Episode 209 - How To Be Popular If You're a Guy

The answer to that question has to lie, somehow, in whatever explains the popular success of Rodney Marvin ('Rod') McKuen. Rod McKuen died a year ago, and did you know he sold 100 million records? No kidding. Rod McKuen sold 100 million records. (He also sold 60 million books. But hey...) Here is a man who was universally dismissed, from day one of his earthly success, as being a "kitschy" Philistine and arch-sentimentalist. No critic had a word of praise for him. Ever, ever, ever. And that's been true right up to the present day. And let the People say: He sold a hundred million records. Here is a writer who when you actually take time to listen to his songs wrote from a fetal position of complete understanding,.. of me and you. Now let the People say: He sold a hundred million records. Here is a man who, like Rudyard Kipling -- if it weren't for T.S. Eliot and George Orwell -- would have no friends in "high places" (at least after he died). People loved his work. Critics hated it. Therefore let the People say: He sold a hundred million records. So listen up, guys: If you want to be popular, then say what you think, say it deep, say it real, and speak it... from the earthed position of the earliest human child.