exlibrislarsen

Buy FORTUNE: LOST AND FOUND, featuring “The Plagiarist’s Wireless” via Amazon.com.

Several years ago, I wrote a story called “The Plagiarist’s Wireless” about a music journalist who tracked down a reclusive ex-rock star who disappeared in the late-70s for reasons unknown.

He finds him living in suburban Chicagoland in an apartment with an antique radio that has certain special properties.

Those properties have everything to do with why he ducked out of the limelight.

“The Plagiarist’s Wireless” was since published twice: in the now-defunct GOLDEN VISIONS OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, and currently, in FORTUNE: LOST AND FOUND.

The ex-rock star’s band, Wolves N’ Sparrows, was modeled after two of my favorite bands, Steppenwolf and Guns N’ Roses.

GN’R’s body of work is pretty well known, but when you say ‘Steppenwolf’, people tend to think they only released ‘Born to be Wild’ and ‘Magic Carpet Ride’. Fun songs, sure, but not exactly the fairly heady stuff that made up most of their catalog–especially their later stuff. Take ‘Monster’ for instance:

John Kay was an American immigrant from East Germany by way of Canada, and was not content to simply write love songs or songs about racing cars, as the lyrics in ‘Monster’ illustrate.

I made the video posted above a couple of years ago and posted it on YouTube on July 4th, a fairly fitting day. No matter what your politics are, the song is an appropriate call to action. This country is great, and we should remember all the good it has done, and can continue to do with the proper stewardship.

So happy birthday, America. You get the first piece of that cake.

This entry was posted on July 4, 2013 at 8:32 am and is filed under Observations & Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.