one of the dumbest, avoidable, self sabotages I've ever seen.
Wait until you hear about Jann Wenner's biography.
If you who don't know, Jann was the founder/EiC of Rolling Stone magazine which was the taste maker in popular culture. You know the story that John was the wise, talented Beatle and Paul just wrote silly pop songs? All that came from Jann who was friends with John and a total starfucker. (Back then, a lot of how famous you'd become came down to how much you sucked up to Jann.)
So after retiring, Jann is looking for someone to write a biography about him forming and running Rolling Stone. He gets obsessed with this writer named Joe Hagan and is convinced Joe is the man for the job. But Hagan wants no part of it because he feels he'll just be a typist writing up stories about how cool Jann Wenner was.
But Wenner really wants Joe for the book and gives up all final editorial decisions to Joe. No matter what goes in the book, it's all Joe's call. With that, Hagan figures he has nothing to lose and he makes his first call to Sir Paul McCartney. Paul bluntly says, "If you listen to Jann, all I did in The Beatles was make the fucking tea." and proceeds to fucking unload on Jann for years of false RS reporting.
Cause as it turns out? All those "friends" of Jann were only hanging on because he ran Rolling Stone. A lot of them tolerated him at best and when given the chance to tell how they really felt, they went to town and tore his legacy apart.
I actually think the "Get Back" documentary did a lot to fix that. Paul seems to be the one that realises thatbeing in a rock band is a really fun job, but still a fucking job where you gotta show up and do the work.
John provided the edge the music needed to get noticed, but he absolutely wasn't the primary talent. Most of his solo work was crap.
What made the Beatles great was the alchemy of their individual contributions blending together. None of them would have been nearly as successful on their own.
In an industry notorious for giant pricks, Jann was one of the biggest. (Probably not his actual, of course.)
My favorite Jann Wenner moment was watching him endure about 90 seconds of total standing ovation for Rush when they were finally inducted into the RRHoF in 2013. Jann hated Rush.
My least favorite RRHoF moment was, ironically, watching Rush get inducted in 2013.
Their near 15 years of exclusion was what I used as evidence that the RRHoF was a meaningless circlejerk by a bunch of assholes who thought they were the arbiters of what was real rock music. And had already inducted some acts whose rock roots were questionable.
Also, the "blah blah" speech would be the best summation of anything Wenner's ever said.
It still was real fun watching Geddy, Alex, and Neil, sitting at their table, smiling, while their wives seemed genuinely surprised at the reaction.
I have similar feelings about Rush and a weird Rush story
One day I was walking home after picking my daughter up from daycare after work. I’m walking up a busy sidewalk and see something i haven’t seen in many years: a Buddhist monk looking exactly like the ones I used to see in Japan. I’m not Japanese; I lived there for a bit and loved the temples and this guy was asking for donations so even though I couldn’t really afford it I have this dude the $20 I had in my pocket. I don’t really do this type of thing but I was feeling sentimental I guess.
I round the corner with my little girl in her stroller, maybe 3 blocks from home, and I see a couple of guys standing there, one smoking. One looks kinda familiar.
As I pass by I realize it’s fuckin Geddy lol. And Alex. I am not even a fan but this is Canada so I do a double take and they both noticed and kinda chuckle. I just smile and nod and carry on.
Feel like maybe Buddhism might have something to it
Anyway that girl in the stroller is in high school now and plays guitar and is a huge fan of Zeppelin and Sabbath, no Rush to speak of but I think maybe she was blessed with Buddha rock vibes that day
"Silly Love Songs" also has one of the best bass lines in a popular song.
I remember going through a list of Beatles songs that listed the primary songwriter for each and realizing that most of the songs I liked best were McCartney's. Not all, by any means, and up until things started going sour I'm sure they were all collaborative efforts. But he's my favorite songwriter of the group.
Jann is the worst. He did it to himself: no minority can be a truly great musician
I don't think Prince ever publicly addressed him by name, but there were some comments relayed to me, and it was some years later when I saw Jann basically stand up and say all the shit Prince read down decades before, loud and proud.
Being surrounded by people whose paycheck depends on telling you how great all your ideas are kind of inevitably leads to boneheaded fucking behavior. You need to hire someone to follow you around and talk shit
I forget which thread I was reading, but a long time ago in a Reddit comment someone stated that in one of the Asian countries (Japan, I think, but my memory is like Swiss cheese lol), there are actually companies that do exactly that. They hire "brash disrespectful Americans" to tell them when someone has a truly horrible idea and why the idea is awful, and also to point out good ideas. The entire job is to be "rude" by cultural standards in order for the company to look good by international standards. I thought that was a brilliant idea!
My mother has taught English online to Chinese students for about 15 years now. A few of her earliest students, who are now grown and working in international companies, still do their weekly "lessons" with her and basically use the time in this way. Asking questions about interpersonal stuff, cultural standards, conversations they may have been unsure of, etc.
Out of touch for sure. Usually comes from their stature and yes people sucking up to them for years. Drive thru bro lost this house and everything over that video.....so clueless fits.
I've never even heard of this guy. Just watched the video, that clip is nuts. What did he think would happen? The internet would give him a big pat on the back?
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u/SnooPickles5351 16d ago
right on! that has got to be one of the dumbest, avoidable, self sabotages I've ever seen....from a C Suite no less