Music Before the Money

“The Internet, bloggers and technology in general are hurting people’s creativity . . . the Net (should be) shut down.” - Elton John

In this morning’s papers Sir Elton John (the Earl of Honkey Chateau) blasted the internet and bloggers because as he stated, “The Internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK, but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.”

Sure they do. Talented people sit at computers to get down songs, words, art and other creative endeavors that wouldn’t have been possible 40 years ago when Sir Elton, or Reggie Dwight, began. They can then email the tune to a collaborator or collaborators halfway around the world.

Almost every successful individual has been influenced by somebody and Reg was no different from the rest. An only child, Reg was brought up in a northwest London suburb called Pinner, in Middlesex. His family later moved to a nicer neighbourhood wher Reg attended Pinner County Grammar School (not the life of your usual bluesman). Although it is said his father hated him the home always filled with the latest records and he had music lessons from the age of four.

Then came Bluesology and a backup role with bluesman, Long John Baldry, whose landmark album, It Ain’t Easy, was produced by both Rod Stewart and Elton John.

I saw Elton John during his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour in 1973. It was one of the greatest concerts I ever saw and put Elton John in my mind as the greatest of that time.

However, if Elton had lived in Mozart’s time or had been a contemporary of Van Gogh he would have been largely unnoticed, broke and hungry. It was new medium of recording that made Louis Armstrong and Al Jolson famous and it was radio that propelled Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. For Elton, it was 24 track recording, television, ’45’s, LP’s, 8-track and cassette tapes and all of the other marvels of the 1970’s. This self-described technophobe uses digital technology in his music every day and he doesn’t have a cell phone because he has other people around him who do.

My album, in 1978 dollars cost me $5000 for a quick dip. Scotch 24-track tape was $250 a roll and it took 2 to do an album. Ad in mastering, mixdown and you didn’t get a lot. The ’70’s guys, like Elton, had the money from their labels to write their albums in the studio. Some bands during this time, especially ones in which the members did not like each others’ company, recorded tracks separately. The Beatles were amongst the first to do this and the practice no more smacks of isolationism than a home studio.

So now a musician can sit down in the bedroom, put down tracks for free on a $700 computer and put a song on the internet for all to hear. Then he or she can get feedback from a variety of sources including blogs. That’s not isolation, that’s global. Was Robert Redford being isolationist when he started up Sundance for independent producers? No, he wanted a new venue for films that the Hollywood establishment wasn’t even giving a first look. (Peter Jackson sent daily clips of Lord of the Rings to Los Angeles for editing and couldn’t have done the trilogy as well without the internet.)

Sir Elton John, as good as he is, benefited greatly from the new technologies of his time. I believe is wrong when he claims that artists aren’t getting together and I think, unfortunately for we who knew him during the Rocket Man days, he’s now a member of the establishment.

“Those who condemn wealth are those who have none and see no chance of getting it” - William Penn Patrick, co-founder of Mind Dynamics

Mind Dynamics, it can be argued, was the first seminar company using human potential with an experiential focus as its subject. It’s founder was an Englishman, Alexander Everett, who brought the idea to a master salesman, William Penn Patrick, and the two built up an organization of large group training sessions that later spawned est and Lifespring.

Alex Everett was a graduate of Silva Mind Control and drew on his readings of Edgar Cayce (”the sleeping prophet”) and Theosophy. It is also said he was a very ardent student of Egyptology and Rosicrucianism (the study of ancient mystic philosophies as it pertains to Christianity) .

Penn Patrick, on the other hand, began his experience in sales selling products door-to-door in Illinois. He built up a cosmetics empire with Holiday Magic and backed Everett’s company until he finally bought it in 1970. Four years previously he had unsuccessfully run for the governor of California against Ronald Regan.

Until Mind Dynamics, awareness and human potential sessions were by-the-book seminars that were easily forgotten once the participant left the building. Penn Patrick and Everett built a program intended to prod individuals to find their personal power and goad them to improve themselves. By using this method, they thought, the student would be ingrained with the studies and wasn’t liable to forget the basic prinicples.

It is said that William Penn Patrick’s pyramid selling in Holiday Magic was the fuel that spread Mind Dynamics around the country. However, no one was more successful at selling the program than his prized student,Werner Erhard. And although most seminars attracted no more than thirty students, Erhard was averaging sixty to a hundred people and soon began renting out hotel conference rooms. He left Mind Dynamics in 1971 and taught “est” for the next 13 years, from 1971 to 1984. Unlike Penn Patrick and contemporary, Zig Ziglar, Werner Erhard pushed people to their limits with his “did you get it?” mantra. His methods have been argued over for years and the fact that in 1960 he abandoned his family and changed his name from John Rosenberg doesn’t help his image.

William Penn Patrick died in the crash of his vintage warplane on June 9, 1973. In his wake he left a “me generation” hungry to discover themselves and who would later spend untold millions on seminars and self-help books.