My favourite part of the Ahmet Ertegun biography I read on the airplane home was David Geffen explaining Ertegun’s reply when young Geffen asked him how do you make a lot of money in the music business? “You wanna know how?” and he got up from his desk wearing his very elegant handmade shoes, his Turnbull and Asser shirt and a Hermie’s tie looking like a banker and he hunched over with his head down and sort of rumbled across the floor. I said “What the fuck is that?” He said, “That’s how you make a lot of money in the music business” I said “I don’t get it.” He said ” I’m gonna do it one more time, watch.” So he did the same thing again and I said to him ” I still don’t get it.” He said, “Schmuck, this is it. One more time. Take notes.” And he did exactly the same thing so I said, “I don’t get it.” He said, “If you’re lucky, you bump into a genius and that makes you rich in the music business!” Which is the truth and he bumped into a lot of geniuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"