[Harp-L] Raconteur: A POLITE WORD FOR LIAR

[Joseph Leone]

I used to read a lot of biographies. I had to quit for the reasons you mention. But remember. Everything is legal in the entertainment world. It’s what keeps their names in circulation. 
smo-joe

> On Nov 12, 2018, at 12:02 PM, Ronnie Schreiber <autothreads at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Larry Adler was a great musician. After more than 60 revolutions around the sun, though, I've come to realize that many cultural heroes often have feet of clay when it comes to their personal lives. I've read too much about the Doors and Jim Morrison and his abysmal behavior to people in his life to be able to completely enjoy their music. I understand why the Israeli Philharmonic doesn't perform Wagner. I've  yet to hear someone who knew him personally say that Paul Butterfield was a nice person. Most say stuff like "he was a hard cat." Sonny Boy II appropriated John Williamson's stage name because he was running from the law.
> 
> Adler was quite self-promoting and, if you listen to the Gladwell podcast, he was unashamed about the fact that he preferred telling good stories to telling the actual truth. As such, I'm at least a little skeptical about Adler's account of and reasoning for expatriating himself from the United States. I see him as a hypocrite, the very definition of a limousine leftist. A lifelong man of the left, he lived well in Beverly Hills, then hobnobbed with British aristocracy after he moved to the UK. He wouldn't live or pay taxes here, for political reasons, yet was happy to make a very good living touring here. He was ungrateful for the country that gave him the opportunity to pursue his dreams. He was quick to claim victimhood for mistreatment as a Jew in Baltimore in his youth but he abandoned his parents' Judaism and wouldn't perform in Israel after the country moved away from socialism. Outside of his musical talent and ability to tell a yarn, I don't find much about him to admire.
> 
> He could play the chromatic harmonica masterfully, though.
> 
> Ronnie Schreiber
> The Electric Harmonica Co.
> Makers of the Harmonicaster
> 
>