Dorothy Carvello, the first female A&R executive for Atlantic Records - the label responsible for bringing us musical legends such as Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Aretha Franklin - was 24 years old when she landed a job as a secretary for founder Ahmet Ertegun.
The music mogul had a nightly routine which consisted of downing 14 vodka tonics, four lines of cocaine, two joints, and plenty of women.
And every morning, it was Carvello's job to clean the drugs and vomit off his clothes and track down at which clubs he had left his credit cards.
The Daily Mail reports she details her three-year experience working under the music executive, organizing his trysts, fulfilling his drug-fueled demands, and how she suffered sexual harassment at the hands of her own boss and colleagues in her explosive new memoir, Anything for a Hit: An A&R Woman's Story of Surviving the Music Industry, due September 4.
Turkish-born Ertegun, the son of a diplomat, founded Atlantic Records in 1947, which grew to be one of the most successful American independent music labels to which artists of the likes of Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Rita Ora, and Sia are now signed.
A powerful man in the industry, Ertegun was even considered a 'father figure' to Mick Jagger and was politely described as a 'globe-trotting bon vivant' by Rolling Stone magazine in a 2007 article after his death.
But as a young woman trying to make it in 1987, Carvello paints a different picture of Ertegun and writes how she was plunged headfirst into a 'circus mixed with an orgy,' where 'the battle for my soul had begun'.
The office atmosphere was like a scene out of Caligula, with dildos, ball gags, and a S&M toys hanging around, and a culture of 'toxic masculinity' flowing from the top.
Keep Reading
No comments:
Post a Comment