“This is the best book about how it used to be,” writes the influential music critic and record industry analysts Bob Lefsetz, in praise of Paul Rappaport’s wild ride of a memoir, Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay and the Art of Rock Promotion. “[It’s] the only book I can remember that truly details what it was like inside the star factory.”
After a career spanning more than three decades in rock promotion at Columbia Records, “Rap” knows as much as anyone what it takes to launch a new act, pump up a new record, or beat the drums on behalf of a world tour. Before capping his career at the label as a senior vice president, he had played a pivotal role in shaping and re-shaping the careers of some of the biggest stars in the business, including artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Elvis Costello, and the Boomtown Rats.
“I’m a storyteller,” he explains, of the many ways he tried to frame the stories of the musicians on his roster. “We were making it up as we went along, and the characters were everywhere—not just the artists, but the behind-the-scenes people, the managers. No one had captured anything… I started thinking if I don’t write this down now, I don’t know how long I’ll have these memories. But I have them now, so that’s why a book, and why now.”
Upon leaving Columbia, Rap formed his own production company, Tres Hombres, and for many years wrote the “Backstage Access” block for Classics du Jour. He was the lead guitarist in the pioneering Los Angeles punk band Mogan David & His Winos.
Join us for a frenzied and free-wheeling look back at the glory days of rock ‘n roll, as Rap reflects on the writing of his first book, and a culture-stamping career that gifted him the chance to eat latkes with Lou Reed, receive a backstage guitar lesson from Keith Richards, talk Bob Dylan down from writer’s block, and trade licks onstage with David Gilmour in a once-in-a-lifetime turn as a featured guest of Pink Floyd.
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