Do you have what it takes to be a spy? Do you have the physical ability to be completely forgettable?
We are talking Spies, not the classic Military traitor like Benedict Arnold or Michael Flynn. This is 007 stuff. Can you walk into a room full of 15,000 people like Steve Miller and entertain them for 90 minutes or even 40 years, and then slip into your Costco Kirkland signature dad jeans and and a collared shirt and have not a soul recognize you when you buy some nachos.
Another example of this skill is John Paul Jones. He was arguably the finest all around musician in Led Zeppelin. But he was their secret weapon whether on bass or mellotron because few would have picked him out of a crowd then or now.
Why is that even a secret? How did Page & Plant completely forget to call him when they did that Page & Plant album? They even forgot his phone number.
If John Paul Jones went by Bob Smith, rather than America’s first well known naval commander, you would forget his name and his face.
The whole idea that James Bond was incredibly handsome is fiction. Just as CIA warlord Allen Dulles said to JFK as they swapped Bond novels with Dulles notes in the margin, “There is no way Bond would be smashing all these Soviet agent freaks with out him getting a dossier right quick. He would get whacked pretty fast Jack.”
I paraphrased, but it’s the same truth that if you are physically memorable you are a liability. Even the magnetic quality of charisma and charm can be problematic.
If I was a villain and Bond was memorable, I would give ever bartender on the island the go ahead to poison anyone that ordered anything, “shaken not stirred.”
Ian Fleming said was supposed to look like Hoagy Carmichael. What does Hoagie look like?
The truth is that Steve Miller could be a CIA killer and John Paul Jones could have James Bond, and we would have no idea. You may have seen the them both having Téa at Starbucks and you even notice.
Proof? Which one of these guys is Steve Miller?
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many musical ventures and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. He will be partying in Kingston, Jamaica soon.
