Chasin' 200 - in both places!

200 Subscribers or 200 Posts, which will happen first?

This is a Friday afternoon sort of thing, seems to me. When I started this Substack on May 8, 158 days and 17 hours ago — so the Internet tells me — I didn’t know what to expect. I certainly didn’t think I’d have 180 posts, well, this makes 181 as I head for the 200 mark.

And I also noticed on my list of subscribers, I’m up to 195! Welcome, everyone! Since there’s a sort of race going on, who’ll get to 200 first, posts or subscribers, I thought it’d be fun to see what posts drew the most views. And of course, I have to send grateful thanks for my Norwegian friend Karl-Eric Andersen, who runs the wonderful “Expecting Rain” daily site which has generously shared some of my posts — the biggest draws, too, by no coincidence over this six-month run, as I kicked off my Substack with posts on everything from music to politics to chess to boxing…

What I've written so far...me and Mark Twain, my book over in the corner.

Sure enough, the three biggest draws were all connected to Bob Dylan and Expecting Rain.

• Bob concluding his European tour at the Royal Albert Hall - 1.21 K views

• Bob’s “Series Of Dreams” maybe being his best outtake - 1.7 K views

• A review of Clinton Heylin’s Part Two of his Dylan bio - 926 views

A big surprise to me was No. 4, a post about the great James Brown and a fabulous story in The New Yorker by Phillip Gourevitch that takes up almost the entire magazine. That drew a whopping 752 views.

My recent post on Bob Dylan’s very strange movie “Eat The Document” was in 5th place with 732 views. I attached a link to the actual movie, too. I wonder how many readers actually watched the darn thing. It’s Bob at his strangest.

Close behind was my tribute to the “High Priest Of Wailing Guitar,” the great Eric Clapton, who evidently has a lot of fans who feel the same way as I do. That post was no. 6 with 728 views.

For some time now, I’ve been working on a music book on some of these icons and their impact on our lives. Though it’s been a challenge to get publishers to agree — so far — there were some big views for my posts on musicians. Check these out, No. 6-11:

• Review of S. Hyden’s book “Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born In The USA’ - 676 views.

• Tribute to music of the great Scottish band Big Country - 638 views.

• There’s room for you in Neil Young’s world - 628 views.

• Bob Dylan’s Musicares Speech (excerpt from my Dylan book) - 623 views

• Bruce Springsteen endorses Kamala Harris - 611 views.

• Bob Dylan’s song “The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll” - 601 views.

The next five posts in the 400 range, again, most about musicians.

• Listening to Bob Woodward’s warning about Donald Trump - 474 views.

• Losing Elvis, the anniversary of his passing - 465 views.

• My post about NOT going to Woodstock - 457 views.

• Did U2 kick off this age of grievance with their free album - 428 views.

• What was your first favorite song? I asked my readers - 415 views.

Now when you think about it, just that’s a lot of views, 8.52K in just the last month. For a writer just trying to start off a Substack, that’s really exciting.

I hope that my readers are enjoying the diversity. I can only assume they are, the numbers keep growing, which is fantastic.

I know it’s probably a bit strange to read about politics on Monday, boxing on Tuesday, literature on Wednesday, music on Thursday and who knows why by Friday; John’s baseball career, Henry Thoreau, Gore Vidal, Roxy Music, chess, Tony Oliva and Rod Carew, Donald Trump’s “Day of Love” or Luis Tiant, a cover band playing Led Zeppelin, Ernest Hemingway stories (I did two - “Fifty Grand” and “The Light Of The World”), being a Dad (best job there is!), how being ahead of the curve (like I was with my “Nashua: How Ronald Reagan led us to Donald Trump”) didn’t do a whole lot, Paul Westerberg and The Replacements, The Who, where Elvis might have gone, seeing your son his three home runs in his final regular-season game and whether or not Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry has lost his religion.

Where does all this come from? I’m really not sure. I’ve kept in touch with my friend David Whitley, a fine sports columnist for the Gainesville Sun.

I shared a recent Substack post with him, told him about my “Diamond Duels” book coming out in March and he wrote: “I don’t know how you do it. I can barely get psyched to hack out 3-4 columns a week, at least one of which is readable. Whatever your secret, keep on keeping on.”

Thanks, Davey. I will. Thanks, readers. Who’ll get to 200 first? (I’m betting on the posts)