I read two books this week, both autobiographies of famous Californians. I read a lot of nonfiction, particularly histories and biographies, but not usually contemporary pop culture figures. Still. One was Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor bodybuilder and politician. This was a natural follow-on to having re-read the whole Conan the Barbarian series last month. One interesting thing was his childhood in Austria. Arnold grew up less than 100 miles (160 km) from my dad in Hungary. He talks about when he was ten years old or so helping his dad, the police chief, take in a flood of refugees who crossed the border after the revolution. Also made me decide to add some exercises for my lats to my workout.
The other was Crazy from the Heat, by David Lee Roth, original frontman for Van Halen. Having gone back and listened to their albums again with a fresh ear (currently enjoying Diver Down in heavy rotation), I’ve concluded Diamond Dave was the real magic ingredient. He’s a very smart and insightful guy, and has a couple things to say about music that really struck me:
“Tone is a direct result of your personal character. And that tone will come out regardless of the equipment you use. You will fiddle about until you have the perfect representation in your mind of who you are, whether you know it or not.”
And a bit later:
“The saxophone was the original fuzz tone instrument. That’s the barometer of soul power, that’s what you set your watch to.”
Interestingly, both Arnold and Diamond Dave mention reading Teddy Roosevelt’s autobiography, which I read a few months back.