David Bruce

The Funniest People in Music, Volume 2 David Bruce

This book contains 250 anecdotes, including these:1) While he was head conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, Artur Rodzinski used to have members of a carefully selected committee listen to new music, then make recommendations about whether the orchestra should play that music. On one occasion, all the members of the committee except one turned thumbs down on a piece of new music. The other members of the committee asked the lone member why he wouldn't join them in condemning the new work. He replied, "I can't condemn it-I wrote it." 2) Even early in her life, Joan Jett knew that she wanted to play rock and roll. She found a guitar teacher and told him what she wanted to learn, but it didn't work out because she was so young and inexperienced that she didn't realize that learning to play the guitar with a teacher involved a traditional educational process that she was unwilling to go through. The guitar teacher tried to teach her to play "On Top of Old Smokey," but Joan's response was, "Screw this." Instead, she got herself a "Teach Yourself To Play Guitar" book, taught herself a few chords, and then started playing along with her records by Led Zeppelin and T Rex.