Random House Books Bill Flanagan’s book "A&R"
explores the music industry world through the eyes of suit-wearing
execs.
By Chris Moriates
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
“I always wanted to be a writer ““ that’s what
I went to college to do. It just took me 20 years,” said Bill
Flanagan, the author of the new fiction book “A&R,”
as he sat in a plush chair in the living room of his ninth floor
Beverly-Wilshire hotel room. “I did journalism, because I
liked to, but also because I had to pay the rent.”
That is a hell of a way to describe how he climbed the ranks of
the music industry in leaps and bounds, writing for Rolling Stone
magazine ““ considered by many to be the gospel of rock
“˜n’ roll ““ and eventually assuming the position
of senior vice president for music network VH1.
“A&R” is Flanagan’s first official attempt
at a fiction novel, but he brings with him the experience of a
veteran writer and music industry insider.
Some people hang their ticket stubs on their wall, but Flanagan
has a house full of VIP, all-access,
Most-People-Would-Kill-A-Man-For-This-Pass experiences. From his
tour with U2, which yielded his 1995 book “U2 at the End of
the World,” to his time spent with Keith Richards and Mick
Jagger, Flanagan not only understands the rock world, he’s
lived it.
Who better to tell the raw, behind-the-scenes story of the music
industry?
“A&R” tackles the music world from the
perspective of those in the penthouse suites and high-class suits;
those that make the money; those that, in contrast with the overly
portrayed lives of rock stars, very few people know anything
about.
“I don’t know how you would successfully
fictionalize the life of a rock star,” Flanagan said.
“The cliche life of a rock star is so over-the-top and
excessive that the only thing that makes it interesting is that it
really happened. So, I tried to deal with something that I knew
about and I felt that hasn’t really been written
about.”
The novel follows a young ““ some say naive, some say dumb,
some say idealistic ““ record executive named Jim Cantone and
his experiences in the big leagues of the record business. Flanagan
described Cantone as the white-eyed innocent, chewing on a piece of
straw, who is just not Machiavellian enough to look at different
motives.
“”˜A&R’ was a return to creative writing
for me, obviously filtered through the people that I know and the
situations I’ve found myself in,” Flanagan said.
“To sit down and write was what it hadn’t been since I
was in school ““ it was just a pleasure; it was fun.
It’s like that difference between “˜oh no, I’ve
got to do the term paper on that boring subject,’ and the
creative writing part, which is just fun.”
The characters of “A&R” are mostly
exaggerations, more like caricatures of the business side of the
music industry. None of them are based solely on a certain
real-life person, however, that hasn’t stopped the
comparisons. Flanagan has received phone calls from almost all of
the major record companies, saying that he must have written the
story about their company.
“Everybody thinks that they are in the book. People
I’ve never met are calling up and asking how I found out so
much about them,” Flanagan said. “I take that as I
guess I got it kinda right.”
“Wild” Bill DeGaul, the good natured, freewheeling
head honcho of the mock giant music conglomerate World Wide in
“A&R,” has been likened to multiple real record
label presidents. But Flanagan denies that it is based on any one
of them. DeGaul is described as pushing 60-years-old, but is still
the coolest guy at a punk rock club.
The novel also presents with brutal honesty what the record biz
is like for 99 percent of the bands that are signed. This story is
like a Mike Tyson punch to the gut for any aspiring rock musicians
that have dreams of becoming the next Mick Jagger. It shows the
real day-to-day struggle of holding onto a record contract.
It captures the life, resembling VH1’s hugely successful
series “Behind the Music,” without actually falling to
many of the set cliches.
Flanagan gets the reader to share with the record execs in the
book the anticipation and excitement of a band that is going to go
all the way … and then he hits them with a brick. The idea is
that the reader shares in the surprises, emotions, and
expectations.
The story is less about “A&R” and the characters
and more of a social critique on the state of the music industry,
by a man that has lived his life for it and in it. Flanagan has
been in the position of most of the characters in
“A&R.” It is a story of the corruption that seems
to go hand-in-hand with the music industry.
So, the question becomes, “Can you go into the music
industry and be successful at it without corrupting your passion
and ideals?”
“I think that you can, but I don’t think that it is
an all-or-nothing thing; it’s a thousand decisions and
it’s decisions that you have to make every single day,”
Flanagan said. “And that’s a lot of what Cantone is
wrestling with in the story. At what point do the decisions
cross-over into that sort of mafia thing of “˜hey, I gotta do
what I gotta do to protect my family.'”
Flanagan knows a lot of people in the music business that are
passionately in love with music, and on the other side he knows
musicians that are cynical and just in it for the money.
“A&R” attempts to show that music people ““
just like human beings ““ cannot be stereotyped.
The ultimate story is the unpredictability of music and the
irony involved in the checkmate game of record execs.
If “A&R” paints a slightly dismal picture of the
life provided by rock “˜n’ roll, then Flanagan’s
story can balance it out with its sense of success and hope. After
all, Flanagan is lounging in a luxurious Beverly-Wilshire suite,
getting calls from by Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows, and is on
a tour in support of his new book. And all of this was built on
picking up $1,000 checks for hanging out with rock groups and
writing about them in the early ’80s.
“Music will find a job for you if you don’t give up
on it,” Flanagan said. “It will never be Keith
Richard’s job, which is the one you wanted, but you will be
club owner or a disc jockey or something. And what I find that is
kind of heartening is that no matter how hard-nosed these guys get
““ no matter how much scar tissue they build up ““ deep
inside them there is still that part of them that is the kid that
fell in love with music.”
That kid is still evident in Flanagan, who had newly bought
““ that’s right, he actually went out and bought ““
CDs piled on the hotel dresser. The Strokes, Alicia Keyes and Ryan
Adams stacked on the dresser of a 46-year-old man, and it’s
clear that Flanagan still understands.
If that isn’t enough, how about Flanagan’s
explanation on how he got involved in the music world in the first
place?
“I just kept trying to get free CDs.”
That’s passion. That’s the real story.