This is a book of facts.
This is a book of facts formerly treated as secrets by an industry set to deceive you, blind you to the truth, and rob you.
The revelations herein, if publicized, would radically redefine the industry hierarchy with devastating repercussions.
For too long those who have this special knowledge—us—have remained silent.
But staggering intelligence and insight and supreme dignity make an unlikely couple. As do we. And so the tact preventing us from speaking up until now must now force us to speak.
Imagine a world in which a forty-six-year-old who attempted to date a fourteen-year-old experienced, as a consequence, some trouble with his million-dollar career, loss of favor, prison, or a swift kick in the sack.
Imagine a world in which a heroin addict was in danger of losing his job.
Robert Plant is over-rated.
The words are crisp and clear, the syntax unambiguous. And yet the sentence sits on the page like an obscenity. How can this possibly be true? And if this sentence is true, then how many other such sentences must follow, each a brick flung at the glass of certain palaces considered sacred for so long?
Because if it is true, then our entire civilization might be fraudulent. Any respected public figure, even the president of the united states (2001-2008), might turn out to be a spank.
Are you sure you’re ready for this?
This is a true story. And this is a love story. A story about how two people spot one another towering above the crowd. A story of conviction and late nights getting to the bottom of things, smashing REO Speedwagon records in the street.
The facts are in. We’ve got them right here.
This is a story of faith. Faith in a twelve-note equal-tempered octave and an antiquated system of harmony. Faith in the power of the human voice when used as a musical instrument or a tool for histrionic enunciation.
This is a story of conflict. About how one woman traveled from the pastoral acreage of Belle and Sebastian to find common ground with a man descended from a gleaming angular skyscraper of XTC.
This is a story of those who gave their lives, those whose lives were taken, a handful who persisted in long lives marked by unflagging integrity, and also the Rolling Stones.
This story is a gift. Our gift to you, which is also nature’s gift to humanity: an ear wired to perceive as significant certain polyrhythms and ratios. Serving no known evolutionary purpose, this appreciation for an art form that communicates nothing of practical use, must stand as evidence as something, but as long as this gift is mis-used we may never know of what.
This book is a warning. A warning of what can happen if you go too deeply into the discography of the superstars of the 1970s, accept as given that what is featured in Rolling Stone magazine or AOR is what is real.
We are here to caution, to provide counsel and hope, and to share that portion of our vastly superior knowledge you are capable of getting.
-Dirk Stratton, Secretary, Spineless Books