Despite owning a Kindle (first generation), and having the Kindle App on, well, every device I own, I still purchase and read actual, physical books. While everyone else on the plane has to stop reading and stow their devices, I just keep on reading. Good thing when in a really good part of a book!
I recently finished a really good book called The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret. Had a Barnes and Noble gift card burning a whole in my pocket while I was home, and, strangely, it was the only book I purchased. I usually walk out with three or four, but the selection, in any section, was crap.
Anyway.
The Wrecking Crew is a fantastic read. Kent Hartman does a good job of weaving stories together and delivering witty, easy writing. Good stuff. The book chronicles the music industry from about the 50s on through the Wrecking Crew, which played on an awful lot of popular, famous, award-winning songs. I wasn’t surprised to learn they were the instruments behind many Beach Boys songs, but I was astounded to learn they were also the instruments behind “Classical Gas,” one of my all time favorite instrumental pieces. Rather cool to read the background of how the song got made, though.
A theme throughout the book is change. Perhaps adaptation is a better word.
Each member of the Wrecking Crew has a back story, a history, that required some kind of adaptation. And many of them took a chance on heading West.
While I was enthralled by the rich stories Hartman recorded and then pieced together, I found myself snatching pieces of my own life and putting them together in a new construction, so to speak. A new pattern I hadn’t recognized before.
Granted Hartman has the benefit of hindsight, as do the remaining, surviving members of the Wrecking Crew. it’s easy to piece things together and formulate the “path to success” in hindsight. The pieces have fallen into place. Just turn around and connect the dots. I think Steve Jobs even said something similar in his graduation speech.
One thing that sticks out in the book, a theme really, is an unwavering belief in having chosen the right path. Or taken the right step. They were supposed to be doing this. And after countless sessions, they got really good at it and could recognize a hit when they heard one.
Persistence. Patience. Adaptation. The Wrecking Crew.
Perhaps I need to work on the patience part to continue to adapt to my new surroundings, its various challenges and enjoyments.
Seems fitting to be reading Moonwalking with Einstein now.