Chasing Electricity
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Chicago is officially nuts over its new musical, the Million Dollar Quartet. The show, inspired by the famous recording session between Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, is wooing every critic in the business.
Even with the legend power behind this one, I wasn’t surprised that Charles Isherwood of the New York Times said, “the most rewarding moments in the show were the more casual ones, when the four singers joined together to harmonize on those spirituals.”
Because it’s the harmonizing–and not just the musical version–that gets us, isn’t it? We’re fascinated that these four rock n’ roll icons who had some of the most successful solo careers in the business decided to throw in together.
Why? Because they wanted to.
Because they knew it would be enjoyable.
And we don’t even have to see the musical to know that the collaboration lit up the studio. Pure electricity.
It makes me think of another group of famous people who banded together to make some music.
Here though I’m not referencing professional musicians, but Mitch Album, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Dave Barry…maybe you’ve heard of them? Together, they’re known as the Rock Bottom Remainders.
The group debuted at the 1992 American Booksellers Association convention in Anaheim. And since then, they’ve dedicated a week here and there to playing music for sold out crowds to benefit causes like the rebuilding of Haiti.
Again, it would be interesting if Stephen King picked up an instrument and started marketing his musical talent. Or if Amy Tan started rocking out some musical performances. But the don’t miss factor comes from the group angle, doesn’t it?
It’s that they’re all doing it.
Together.
Yesterday, a friend and I were kicking around the idea of pulling together a group of writers in our area and seeing what we could offer the public together. And the idea immediately stuck.
Not because we’re sitting around bored as individuals, but because for some reason shared stories become contagious.
It’s the together-part that moves the story from being MY story to being OUR story. That invites those that witness the story unfolding to feel like they were a part of it too.
So go ahead, pull together an electric quartet around some idea in your life. And make history.