The following is an excerpt from The Big Moo, written by one of The Group of 33.  It is one of 5 excerpts from The Big Moo published by Know More Media during this week.

Gotta Serve Somebody

Shaun Considine rescued the greatest song in the history of rock and roll—from the trash.

In 1965, the VP of sales and marketing at Columbia Records took a look at Bob Dylan’s new song, “Like a Rolling Stone.” He didn’t listen to it—he just looked at it and decided it was way too long to be released as a single. It would never get radio airplay and  wouldn’t  sell,  he  said.  Dylan  refused  to  compromise  the length.  So,  astonishingly,  the  master  (one  second  short  of  six minutes in length) was thrown into the trash.

Shaun was working at Columbia at the time, as the coordinator  of  new  releases.  Shaun  found  the  record—a  studio-cut acetate—wrapped it up, took it home, and listened to it over the weekend.

As it happened, Shaun was part owner of a hot New York City club at the time, called Arthur, on East Fifty-fourth Street. This club  was  so  hot  that  Dylan  himself  had  been  turned  away  (he showed  up  in  “wine-stained,  beer-splattered  Army-Navy  store couture”). Shaun slipped his copy of the song to the DJ, and the place went nuts, including two influential people who happened to  be  in  the  audience—a  DJ  from  WABC  and  a  programmer from WMCA, two of the most important stations in New York.

The two radio guys rang up Columbia and demanded copies of  the  song.  Columbia  complied—they  even  shipped  it  in  red plastic to flag it as a hot record. Despite the conservative fears of the marketing department, the record was a hit.

If it weren’t for Shaun, Rolling Stone magazine would never even have heard the song, and certainly wouldn’t have chosen it as the number-one rock-and-roll song of all time.

Maybe you don’t own a rock club. Maybe you don’t know Bob Dylan. But you’ve still got as much power as Shaun Considine. What’s in the trash that needs to see the light of day, needs to be run by a customer or tried out on a playground?

If you liked this selection, buy the book.  Read the book.  Help charity. Be more successful in business.