music business connections

The Truth About the (Music) ‘Industry’ Expounded in The Prodigal Band Trilogy (Part Three)—Handlers and Agendas

It isn’t just a matter of “selling one’s soul” for fame and fortune that explains why so many entertainers appear to promote and practice debauched behavior on- and off-stage. Those guiding their careers and success surely have something to do with it, including managers, producers, backers, and such ‘influencers’ as pop culture sages and spirit-guides. Timothy Leary and new age leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are examples from the ‘hippie days’ of the sixties, and Aliester Crowley, a Satanist and leader of an occultist group Thelema who died in 1947 (and memorialized by the Beatles as ‘sergeant pepper’ of sorts…Crowley also appeared on that album’s cover) also was an influencer in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s; Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame was an avowed follower of Crowley.

Thus it is not just ‘whistling Dixie’ that I included among the evil characters for The Prodigal Band Trilogy the occult ‘church’ leader Swami Negran, his successor, ‘healer’ Cole Blessing, and then the next successor Mark Besst, a tech oligarch in the age of the internet. Also included in the bad guy list are evil ‘Novordo Club’ and occult secret society the Hellyons members Baron Torquay-Lambourgeau, Duke Marty Effingchester, Mrs. X and Y and Rodney Davis, a mafioso-type, and others. All of these can be considered handlers, making sure the prodigal band Sound Unltd follows the nihilist agenda set forth by the evil, led by the Satan-character, Corion, who guides those handlers.

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The Truth About the (Music) ‘Industry’ Expounded in The Prodigal Band Trilogy (Part Two)

Years ago I read several articles in various newspapers and pop culture magazines about Mafia or ‘Syndicate’ influence in the music industry (as with Hollywood and other entertainment platforms) into the 80s and 90s. I know for a fact that the Mafias (and I don’t just mean the Sicilian one) owned various night clubs and concert venues (and not just in the US).Though Mafia influence seems to have waned some I suspect they still have a say in the entertainment businesses, including record labels.

Note: the part about involvement with evil New Age guru Swami Negran, as stated in the previous post, will appear next week in Part Three.

The following snippet is from Chapter Two of the original version of The Prodigal Band, self-published by OmegaBooks in 2018, © Deborah Lagarde. The then-five band members (minus bassist Keith who would rejoin the band later) are sitting with then-manager Billy Prestin, Keith’s dad Sean Mullock and new road manager Billy Hallsip, eating spaghetti, the night before the band Sound Unltd would embark on their contest-winning national tour.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy Controversial Topics Series: Episode Four-“It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know.”

Several snippet posts seemingly back the idea that in order to succeed in the popular music industry and the entertainment business in general, one must “sell” his or her soul “to the devil.” That mind-set has been around many, many years but became a dominant theme during the period when rock music reigned supreme and continues even harder in these days of rap/hip-hop supremacy as rock seems to have faded into a background within the mainstream. For instance, it is getting harder and harder to find classic rock radio stations in places like El Paso, yet rap and hip-hop stations there are much easier to find. I have my suspicions as to why, but I won’t go into that here. Simply, it is the way industry moguls want it to be.

Interestingly enough, some of the more popular rock bands these days hail from Asia, especially Japan and Korea with J-Pop/Rock and K-Pop/Rock (the GazettE, a Japanese rock band, for example, is my daughter’s fave rock band, and they have toured the US twice on world tours…their record label is SONY as far as I know). Europe still has some of the more popular grunge and death metal bands, as well. So while rock is not “dead,” it isn’t what it used to be in the US.

These snippet posts don’t cover this notion, but do deal with how rock or any recording artists come to be targeted for fame and fortune in the first place. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” was a saying I remember as a kid in the 50s and applied to many career threads or business success. In the 60s and 70s rock and roll era, it was obvious, as several friends (and including a band I was in for a short time) could verify that they wouldn’t become “rock stars” because they didn’t “know” the “right people.” They might know local bar or night club owners, but not any of the “big boys.” I did have a college friend that played in a band that performed in a large NYC pub venue, but that was as far as they got in the early 80s.

While the first novel in The Prodigal Band Trilogy, Battle of the Band, starts off with a “prayer” for success as the band Sound Unltd began its contest-winning national pub and small venue tour, it doesn’t really cover the “who” they “knew” aspect of the beginnings of their success. The third novel, The Prodigal Band, however, does begin with introducing the “who” they “know” people that helped create the group, including influencer parents and adoptive parents as well as ancestors. And these ‘parents,’ having been in the business themselves twenty years earlier, “knew” others, higher-ups so-to-speak, with more clout who would assure early success, and who “knew” others even higher up who would make sure they’d make it big.

All of the following snippets come from The Prodigal Band.

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