The Curious George Questionnaire: #14
George likes his stories "shaken in a blender," so Wayne Robins helped him out
MM: Toe-tappin’ goes back a long way for George, he’s happy to report. He fondly recalls his old nightclubbin’ days. Longtime music journalist and critic Wayne Robins (Creem, the Village Voice, and Newsday, to name a few pubs) caught our curious friend’s eye on the ‘stacks, so George wanted to “hear more.” We’re grateful Mr. Robins was happy to play along!
She: There’s that kicky lyric from the musical Hamilton about being in “the room where it happens.” Wayne Robins has lived that line. Chasing the scene making and breaking music acts (The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Elvis—last name not required) since the late-1960s, Wayne continues to be a galvanizing voice in music journalism. His book, A Brief History of Rock, Off The Record should be required reading for anyone who’s stood at the sweaty edge of a stage, hollering for one more encore to keep the show going and the magic from never-ending.
Wayne Robins Answers The Curious George Questionnaire!
To me, curiosity is…
Being open to anything. I’m a believer in lifelong learning, so I am also looking to make good on that. I got sober at 60; I started a 12-year-run as a college professor at 62. I’ve been a music journalist for more than 50 years, but last summer, age 74, I started taking piano lessons, the first time I have studied any musical instrument. We’ve always had the piano in the house, and we serendipitiously found the right teacher. He's one of those Juilliard-at-age-eight classical players. The idea is not to become a musician, though I’ve been a lyricist since I was a teenager. I want to expand my grasp of the language of music so I can be a more effective critic; to be able to say, the reason you feel sad when you hear this part of a song is the minor chord beneath the otherwise cheerful lyric, for example. Update: That teacher became a beloved friend, and passed away on Feb. 14, 2025. I will keep studying.
Describe a road not taken. Any regrets?
I interviewed Playboy's Playmate of the Year in the late 1970s; we had lunch, alone, with her watcher from Playboy across the room, and the playmate, Debra Jo, hinted she was bored with her publicity tour. If I had a pouch with some powder and drugs like Cialis existed, I would have ditched her minder and taken her out of the Tavern on the Green and made a run for her another hotel. More recently, and literally, I would have used then new app Waze in Los Angeles as a friend urged me to do. I should have consulted it before leaving my hotel in North Hollywood to LAX. How long could it take on a Saturday morning? It took more than two hours, I missed my plane, which I was paying for with airline miles, and had to pay $644 for a flight back to NYC on another airline. (Now Waze is cray-cray, and has you get off highways to drive through cul de sac suburban neighborhoods to save one minute.) So I would say what Yogi Berra might have said: “When you come to a crossroads, take it.”
Tell us how you fill your curiosity well…
I used to respond to the pretty girls spamming me on social media. Especially on XTwitter. But it’s been happening on the Substack app too now that it’s public and anyone can use. I would engage early, ask where they were from, and from whatever country they were from, and I would use Google translate to reply in their native languages. They would inevitably flee and stop pursuing me and my personal information.
Wonder or awe? Why?
Wonder is seeing a rainbow; awe is knowing god created it. Awe, to me, means being aware that god is constantly creating the world, even now...what an interfaith rabbi (he also dabbled in Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholic centering prayer) once descried to me as the act of “godding.” God is an action verb; we are always engaged in the act of creation.
How would you spend your last day on earth?
With my then-grown grandchildren at my side, holding my hands, listening to Leonard Cohen sing “You Want It Darker.” The chorus is the repetition of a Hebrew word and its meaning: “Hineni, hineni, I'm ready, my Lord.”
“My life philosophy is_______.”
My dad was a very quiet man, and I sometimes resent that he wasn't hands-on; he was very detached from my upbringing, so clueless that senior year of high school he asked me why I didn't apply to Harvard. I said, “I’m graduating with a C average.” (It took more effort than getting A’s.) He said, “How am I supposed to know?” But he had fought in World War II in a tank in Europe: D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, a hard fight for a teenager who enlisted when he was 18. When he turned 90, I asked him what the purpose of life was, and he said: “Get up every day and put your pants on, one leg at a time.” My problem is that I can't decide which leg goes first.
Wayne Robins helms Critical Conditions by Wayne Robins on Substack. You can check it out here:
Who’s the CGQ Crew?
About She: Sheila Moeschen is a humorist, writer, photographer, and salty New Englander. You can find her on Substack at Humor Saves!
About MM: Michael Maupin helms the StoryShed Substack (among other things) and is a recovering screenwriter, book and magazine editor, and lifelong diarist.
About George: George is a man of letters, leisure, and all things interesting. Named after the fabled monkey—eccentric or genius parentage, who knows?—he’s made it his mission to discover the most fascinating, unique, and curious people like YOU. Good work if you can get it. George is also an amateur artist who goes by the name BANKSY.
Fantastic read! Love that The Professor has taken up piano to be better able to do his work. There’s a lesson in there for all of us.
For those with a need to know, that’s me on the left at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival, circa 1989. The one who is not me is a member of the Golden Eagles mardi gras band, a great New Orleans funk aggregation.