I contrast this with an interesting story about Tommy Dowd, who was the recording engineer for Aretha, Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a host of other legendary recording artists of the Twentieth Century.
Tommy had been a Physicist working on the Manhattan Project, the details of which, even a few years after the War, were highly classified. After his release from the Project, Tommy went back to Columbia, his Alma Mater, to teach physics. The books, however, were from before the War, and had incorrect information about the nature of the Atom.
Tommy knew that the books were obsolete, but his knowledge of this was Top Secret. So he quit teaching and went into Audio Engineering. He invented the Fader, and was very influential in the development of Multi-Track recording. He was also very influential about desegregating the Recording Industry, and making “Soul Music” mainstream.
Watching him remix “Layla” was a beautiful thing! An actor playing Tommy has a brief appearance in the movie “Ray”, and there is a wonderful documentary about his life called “Tom Dowd and the Language of Music”.
Now, you may ask, “Why am I bring this up?”.
The simple answer is that Tommy loved his country, and when it was a choice between keeping his job, telling a lie, or breaching National Security, he gave up the job.
And the Music World gained a Genius because of that.
“Why am I bring this up?”
should read:
“Why am I Bringing this up?”
sorry.
Your post about Tommy Dowd typifies on of the main reasons I am a member Freerepublic. Thanks.