Conversations with Brian Rabey

[Deleted]

Welcome Brian! Great to have you with us. This book sounds very interesting and I will certainly purchase a copy when I hear it is available. I have a pretty basic question.. as a flute player who has studied Tull's music, in your opinion what is the toughest piece of Tull's music to play on flute?

[Deleted]

Welcome Brian, three things to look forward to; The Book; The Q&A and Your participation here on The Board.

Welcome!

[Deleted]

I have been looking forward to this book Brian. Thanks for posting, I will think of a good question soon.

[TM]

Hello Brian and welcome to the board! Your av is now up. Looking forward to reading your book and chatting with you.

Enjoy the Board and the good people that are a part of it.

Paul

[Deleted]

Brian

when you say 'erased' did you post them here and they disappeared or did they not upload?

Pat

[Deleted]

I'm now very much looking forward to reading the book and providing as full a review as possible on Amazon and elsewhere

[Heavy Horse]

Don't go, Brian! This is comedy gold!

[Deleted]

Hi Brian

I have just read this exchange. First off let me start by saying, I'm glad we can have this debate in public unlike some places because otherwise we would be depriving people of the facts and the situation as seen from 'the other side', so to speak.

You were welcomed here, and very much still are. I think your frustrations as to not being able to post here may have contributed somewhat to your current feeling and your tirade.

I ask you a question openly and honestly are you being put up to this?

I ask that because I have just seen your comment about Darin Cody on your Facebook page. Only recently we have had a similar tirade posted by a banned member and all I can say are the similarities are bordering on 'cut and paste'. I post an extract of your recent comments below, so that we can all see it and make judgement, if necessary, in a considered light.

"so things just escalated until he [Darin Cody - my addition] decided to read my book and write a bad review. NOW THIS IS A WARNING IN ADVANCE THAT A BAD REVIEW IS COMING, SO NO PROBLEM BEING FOREWARNED, HE IS GOING TO LAMB BASTE [sic] IT, SO EXPECT IT FROM MR DARIN CODY, REAL NAME Steve Gugerty or close, so just ignore, he is a jack ass and thinks having a board he can push people around; where do they come from?"

Has Darin made that threat to you? Has he written a bad review? I see that there has been an unfavourable review, because your tirade drew my attention to it, I have also seen another review, which is similar in its dislike of your book on another forum, yet I don't see you making accusations there or considering that the published review may be by that person. I think you may be jumping to one or two conclusions here and not necessarily getting the right answer.

The only reference I can see from Darin to a review is that he has stated that he would not review a book he has not read, I tend to think this is a honest answer and probably the best way to review a book.

You bandied the term 'law-suit' around not long ago, maybe you should reconsider your Facebook comments in that light, in the spirit of good will and well, whatever else is a reasonable way to do business with people who are Tull fans first of all and who, secondly, have been trying to assist. I know the old maxim any publicity is good publicity, it may draw attention to your book, but it isn't necessarily going to sell units.

We offered an arena for publicising your book, an offer we make to anyone who wishes to use our board to promote Tull or their own work, we truly believe that we offer help as much as we possibly can, but in case you didn't realise it, I'll tell you 'where they come from', we are all fans, we all have day jobs and families, we do this for nothing, in fact we frequently lay out our own cash to assist in the promotion of all things Tull, we don't do this on the cheap, so apologies if we didn't seem to jump to attention to assist you in helping to freely promote your book, a book for which you will receive some payment [no matter how small the amount an author will actually receive].

As I said, I [and I'm sure others here, including Darin] hope that you can consider staying with us and taking advantage of our board, it's membership, and it's freedoms, but if you feel like just offering abuse or untruths here or in third party arenas then maybe you should reconsider.

I am pleased to see that you are running with our suggestion to issue the recorded versions of the interviews. And, just in case you forgot how that idea developed we still retain the Facebook conversation between us all should you wish to see it when you credit us, in particular Darin Cody, with the original idea.


regards

Pat

[Cody]

Pardon me for saying, Mr. Brian Rabey but if your posts are any indication of your book? I'll be skipping it. Don't you believe in "paragraphs"?
Every time you post its a different story but it"s always Darin being the "Jack Ass" hmmmm
I don't consider myself a genius but I know how to post on this board. So it's kinda hard to imagine a real smart and important guy like you needs more then 30 emails to figure it out.
I didn't get one!

Jack Tetrad

But I agree you're a comedy treasure.

[Non Rabbit]

Oct 28, 2013 2:51:00 GMT -5 Cody said:

Pardon me for saying, Mr. Brian Rabey but if your posts are any indication of your book? I'll be skipping it. Don't you believe in "paragraphs"?

My thoughts entirely, for various reasons each post is a struggle to follow.

[Deleted]

Brian
Thank you for the post. Apology accepted. Thank you. It's unfortunate that you've had difficulties. All said in the spirit of moving on, and enjoying a great Tull Board.
Darin Cody

[Deleted]

Brian.. My main goal with anything regarding Ian's music be it his newer material or the music I have come to love from Jethro Tull, is for his fans. Be it via our efforts through the Boy Scout Manual, or The Jethro Tull Board, to having discussions.

We are also given the opportunities to meet great fans and share our appreciation of the music. Be it through our memorabilia site, The Boy Scout Manual, The Board or our Face Book pages we have always tried to get the word out.

When the opportunity came and we meet up with you on Facebook it was a win-win situation for us and yourself. A new Tull book is always a good thing and I and others fans are looking forward to your book. I'm sure it is a mammoth task to gather the material and put to the masses. You are to be commended for your efforts.

It is always too bad when things get lost in translation, but there are always two sides to a coin and not completely understanding each side can lead to a bit of bad blood. It is shame that this situation got elevated to heights that it did.

I recognise that you are offering to move on and so shall I in the same vein.

My main interest has always been for the Tull fan and I am happy to promote that in the best ways that I can.

On a closing note I consider Darin a personal friend and will not speak for him, but I do know that he also wants to be able to promote Ian's music as well...
Charlie

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2013 1:24:09 GMT -5 123LivingWithThe said:

Darin; Charlie:

When I said your hearts were in the right place it's obvious I was correct. Thanks for a reply with such good humour; the last thing I wanted in dealing with fellow fans of Tull was a falling out. I'm glad we can move forward With a Proper working computer - there are no problems logging on to the site and I am happy to answer questions from any and all board members, but you 2 fellows initiated this so it's important to be on the right side of the situation again.

I'm sure none of the vitriole we experienced was the real reactions we wanted, so glad to hear from you Darin and yes Charlie, we are here for the same reason and although there is a royalty connected to the book, it was a labour of love and after dealing with 2 publishers who had problems and just evaporated, finding Soundcheck and Phil was a blessing because we worked together to get what we hope is a great book for the fans out to market.

You can imagine that writing about Tull for 35 years now has been a great way to earn your living, so with the magazines from day one to now where I had the opportunity to write proper reviews and features instead of what was a tendency for most writers to find fault with; I had a forum to put things straight in print and that's where this project originated. Our goals are the same and in that respect it's good to be able to converse with you fellows again and anyone else interested in communicating. Cheers fellows, BR!

Glad this all ended up on a positive note. Cheers.

[123LivingWithThe]

I just received the invitation from you all to the Tull convention in November and am in the process of making plans to get down there as it's not close to home and not even the same country, so a passport and accommodations are being worked on asap as this sounds like a great gathering, one for all fans in the area and surrounding areas to get to and enjoy. I look forward to meeting as many of the Board members as I can and will post a definite answer as the date draws near as to whether my efforts have been successful and would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who bought the book - A Passion Play; Ian Anderson and the story of jethro Tull.

Thanks for your interest and support, the book sold out just before Christmas after only being available in the US from December 1st, so it did a lot better than expectations and it has since sold out again which is way beyond my expectations and a heartfelt thank you to the Board for putting up the notices and helping. It continues to sell well and my publisher has offered a second contract to write another book as well as an offer from an American company to write another book as well as a Canadian company to write another book - all 3 on the topic of Prog. Rock and as long as these offers continue I will do as well as I can to support the bands being written about as Progressive Rock grabbed my interest in 1969 and has not waned a tad since, so as long as the offers are there to do books on our favourite bands, the efforts to write at the very best level I can will, hopefully continue to offer you an opportunity to have quality books to buy on my behalf.

The Jethro Tull book was released amid some controversy which will always be there - that is the nature of the publishing business. so the best I can do is never let up and write quality.
If you were not a fan of the book, I am sorry it didn't land on your pile of books you support. If you were happy by the product then I am glad you took the chance on buying it and hope it satisfied your expectations. As I have said before; I did not write A Passion Play.... to be a copy of another writer's book and repeat the same information or style or anything you looked for but did not find within. My intention was to give you something different and to add to the already huge amount of material out there in books and magazines.

Having written my first reviews on Tull as far back as 1980, I can say that by the time the contract to do this book arrived, I was so much a Tull fan that when given the offer by a large publishing company to decide which band I would write about when a list of 5 was offered, it was no strain; Tull won out in a heartbeat.

The most important areas I decided to write about included as much information as possible on the young Ian that could be found and as much unknown material as well which I am told was successful. Next, I wanted the fan to have as much of a full history how this group of high school friends dating back to 1960 were able to meet and become as close as you can get in your formative years and develop into a creative force that would eventually become a group where if you saw one you saw the rest of them and eventually become a garage band and work their way to being the biggest band in the world as if you were a fly on the wall watching the creative endeavours as they gelled. I am told that was successful for which I am extremely glad to hear.

The history of the band has been written many times and so certain times in their history are well known, so the amount of space was not equal from A-Z, however there had been several huge interviews with Ian that if cut would be criminal as much of what he offered was new and unknown to most, so rather than cut down to make room for retreads from other books, the last 60 pages were a first I am told in Tull offerings and therefore what is being called the largest interview/set of interviews with Ian ever put to print, I feel was well worth making room for as it gives a larger glimpse at this musical and lyrical genius's ideas, ideals, thoughts and home life as we have had a chance to read about to this point. A day later it could be beat out by a better writing, but we can only do what we have in our grasp at the time we put it to print. The next book may well go further. But that is tomorrow.

Thank you for giving this book it's time in the sun and if you didn't like it; well, I tried. If you did like it - we should have a drink - on you. A second? On me.

[Deleted]

Hi Brian,

I bought your book but things and life in general have conspired against me and I haven't had the opportunity to finish it yet.

but following on from your post I'd like congratulate you on your sales, how big was the print run, it would be good to know how many fans out there delved into their pockets to read up on their heros, and to ask who cited it as the largest interview/set of interviews with Ian ever put to print?

I have just read The AND interviews No.1 and have just received The AND interviews number 2, and have to say I was astounded to see the number of times Ian has graced their pages with interview after interview, most of which, if not all, are of considerable scale.

Not trying to start a book war, but just wondered if the person who made such sweeping comments had considered all submissions before he handed out the accolade.