by Clive Young I recently dug through Evening's Empire, an intriguing novel by Bill Flanagan, which follows band manager Jack Flynn as he spends 40 years plotting the careers of Swinging London also-rans, The Ravons. One of the more surprising stops along the way is the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA, circa 1985 or so, where ex-Ravon drummer/perpetual pitchman Fin passionately explains the importance of Hip-Hop. In the process, Flanagan brilliantly reduces 100 years of musical evolution, economics and technology down to three tidy pages.
"The reality of the businessand everyone will hate thisis that the louder record wins. I've never heard a quieter record win in an A&R meeting."producer/mixer Rob Chiarelli