From: Kevin Cronin<\/p>\n
Subject: Re: Fandom<\/p>\n
Hey Bob,<\/p>\n
Back in the Roaring Eighties, REO tour manager, now my personal manager, Tom Consolo was famous for his ubiquitous \u201croll of hundreds.\u201d I once kicked and shattered an automatic plate glass door in the Little Rock airport, because it came too close to hitting me. (Of course, I was walking through on the wrong side!) Tom was there in a flash, peeled off a healthy batch of \u201chunskies\u201d, and saved my ass, once again. Ah yes, the good old days when frontmen could live life as they pleased and float comfortably above the law. You do make mention of a certain \u201cfrontman\u201d who has managed to retain that privilege to this day. But that\u2019s not why I am responding here.<\/p>\n
I want you to know that I appreciate the name-check, albeit in a difficult context. It\u2019s not like I didn\u2019t understand the power of the REO Speedwagon name and logo. When my friend Rob Light (CAA) reminded me of examples such as Daryl Hall, Ann Wilson, and John Fogerty, all amazing singers, songwriters, and front-persons, I understood what Rob was saying. But I feel it is safe to say that all of them, myself included, are musicians first, and let the music lead the way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Kevin Cronin Band has fed my soul in so many ways, and revived an energy in me that I didn\u2019t even realize I was craving. Was it the best business decision? Hell no. But I knew that going in. Our summer tour with Styx, (who have always had my back, and me theirs), is in its final weekend: St Louis, Chicago, and Milwaukee. The circle is complete, as Milwaukee\u2019s Busch Stadium was the final stop REO\u2019s 1981 Hi Infidelity tour.<\/p>\n That said, I feel like I am just hitting my stride. I am going on five years with my vocal coach, the great Jeffrey Allen. Just finished a rocking new song with my long-time friend and collaborator, Richard Marx. Zeroing in on completing my memoir. I love the fans. I\u2019m still hungry. I am not done yet! \u2026 kc<\/p>\n _____________________________________<\/p>\n From: William Perkins<\/p>\n Subject: Re: Released In September 1970<\/p>\n “Idlewild South” by The Allman Brothers Band:<\/p>\n Idlewild South was the name of a fishing lodge where the band briefly stayed and often partied. It was located in the countryside just outside of Macon and was a favorite fishing spot of Duane’s. Don’t know if the name had any connection with the NY airport name? I was with the band when they played the track from that album “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’.” for Eric Clapton at Criteria Studios just before Duane joined the Layla sessions. I will never forget the look on Eric’s face as he listened to Duane’s slide work.\u00a0 Neither of the first two albums sold very well until they were paired as “Beginnings” later and went gold.<\/p>\n Willie Perkins<\/p>\n _____________________________________<\/p>\n From: Gary Gold<\/p>\n Subject: Re: Pretzel Logic<\/p>\n Bob,<\/p>\n I must\u2019ve played \u201cPretzel Logic\u201d with Donald Fagen fifty times. Maybe more. It was never a question\u2014it always found its way into the setlist, whether we were at the Lone Star on one of those electrifying birth of the whole damn thing New York Nights or upstate at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, where the air smelled like Chinese food and patchouli and the band smelled like guitar strings.<\/p>\n The funny thing is, I can barely remember what we called half of those shows. Libby\u2019s Place? Uptown Lone Star Nights? The names blurred, but the music never did. \u201cPretzel Logic\u201d was the anchor, the secret handshake. And sometimes\u2014every so often\u2014it became a kind of religious experience.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one night burned into my head. Lone Star Caf\u00e9. Donald at the keys, doing that thing he does where he makes irony sound like gospel. Mac Rebennack tossing lightning bolts across the room with his voodoo piano. Phoebe Snow took a verse, and the whole place held its breath because she could crack your heart open with a single note. And then there was Mindy Jostyn\u2014criminally underrated, a true narcissus in full bloom that night\u2014stepping up, taking her verse, and blowing the roof off the joint. Drew Zingg on guitar and Libby Titus (the ultimate connector\u2026 whose spirit carried on in her daughter Amy at Levon\u2019s Barn.)<\/p>\n That was a once-in-a-lifetime molotov cocktail moment. Those people. That tune.<\/p>\n It was a blues. Infinitely, deceptively playable. We played that tune everywhere, with every combination of misfits and geniuses you could imagine. And it never got old. Sometimes ragged, sometimes transcendent, but always the real thing.<\/p>\n And then today\u2014reading you Bob, going on about \u201cPretzel Logic\u201d\u2014it triggered something. A flood. The kind of memory you don\u2019t summon, it just ambushes you. Suddenly I\u2019m back in that sweaty club, watching Donald lean into the mic, hearing Phoebe wrap her voice around the lyrics, seeing Mindy light the place up. It hit me like a freight train\u2026<\/p>\n That\u2019s the thing about music. You think it\u2019s just another blues until it\u2019s not. Until one night, with the right people in the right room, it becomes a time machine, a soul-killer, a resurrection all at once.<\/p>\n So yeah, \u201cPretzel Logic.\u201d Fifty times or more. But that night at the Lone Star? That one was everything.<\/p>\n Thanks for reminding me Bob.<\/p>\n Gary Gold<\/p>\n _____________________________________<\/p>\n Subject: RE: As For Me…<\/p>\n Hey Bob,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At 75 I really understood your penultimate communication, I and my best friend of 50 years, same age, have been drifting along through 20 years of retirement, still enjoying most of the cultural and consumable parts of old age as if we were still 30, until a few months ago we both had check ups, and we are now both in the middle of treatment for cancers, mine a nice dual package of bowel\/prostate and his a nastier version of the viral throat cancer that was made famous by Michael Douglas, it\u2019s strange, I smoked for 40 years and got the big C down south, he never smoked and got it in the neck, and he swears he can\u2019t recall having oral sex with over a thousand women like Kirk\u2019s little boy apparently did which apparently can spread the virus that causes the type they both acquired.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Needless to say, our outlook and lifestyles have been abruptly inhibited by the treatments and their side effects, and we like many of our contemporaries blissfully never thought it would happen to us\u2026 until it did.\u00a0 Prognoses are fairly positive, so we are still rockin\u2019 in the free world (Ha!) for now at least, but the aura of invincibility is long gone\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cheers from Oz,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tony Barnes<\/p>\n _____________________________________<\/p>\n From: George Kahn<\/p>\n Subject: Re: As For Me…<\/p>\n If you ask 100 people how they want to die, 90% will say, “I want to be healthy and active until the day I die”.<\/p>\n BUT if you are healthy and active, you probably aren’t going to die yet! So what is your plan?<\/p>\n Get ready, it’s coming.<\/p>\n _____________________________________<\/p>\n From: MIke Garson<\/p>\n Subject: The Darwin Poison Exposed (Ageism)<\/p>\n There\u2019s a discrimination nobody talks about. It\u2019s not in the headlines, it\u2019s not on the protest signs. But it\u2019s everywhere: age.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re young, the world loves you. You\u2019re \u201cproductive.\u201d You can grind, hustle, stay up all night. The bodies move faster, the sex is rampant, the energy seems endless. Nobody questions your value.<\/p>\n But the moment you hit 70 or 80, society quietly files you under done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re writing, recording, teaching, creating every day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The assumption is: you\u2019ve had your time. You\u2019re expendable.<\/p>\n The root of it is Darwin\u2019s old program\u2014survival of the fittest, natural selection. Somewhere in the back of people\u2019s minds, they justify it: \u201cThe old ones are weaker, so they don\u2019t count.\u201d That\u2019s ageism.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s nastier than racism or antisemitism in one way: at least those are visible. People call them out, protest them, push back. Ageism hides in silence. No outrage. Just the quiet delete key. And silence is deadly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Because what really kills people isn\u2019t just the body slowing down\u2014it\u2019s the feeling of being banished. Vanished. Like you no longer exist.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the truth: older people aren\u2019t finished. We just operate differently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Younger people run on speed and hormones; older people run on clarity and organization. What they burn in stamina, we multiply in leverage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One sharp hour at 80 can outweigh sixteen scattered hours at 20. That\u2019s not decline\u2014that\u2019s a different kind of power.<\/p>\n The antidote isn\u2019t marching or shouting. It\u2019s refusing to vanish. Staying funny, creative, alive, visible. Showing up.<\/p>\n Mike<\/p>\n _____________________________________<\/p>\n From: Edward Bicknell<\/p>\n Subject: As For Me…<\/p>\n Hi Bob,<\/p>\n Ok. Let me first brown-nose you as we say over here.<\/p>\n This is some of your finest writing in a catalogue of fine writings.<\/p>\n I bet it\u2019s resonated with many and you\u2019ve had numerous responses, here are a few thoughts, print if you want, your call, I long since suffered ego death.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n I\u2019m 77 physically but I like to think my mind stopped developing at 50 and that I\u2019m still as hip and happening as I was in 1985 aged 37 when Brothers In Arms was topper most of the popper most and\u00a0I was King for a Day .<\/p>\n So 40 years ago.<\/p>\n Who knows where the time goes?<\/p>\n Then\u00a0I was a huge sh*t, elephant sized.<\/p>\n Now\u00a0I\u2019m a tiny turd watching old videos of me interviewing Peter Grant in Toronto, and of Live Aid which was a great event punctuated by a good dollop of musical sh*t\u00a0that nobody remembers and that\u00a0doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n The moment overshadowed the content and rock music\u00a0morphed\u00a0into MOR.<\/p>\n But for those in\u00a0Ethiopia or a hundred such places since\u00a0that\u00a0didn\u2019t matter, when you are dying from lack of food where it comes from is irrelevant.<\/p>\n Oh, and\u00a0I listen to your interviews of me at least once a week, hours ( literally) of fun which help me sleep way better than the pills,\u00a0I have so many pills in me\u00a0I sound like a maraca.<\/p>\n Supertramp (Rodger\u00a0Hodgson I think) came to see me as many did but\u00a0I passed, not because of them but I already had a creaking empire\u2026..one\u00a0\u201cartist” was a bi polar\u00a0alcoholic which eventually killed him, two others had become unbearable narcissists, a third took\u00a0seven years to record 37 minutes of music and split his band up on the day they charted at 6 in the UK.<\/p>\n Only Scott Walker was a true artist, completely\u00a0unmotivated by fame, celebrity\u00a0and money, an\u00a0extraordinary man touched by genius, him\u00a0I miss.<\/p>\n By the time the Tramp arrived I had run out of gas and patience, the romance of being a fan having been at least partially destroyed by proximity to the creators, or at least the bunch that I got excluding Scott.<\/p>\n Yes\u00a0I made alot of money which gave me and my family a good life, and\u00a0I guess if that were now\u00a0I\u2019d be revelling in it, because\u00a0when\u00a0you\u2019re young you think that’s what is important, money, glory and\u00a0possessions.<\/p>\n Then you end up with a storage unit full of stuff you\u00a0don’t\u00a0care about or maybe even remember\u00a0you have.<\/p>\n I\u2019m AFRAID to go to mine.<\/p>\n The Acquisition of Stuff would be a great name for a band.<\/p>\n I fit your description 110%.<\/p>\n I\u2019m doing endless stuff knowing that none of it matters or that it certainly won’t 15 years from now if\u00a0I last that long .<\/p>\n Documentaries on forgotten lives.<\/p>\n I’m writing a memoir but when that’s\u00a0finished and\u00a0I’ve\u00a0done the book tour what then?<\/p>\n What comes after?<\/p>\n Painting?<\/p>\n Photography?<\/p>\n Fishing?<\/p>\n Or as Robert Plant said to me once\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been telling lies to young girls\u201d.<\/p>\n I\u00a0stopped doing interviews at conferences ( about 70 +) because\u00a0I\u00a0didn’t\u00a0know what the\u00a0guests were talking about and found myself bored with the “process of pop” as it\u2019s become, that probably sounds big time but so be it.<\/p>\n Everything in modern culture is generational.<\/p>\n I still listen to Elvis and the Fabs and Duke Ellington and\u00a0I know plenty of folks who have never heard of any\u00a0of them and have no curiosity.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Who\u00a0I put on at University in 1968.<\/p>\n The only gig\u00a0I’ve\u00a0ever been involved in where when after they finished in a sea of destruction no one\u00a0applauded and no one left.<\/p>\n They\u00a0couldn\u2019t, too\u2026\u2026.stunned, and deaf.<\/p>\n I watched a You Tube gig on the current tour last week and had to stop as they must for exactly the reason you offer.<\/p>\n There comes a time where both sides of the equation have to let go and listen to mid period Miles Davis or Vaughan Williams, or Ennio Morricone or Marvin Gaye, or Vangelis, or Leonard Cohen, or Sabrina C.<\/p>\n I saw Cat Stevens and Neil Young in Hyde Park in July,\u00a0I wish\u00a0I\u00a0hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n It reminded me of when my brother died and the undertaker asked me if\u00a0I wanted to see\u00a0his body.<\/p>\n I\u00a0didn’t, life is about the creation of memories and\u00a0I\u00a0didn’t\u00a0need to add that to the good ones\u00a0I had of him.<\/p>\n My\u00a0partner is way younger (of course!) but\u00a0I have learned so much from her, so much.<\/p>\n A different way of thinking.<\/p>\n I have a 25 year old friend (woman) who is way more intelligent than me and uses words\u00a0I can’t spell, its like being plugged into the mains with the\u00a0power turned on.<\/p>\n I had dinner with my son Joe last night, he\u2019s 43.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re middle aged\u201d\u00a0I told him, but\u00a0he\u2019s into hip hop and Megan Thee Stallion, AND George Clinton.<\/p>\n My daughter Lauren is a couple of years older and has blessed me with two edible grandkids and is a\u00a0mega lawyer (\u00a0\u201cMake Entertainment Great Again\u201d. )<\/p>\n Ollie just sent to his\u00a0first festival aged 16 and loved it. Travis Scott, Limp Bizkit, Hozier.<\/p>\n His sister Isabella is not far behind.<\/p>\n I worry for\u00a0the lives they will have, especially right now as the worst government in my lifetime runs this country into the ground.<\/p>\n But aside from that\u00a0I have the best family and amazing friends,\u00a0I mean really\u00a0extraordinary who have helped me when\u00a0I needed without question as\u00a0I like to think\u00a0I\u00a0would help them.<\/p>\n And\u00a0I\u2019m close with all my\u00a0significant exs except one.<\/p>\n Plastic surgery is not on my screen but\u00a0I am grateful for\u00a0the glue that keeps my hair on in high winds.<\/p>\n We get alot of high winds here in the UK, especially\u00a0\u201cup North\u201d where men are men and the sheep are frightened.<\/p>\n And\u00a0I’ve\u00a0got Peter Guralnick\u2019s book on Colonel Parker to read and Bill Curbishley\u2019s to look forward to and then maybe one from you?<\/p>\n There you go,\u00a0I\u2019ve solved your problem.<\/p>\n This is a bit like therapy.<\/p>\n One last thought.<\/p>\n The last text\u00a0I got from Mark Knopfler was about a mutual friend who\u2019d passed (I get and send alot of those now), “we\u2019ve just got to keep on\u00a0keeping on\u201d it said.<\/p>\n So you\u2019re in good company Bob, and much loved though he\u2019s\u00a0never heard of you.<\/p>\n Take care, we need you, write that other piece.<\/p>\n Your grovelling acolyte.<\/p>\n ED.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From: Kevin Cronin Subject: Re: Fandom Hey Bob, Back in the Roaring Eighties, REO tour manager, now my personal manager, Tom Consolo was famous for his ubiquitous \u201croll of hundreds.\u201d I once kicked and shattered an automatic plate glass door in the Little Rock airport, because it came too close to hitting me. (Of course, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-music-business","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-5PT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22438,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22437\/revisions\/22438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}