busch wants you to think of Budweiser, the King of beers. Ranked #33 in the 2008 list of Best Global Brands, Budweiser is now being challenged by a Chinese beer of all things.

Actually, Budweiser's number one seller is Bud Lite, which proves the company made a good move back in the Seventies when they saw the lite beer trend coming and fought hard to establish their cred in that arena. But SABMiller claims it sells more of its branded product Snow and has now become the world's best selling beer.

Well, back to Barbie, who in 2001 was ranked 84 in the list of Best Global Brands. Times have changed. In the current top one hundred, Barbie failed to make the cut. That's why she's recently been spotted in several Manhattan taverns crying in her beer. And rumor has it she's also been cited for drunk driving on Long Island. Twice. Fortunately, by keeping it out of the tabloids it hasn't done too much damage to her brand image... unlike some other ditzy blondes in the news, for better or worse, though in that celebrity culture, sometimes even bad news is good, as long as they're still talking about you.

PHOTO: While in Sedona we noticed that MacDonald's, home of the Golden Arches and the world's eighth-ranked global brand, was sporting Green arches, a very chic, New Age attire.