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The Key to My Mind, and Why I Write, part II
I learned to take famous and successful people off the
pedestal I had them on (or if you prefer, elevate myself
and everyone else, to their level) in part from a fellow
writer, one who's work I have admired and love for years.
His name is Jonny Lang and he is better known for his
bluesie voice than his writing, but he writes at least
most of his own songs.
I love music by artists. It seems like most music on the
radio is by performers who's primary interest is selling
you something. The words are bland and cliché. They sound
as if a computer working off Gallup Polls wrote them. This
music is like pornography; it can deliver some small
pleasure without demanding any input. John Stuart Mill
said people should be educated to enjoy the higher pleasures.
Music by artists is one of the higher pleasures, and demands
some input (education). Retail music is barbarian in its
simplicity. When the Visigoths were listening to Hits
106 radio, the Greeks were going to small outdoor concerts
to hear artists. Jonny Lang is an artist and fittingly I
saw him at a small outdoor concert in Austin. The concert
was incredible but that's not where I leaned about
successful people.
That was after the concert. We stood inline to meet
the band and get autographs. Now Jonny Lang is not
a huge name. He is not the Rolling Stones, and I know
that, but he was a thousand or so miles from home and
a thousand or so people paid money to see him play. He
has a big nice tour bus, one that you would not be
surprised to see Mic Jagger step out of, so he is a
successful musician. My party was at the end of the line
so when we got to him there was no pressure for us to
move on. He was a normal person physically, this did not
surprise me,flesh and blood, but he was really a normal guy.
He was the kind of guy that I could have had a class with
or met at church or the gym. We visited for 10 or 15 minutes.
He ask if we enjoyed the concert and we said we did.
We visited about music and told him he was very bold
to be so open with his Christian faith in a largely secular
arena. We visited about Austin and explained the rivalry
between the University of Texas and Texas A&M. We ask him
if he wanted to get a cup of coffee but he said he needed
to hit the road (he was opening for Steve Miller the next
day) so we said by and left. It wasn't that strange to ask
him if he wanted to get a cup of coffee and I would not have
been surprised if he had accepted. I don't know any of these
guys personally. For all I now C. S. Lewis might have broken
out in hives the day The Screwtape Letters was published, for
fear of rejection. The difference between them and me isn't
that they are demigods. Its that they didn't let the fact that
they weren't demigods keep them from their work. Hemmingway
and Lewis published their books and Lang has recorded 5 albums
to date. The Truth is I don't answer to Stranger and if he
doesn't understand my metaphors its his loss, and that's why
I'm sitting on my keister writing now.
Article written by Joseph Kraft.