Max Power’s words still hit home a day later. He’s right. I need to take my journey to publishdom with more of a professional attitude despite my personal entwining with the project. My goals ain’t going to accomplish themselves. There might be a little improvise and a little compromise, but it will still take uncompromising effort to get where I want to be – having people finding this blog because they have heard of my successes / offerings and begin to learn how I got to wherever “here” ends up being.
Take the Dave Matthews Band, the band in the video clip above. Say what you will about them. I have many friends who still have their backlash problems with the band. The band has had their peaks and valleys. From 2003-2007, I had trouble listening to them. They hadn’t had a good album since 1998 (except for live shows). They got bad marketing advice, listened to too many people to try and stay “popular,” and lost their way for awhile. It happens. Most Deadheads don’t speak of the early 1980’s. And what the hell with Zeppelin’s last couple years before Bonham’s death? John Lennon had an 18-month “lost weekend” with the nanny in his Yoko years. I’ve got two words for those who still worship the kingdom of John and Jackie Kennedy: Marilyn Monroe. Even the legendary Odysseus spent 5 years in the arms of a goddess on 20 year trek to get back home. And don’t even get me started on the “distractions” of the Blues Gods I have become bound to as I build the Book of Blues world. When the storytellers have to use words like, “main girl,” and the like…hey, some nights they just we’re trying to have a roof over their head for another night.
But DMB kept on keepin’ on. Their vigor seemed to return in 2007 live shows. Then, painfully, they lost LeRoi in 2008 and from their tragedy they became reinvigorated and now play with the energy and fury they possessed in the 1990s. Their 2009 album Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King sounds like what the album after 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets should have been.
Life is seldom without peril. And it’s what I have to remember. So when my boss wants me to go to a free Black Crowes concert over near Chicago just off Lake Michigan, I’m here – even if nobody can find Max Power again. I got to get my work done, even if I’m not getting paid much for it.
As I tell my intern – “don’t get up; don’t get down,” as she tries to navigate the worst job market this side of World War II.
Max Power is also the one who tells me not to work to much, but I think he means during the 9 to 5. I’ll verify that with him if we can find him again.
By the way, if you happen to see a tall, shaggy Irishmen who looks like he’s a step out of tune, tell him DB and Finn are lookin’ for him. 🙂
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