Lesson number one: You're probably be better off doing something else. The business of music is a very affable sort of business. People are friendly, but they aren't always friends.
It's complicated. Musicians, promoters, producers all need music writers to encourage people to buy their records, come to their shows and eventually steal their music off the Internet. Music writers need musicians, promoters and producers in order to have things to write about besides the weather.
While this sounds simple, it isn't. It's a very personal kind of business. You will tend to know more about the people you write about than you want to know and almost always more than they want you to know. It is a false intimacy that is acquired from PR bios, from coffee in a green room or a couple of beers after the second set at one o'clock in the morning. You'll empathize with their plight and their battles.
From time to time, you will tend to forget there are lines and sides. You will want to believe we are all one and the same, but that's not really true. It's easy to want to believe that, because this is a very friendly business.
It's OK. When the time comes, someone will remind you.
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4 comments:
I say you should use this conversation from "Almost Famous" as your guiding principle:
Lester Bangs: Aw, man. You made friends with them. See, friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on feeling like you belong.
William Miller: Well, it was fun.
Lester Bangs: They make you feel cool. And hey. I met you. You are not cool.
William Miller: I know. Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn't.
Lester Bangs: That's because we're uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem. Good-looking people don't have any spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls, but we're smarter.
William Miller: I can really see that now.
Lester Bangs: Yeah, great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love... and let's face it, you got a big head start.
William Miller: I'm glad you were home.
Lester Bangs: I'm always home. I'm uncool.
William Miller: Me too!
Lester Bangs: The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool.
William Miller: I feel better.
Lester Bangs: My advice to you. I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful.
BTW, who was the guy in Speedos with Agnelo's hand up his ass?
Yeah, that's going up at my desk.
Now, I just need to get a couple bottles of cold medicine.
Creem Magazine from 1976 to 1980 or so shaped me as a writer more than anything else. Long live Lester Bangs.
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