In a look back at his forty years working in the music biz, Simon Napier-Bell remembers just happening to be in the room when Dick Katz of CBS told Bob Dylan where he could stick his gospel songs. Grain of salt? From Britain’s Observer:

I finally got a meeting with [Dick Katz] but had no sooner arrived in his office than the buzzer sounded and his secretary’s voice said: ‘Bob Dylan on line one.’

‘Can I call him back?’ Dick asked.

‘No. He says he wants to talk to you now.’

Dick was about to have a conversation he didn’t want. Eighteen months previously there had been publicity about Jewish-born Dylan becoming a born-again Christian. He’d made a couple of albums full of evangelical zeal but they’d bombed. Now his contract had come up for renewal. Dick especially didn’t want to have this conversation in front of me. He took the call anyway.

To begin with, it wasn’t too interesting but then Dick yelled, ‘I’ve told you, Bob – no fucking religion! If you can’t agree to that, the deal’s off …’

Bob was arguing the point but Dick was having none of it. ‘Look, I’m telling you. There’ll be no fucking religion – not Christian, not Jewish, not Muslim. Nothing. For God’s sake, man – you were born Jewish, which makes your religion money, doesn’t it? So stick with it, for Christ’s sake. I’m giving you 20 million bucks – it’s like baptising you, like sending you to heaven. So what are you fucking moaning about? You want 20 million bucks from us? Well, you gotta do what we tell you. And what we’re telling you is … No Torah! No Bible! No Koran! No Jesus! No God! No Allah! No fucking religion. It’s going in the contract.’

As a devout atheist, I could hardly object, though it seemed tough that a contract should include such specific restrictions. When we finally got back to the subject of my group Dick had rather lost interest.

A lot of what Napier-Bell says about the music industry in this piece is fascinating and no doubt right on the mark. He’s written books about his experiences in the biz before, and I can only guess this is a prelude to another one. But, you know, you certainly need to have some color in the stories to keep people’s attention. Is all I’m saying.

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