Through their long and wild career, The Rolling Stones have made their mark on our culture; from epic albums to famously bad behavior. Over their 50 year history, journalists have collected a treasure trove of material, but none more prolific than music journalist Hanspeter Kuenzler. The eBook People have partnered with Kuenzler in this new venture from their parent company, The Interview People GmbH, one of the most respected international interview syndicators.

50 Years: The Rolling Stones – Views from the Inside, Views from the Outside is a massive two-part collection of the best journalistic material spanning the band’s career. The ebook includes feature articles from Rolling Stone, The Daily Mail, and Daily Express with everyone from girlfriends and wives to The Stones themselves. Much of the material in 50 Years: The Rolling Stones has previously been unavailable in the US and the book comes in at an unprecedented 2000+ pages with over 150 images. Part 1, available in July, covers the first 25 years of the band, from their early days in the UK, their arrival in America as part of the “British Invasion,“ and their sellout tours around the world. Never before has such a landmark collection been available to the public and at a time when both music historians and music lovers are turning their attention to the "world’s greatest rock band.”

“It’s not only a journey through 50 years Rolling Stones,” says publisher Matthias Würfl, “but also the history and evolution of music, press and western society of the last half century”

The Author:  Hanspeter Kuenzler has interviewed top stars including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tina Turner, Robert Plant, Mark Knopfler, Blur, Oasis and Radiohead. Today, his features appear in a variety of publications around the world, including Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Sublime Magazine, Loop, Guitar Dreams and Musik Express. He regularly presents a show with the latest music from Britain on national Swiss radio, DRS.

The Publisher: Matthias Würfl has conducted interviewed stars including Pink, Carlos Santana, P.Diddy, Lionel Richie, Carla Bruni, and Mick Jagger. He founded The Interview People GmbH in 2007 with Michael and Uli Karg. Today they work with outlets in 70 countries, not only selling their own interviews but also features and images from prestigious publishing houses. Recently they launched a new company, The eBook People, which provides quality multimedia e-books using material from their archives.

Best known for his classic contributions to publications such as Time and LIFE, revered photographer Henry Grossman has captured everyone from Oscar-winning actresses Elizabeth Taylor, Meryl Streep and Barbara Streisand, seven Presidents including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon to rock ‘n’ roll legends Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart and the Grateful Dead.However, most are unaware of Grossman's long relationship with the Beatles during the 1960s. For over four decades, the vast majority of his Beatles archive (which tops a staggering 6,000 photographs) has been tucked away, awaiting rediscovery. Now, for the first time ever, over 1,000 of these images – most of which have never been published or even seen – are finally being made available in Places I Remember: My Time With the Beatles, published in a limited quantity of 1,200 numbered copies, the first 250 signed by the photographer Henry Grossman. The collection is unprecedented in its scope and intimacy.Working closely with the photographer, editors Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, who published the book through their company Curvebender Publishing, spent over four years culling the best images from this incredible archive and distilling them into one remarkable volume. Weighing in 13 pounds, at 528 pages and featuring over 1,000 black and white and color images, Places I Remember is a landmark in the world of Beatles photography. The images are presented chronologically, and the accompanying text by Grossman clarifies and explains events along the way. The result is an engaging first-hand account of a journey into the Beatles' world at the height of their fame.“The Beatles experience is such a positive and powerful part of so many lives,” says Kehew. “People enjoy more than just their music and long for more detail, new information, more intimate connections to their lives. Grossman captured not just the Beatles but the world they lived in allowing the viewer the whole scene, the subject’s own view, the situation they were in and what it felt like to be there. It’s a unique approach, very different than anything we have ever seen.”“Any one of these unpublished sessions turning up would normally be a great find,” adds Ryan, “so it was even more incredible that this many wonderful photos had gone unseen. This is not just another book of Beatles photos. This is among the most significant collection of Beatles images in existence, both artistically and historically.”Grossman's relationship with The Beatles began in early 1964 when he photographed them during their iconic first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. By 1965 he had become a trusted friend and companion, traveling with the group to The Bahamas and Austria during the production of Help! Over the next three years, he would photograph them time and again behind closed doors, capturing a rare insider's view of The Beatles' world. From private moments at home with their loved ones, to late-night parties and recording sessions, Grossman took more photos of The Beatles over a longer period of time than any other photographer.“This new book is the best of my many Beatles photographs,” says Grossman. I’m happy to share some of my favorite work and thoughts on those scenes. These are souvenirs of places I remember and some very memorable friends.”Henry Grossman was born in New York City to renowned etcher Elias Grossman who had been commissioned to do portraits of Gandhi, Einstein, Mussolini, Paul Robeson and others.Grossman studied photography at the Metropolitan Vocational High School. While at Brandeis University on a four-year Theater Arts scholarship, he photographed guest speakers Eleanor Roosevelt, Marc Chagall, David Ben-Gurion, e.e. cummings, Robert Graves, John F. Kennedy (on the day he announced his run for the presidency), Adlai Stevenson and Henry Kissinger, among others.While still in his twenties, he went on to shoot numerous assignments and covers for Life Magazine, the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Paris-Match and others. His subjects ran the gamut from prominent political figures to painters, sculptors and writers and, especially performing artists.Grossman shot the Beatles extensively between 1964 and 1968. Despite a background in classical music and portraiture, Henry, only a few years older than the Beatles themselves, developed an immediate rapport with the group. In addition to covering their initial appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and the movie locations of Help, Henry enjoyed unprecedented access and was invited into the Beatles' homes to photograph them informally with their friends and families.Unknown to many of Henry's subjects and colleagues was the fact he was an actor and Wagnerian tenor. After attending Brandeis he later studied with Lee Strasberg where his classmates included Dustin Hoffman and Elliot Gould. Henry went on to perform at the Metropolitan Opera as a principal tenor and on Broadway for a run of more than 1,000 performances in Grand Hotel.

Richard Loren worked as Jerry Garcia’s personal manager and is a former agent and manager of the Grateful Dead. In his music business career, he also represented a wide variety of musical artists and other headline bands, most notably—The Doors and Jefferson Airplane.
 
Loren graduated from Gettysburg College and began his professional life in the music business in 1966, as a music agent for the Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) in New York. He found and promoted emerging musical talent with a client list headlining amongst others, Tim Buckley, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and the Chamber Brothers.
 
In 1970, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and became Jerry Garcia’s personal manager. From 1974 to 1981, he also worked for the Grateful Dead, first as their agent and then their manager.
 
While working for the Dead, Loren is credited with initiating several groundbreaking firsts. In 1977, he introduced a unique distribution system for The Grateful Dead Movie that allowed for exclusive screenings of the film in select concert halls nationwide.  In 1978, he coordinated diplomatic negotiations between the governments of the U.S. and Egypt to conduct a series of Grateful Dead concerts at the site of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids of Giza and for the Dead’s fifteenth anniversary in 1980, he organized an eight show run at Radio City Music Hall, the FIRST APPEARANCE EVER by a rock group at the historic venue.
 
Loren retired from the music business in 1981, but briefly returned to work in 2008, to be the executive producer of a Grateful Dead Thirtieth Anniversary CD/DVD entitled, Grateful Dead: Rocking the Cradle Egypt 1978. A segment called “The Vacation Tapes” is an abbreviated version of personal footage he directed and filmed that debuted as a bonus on that Rhino Records release.
 
He now lives in New England, and continues to be interviewed and quoted frequently by music industry authors and magazine writers.
 
Website: www.highnotes.org
 
High Notes is available from amazon.com and through all major booksellers. It is also available in digital format.

When shifts happen, as in seismic ones, they have the power to alter the trajectory of a life, business, or industry. We can anticipate or react to these life-altering situations by thinking independently to put ourselves in a position to prosper from them. Or, we can delude ourselves, via wishful thinking, leaving us exposed to suffering catastrophic financial and/or emotional consequences by not learning from the experience. 

Living in Southern California, Gary Carmell has become very familiar with tectonic shifts in the earth’s crust. Carmell, author of the new book The Philosophical Investor: Transforming Wisdom into Wealth (March 2015), has also experienced numerous tectonic shifts in the economic landscape in his nearly thirty-year investing career. Correctly anticipating economic trends has allowed his real estate investment and management firm, CWS Capital Partners LLC, to grow from assets of $250 million in the late 1980s to over $3 billion today.

 “Wealth goes far beyond the financial realm,” says Carmell. “The Philosophical Investor helps investors establish a life well-lived that avoids catastrophic decisions, offers financial, physical, and emotional resiliency in the face of inevitable setbacks, encourages readers to search for and correct their shortcomings to avoid repeating big mistakes, and to have the courage to seize life-changing opportunities. Although it might seem like a never ending roller coaster, I’ll help investors survive the ride with confidence and even some fun.”

Like most investment professionals, Carmell is passionate about helping individuals become wealthy. What sets him apart, however, is how — in his practice and his new book — he incorporates the philosophical teachings of some of the greatest minds of our time into his innovative financial-planning strategies. These great minds include German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, William Shakespeare, famed investor Charlie Munger, economist John Maynard Keynes, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Bob Dylan, Aristotle, the Grateful Dead, and more. A literature enthusiast from a young age, each of these scholars and artists have taught Carmell that truly wealthy individuals possess far more than abundant financial resources. 

While having financial resources is important, The Philosophical Investor also highlights that building the long-term, financial aspect of wealth is very difficult without possessing the non-financial resources. Using real-world examples and thought-provoking firsthand narratives, Carmell urges readers to be cognizant of and focused on these other areas of personal abundance, which in turn can help increase the odds significantly of protecting and growing one’s financial resources. Carmell teaches investors how to think more independently and invest more wisely by seeing the bigger picture, understanding cycles, paying close attention to their psychological pitfalls to avoid following the herd, having the strength to overcome adversity, and the skills to execute a disciplined, yet opportunistic plan. Complete with historic and current stats in charts and graphs, The Philosophical Investor helps readers put unique, proven advice into practice. It also includes the following themes: 

• The Munger Moment - what it is and how to capitalize on it
• How right-brained thinkers can succeed in a left-brained world
• Evaluation of risk-reward to know when the odds are in your favor
• When “Shift Happens” investors can either succeed or stagnate
• What Schopenhauer, Shakespeare, and Bob Dylan have in common
• How to identify and take advantage of wealth-building opportunities
• The characteristics of a healthy ecosystem and how to apply them to evaluating investment management firms

Gary Carmell is the President of CWS Capital Partners, a real estate investment management firm based in California and Texas, and founded in 1969. He specializes in the acquisition, development, and management of apartment communities throughout the United States, where his company owns and operates more than twenty thousand units with a value of over $3 billion.  

A Chartered Financial Analyst, Mr. Carmell received his B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles in political science and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California. He is the father to two adult children, and he lives in Southern California with his wife.  

Carmell can be reached through his website www.garycarmell.com, and through LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Philosophical Investor is available for purchase on Amazon and other fine booksellers.

Yes, I am a fan of the Grateful Dead. There was a period of time when they occupied an important part of my life when I was traveling to see many shows with friends and immersed in the Dead community.  While I didn’t care much for some of the personal grooming habits, appearances, or recreational habits of some hard cored Deadheads, I did love their sense of adventure, warm personalities, and iconoclastic lifestyles. The music united us all regardless of our backgrounds or appearances. The Dead somehow aggregated a large number of society’s misfits into a tight knit community that allowed them to find a purpose in life. Ironically this anti-mainstream community came to grow to be so large that it ultimately became quite mainstream (much to the consternation of many) as the result of an incredibly successful and innovative business model.

Grateful Dead – The Fare Thee Well Tour

I headed up to Santa Clara on June 27 for the first of two shows the band performed there. My personal pictures are shared on my Facebook page. These shows were only added after the unbelievable demand for the original three Fare Thee Well shows set for Soldier Field in Chicago over July 4th made the band realize they had greatly underestimated how badly people wanted to see them for their 50th anniversary farewell shows. Deadheads were particularly miffed that the band would snub the Bay Area as part of saying goodbye. After all, that is where it all began for them and to go to Chicago, to the same venue where they played their last shows before Jerry Garcia died in 1995, and represented everything that was wrong with the band and the scene didn’t feel right. They were more popular than ever, not in good health, seemingly playing for the money, and huge numbers of people came to shows just to indulge, feel cool about themselves, and wreak havoc. By going back to Soldier Field the Dead hoped to rewrite history somewhat and return to there older, wiser, more healthy, and committed to excellence. Yet, as Thomas Wolfe famously wrote, you can never go home again. Actually the Dead should have gone home again. Despite some years of absence in terms of the original surviving members reuniting to play together, the Dead ecosystem and enterprise was still alive and well and quite massive and the Dead tried to act as if it were the good old days of mail order tickets and a smaller, but very loyal fan base.

Great leaders and businesses know when they make mistakes and have enough brand equity and a loyal customer base to overcome occasional big blunders provided they act boldly to correct them and communicate openly. Think of Coke with the disastrous replacement of such an iconic product with New Coke and Netflix opting to split the company into two with the adoption of Qwikster for its streaming service. The same can be said of the Dead. After realizing they blew it, they released a long letter to their fans. You can find some key excerpts on my blog: https://www.garycarmell.com/grateful-dead-open-source-business-model-one-of-the-most-successful/

The Dead was one of the first and most successful open source business models. They never felt their albums captured their true sound and musical depth. This could only come through their live performances. And yet, because they were very experimental and bold risk takers, any particular show could fall flat or even spontaneously combust. Thus, it was important to see many shows because magic would inevitably transpire and they wanted all of their fans to know what that was like and have a hunger for more once it had been experienced. A true natural high for anyone that has experienced it. As it’s been said, there is nothing like a Grateful Dead show.

Early on the band began taping every show to allow them to go back and listen intently to see where they were successful and where they fell short. This constant self-analysis helped instill a culture of continuous improvement and always striving for excellence, even if it led to very frank and open dialog when band members thought others didn’t do their best. This approach is a hallmark of all great organizations.  No resting on one’s laurels and dealing with breakdowns at the source when they occur and doing so openly and honestly.

How do you think that history will remember the Grateful Dead? The open source business model that was ahead of their time who brilliantly marketed their product to a rabid niche market? Or just a rock and roll band that was a fusion of bluegrass mixed with jazz-style improvisation to create their uniquely psychedelic sound? Whichever it is, they have carved out a unique place in history. 

Gary Carmell is the President of CWS Capital Partners, a real estate investment management firm based in California and Texas, and founded in 1969. He specializes in the acquisition, development, and management of apartment communities throughout the United States, where his company owns and operates more than twenty thousand units with a value of over $3 billion.  

A Chartered Financial Analyst, Mr. Carmell received his B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles in political science and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California. He is the father to two adult children, and he lives in Southern California with his wife.  

Carmell can be reached through his website www.garycarmell.com, and through LinkedIn and Twitter. The Philosophical Investor is available for purchase on Amazon and other fine booksellers.