Empty Calories & Male Curiosity, #47 🥃

Are you a one-hit wonder, or maybe just schizo like me?

QUICK HITTERS:

1. This week’s book recommendation is Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall, by Helena Merriman. The book is the harrowing story of one particular tunnel built from West Berlin into East Berlin in an effort to break East Germans free from the Iron Curtain. While their particular story was amazing, I found much of the backstory leading up to the creation of the wall even more intriguing. There is also an incredible account of a documentary created around this escape attempt.

   

2. Does your brain make major leaps from one topic to another? Like, you could be thinking of one very specific topic and then something within your brain connects it to a completely different idea? That happens to me all the time. It happens a bunch in this week’s GOING DEEP. So much so that I thought I’d give you a heads up. When you see these two pics below, that is me readying you to take a ride on the deserted wasteland that is my brain:

   

GOING DEEP:

Are you a one-hit wonder, or maybe just a schizo like me?

Earlier this summer Substacker Andrea Hoffman did a really cool series on hit songs for her What Are The Chances publication. I would often read or listen to these around the same time I would be reading another Substacker, Liz LaPoint. Liz’s Substack GenXcellent specializes in GenX stuff and very often has me thinking back to the music I listened to in high school and college.

Most days, when I’m in my car, I listen to music on SiriusXM.¹ Occasionally while scrolling through the stations I land on the ‘90s channel, where Lisa Loeb has a weekly show.

If you know Lisa at all, you most likely know her from the song Stay and the music video that accompanied it:

Because I am an introvert, a strange bird, and someone whose brain refuses to shut off for even a single second of any day…the combination of all of the above factors had me thinking about one-hit wonders.

You know, people like this….

More specifically, it made me think about Lisa Loeb. Was she a one-hit wonder? In order to answer that question, you need to know a little of her history (which I do and did, leading to this entire premise)...so, here’s a quick overview for you if you don’t know or don’t remember.

Loeb was an unsigned, independent artist living in NYC in the early 90s. She was cutting demos, performing live, and developing a small following. It was in that scene that she met actor Ethan Hawke, who was living near her at the time and running in similar social and artistic circles.

Sometime between 1990 (the year she cut the Stay demo) and 1994 (the year the movie Reality Bites was released) Loeb shared the demo of Stay with Hawke. Hawke liked it, shared it with Ben Stiller (the director of Reality Bites), and Stiller liked it enough to put it in the film.

The movie was a hit and the song blew up, soaring to #1 on the Billboard charts for three straight weeks in the summer of 1994. It was sandwiched right between the OJ Simpson fiasco and Major League Baseball cancelling its season because of a labor strike.

At the time Loeb didn’t even have a record deal. That changed quickly. However, nothing she produced subsequently penetrated the zeitgeist quite the way Stay did.

However, when you listen to Loeb on SiriusXM, it is clear that she is a truly happy and content person who continues to produce art. As I wrote this, I performed a quick check with ChatGPT to confirm.

She has indeed continued to create music, most recently children’s music, as well as creating several successful businesses. She also seems to be happily married with two children.

Are you a fan of Aerosmith? I can’t say that I am or that I’m not. They’ve got some good songs I suppose. But to me, trying to think of the opposite of a one-hit wonder, they were the first band that came to mind.

Aerosmith formed in 1970, had their first hit single in 1973 (Dream On), and have performed together relatively continuously for the past 55 years. They are currently on hiatus due to singer Steven Tyler’s vocal cord issues.

Over the course of their career as a band Aerosmith reinvented themselves several times, with each iteration eventually becoming commercially successful.

However, as individuals, the main members of the band have struggled personally. Take lead singer Steven Tyler for instance. The a-hole in me just wants to show you this picture and ask if a 77-year-old man who dresses like this could possibly have even an ounce of self-awareness:

But without wasting your time on gory details, I think we can all agree he’s led a troubled life. Substance abuse, failed relationships, abandoned children, lawsuits against him. Not exactly the picture of happiness in my book.

So, here you have two artists (Loeb & Aerosmith), with relatively long careers, who have each reinvented themselves numerous times, but with vastly different levels of commercial success.

For me the question becomes: Why did they reinvent themselves?

I believe the answer is clear….

• Loeb reinvented herself because she wanted to follow her own creative passions and interests.

• Aerosmith reinvented themselves because they wanted to remain commercially relevant. Whether that pursuit was driven by the continued need for income to fund lavish lifestyles, or the validation that comes from constant attention and admiration, only they themselves would know.

Something tells me that even if Loeb had never met Ethan Hawke, she would have been happy and successful.

That same something tells me that however much money, sex, drugs, and adulation Steven Tyler receives…he will never find peace.

Based on the type of people who generally read my Substack, I have a guess as to which camp you’d prefer to be in. That being said, we all have choices to make in our lives.

Choices to be true to ourselves, or to do what we need to do to make life tolerable in an imperfect world. Or some combination thereof.

How about you? Have you ever had to make such a choice? If yes, what was your reasoning?

Let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, here’s hoping you enter your next challenge the way Psy enters an arena full of Gangnam Style fans….

🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠 🧠

1. Fun fact: I paid roughly $300 for a lifetime subscription to SiriusXM back in the early 2000s and am still reaping the rewards of that investment.