STEVE WINWOOD: A Profile
By Steve James
Turning 60, Steve Winwood is starting to believe rock 'n' roll may be a younger man's game. Maybe.By Steve James
The writer smoothly introduces his subject, focusing on Winwood's age. Note the one-word sentence: "Maybe." Adds variety to the sentence structure. "Maybe" leads easily into the first quote. Synonymic replacement ("singer, guitarist and organist") and a relative clause ("who played," etc.) nicely fill in the details of Winwood's background for the reader:
"I think to be a musician (at 60) is fine but to be a rock 'n' roller at a ripe old age is maybe slightly questionable," said the singer, guitarist and organist who played with 1960s rock legends the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith.
Notice the style of a profile mixes descriptive writing and many direct quotes. This is the difference between a profile and a biography:
"If rock 'n' roll is indeed what I play, I'm not sure whether it is, as I try and combine bits of folk and jazz. The music I write I feel is not the kind of music for a 25-year-old," Winwood acknowledged in an interview.
Notice how the writer has many quotes he wishes to use and then finds transition sentences to link them coherently, so the reader has confidence there's a focus to the piece. Notice how the writer finds a transition in order to quote a line from one of Winwood's songs. Notice too that all important information is included, such as the year the album was released (1980):
Half a lifetime ago, Winwood was aware of the contradiction of an aging musician playing essentially youthful music. "'Cause my rock 'n' roll is putting on weight/ and the beat it goes on," he sang on his 1980 album, "Arc of a Diver."
The writer uses comparison to help the reader understand how long Winwood has been playing:
Winwood has been performing for 45 years -- as long as the Rolling Stones, who are still playing well into their 60s.
Note the material is not necessarily related; but the writer, by using transition phrases, makes the reader feel that one sentence logicall follows from the one before:
Whatever the definition of his music, Winwood has played his share of genres, from backing blues greats like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, performing with Eric Clapton, arranging English folk with Traffic and recording artfully produced 1980s hits like "Higher Love" in the early years of MTV. His new solo album, "Nine Lives," just came out.
Notice synonymity again: instead of repeating Winwood's name, the writer uses a synonymic replacement of that name: "the youthful-looking Englishman. . . ."
Asked how he felt about turning 60 on May 12, the youthful-looking Englishman was philosophical. "I'm OK, I'm lucky to still be doing what I love to do. I might slow down a little bit after 60 but I'm going out on a long tour this summer with Tom Petty and I still enjoy playing live. So as long as people want to come and hear me or buy the record, I shall keep going, I think."
Now the writer digs deeper into Winwood's background. Note that it's rare to follow a strict chronology in profiles (another difference with biographies, where a strict profile is always followed, from birth to death).
Winwood, whose father was a dance band musician, burst onto the scene in 1965, with his older brother "Muff," in the Spencer Davis Group. They had hits with "I'm a Man" and "Gimme Some Lovin"' featuring Winwood's driving organ and distinctive voice.
While still at high school, Winwood was playing and singing in church and also clubs in Birmingham, even playing with U.S. blues and R&B greats when they toured Britain.
Expletives ("It is," "There are") can be effective openings to insure coherence:
It was his love of the blues that he shared with fellow Britons Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Clapton, Robert Plant and Jeff Beck, that got him kicked out of a music school.
"It's an often-asked question, 'Why did all these spotty white English boys suddenly start playing blues in the '60s?'
"It was recognized as this kind of vibrant music and when I first started playing in a blues band I just wanted to bring it to a wider public who hadn't really heard it," said Winwood.
The writer simply sums up the content of the quotations, but by doing so insures coherence and a suitable transition:
Jazz and blues were not readily accepted in 1960s England. "I got thrown out of music school for even listening to Fats Domino and Ray Charles," said Winwood.
The writer ends on a strong note of dialogue: "I was gone" (meaning he was so dedicated to the blues that he never thought twice about leaving school in order to play the blues. This indeed is the focus or at least double focus of the profile: a blues artist at 60 (getting older).
In terms of style, the writer uses block paragraphing; that is, each paragraph begins at the margin but with a space between the paragraphs.
"I was asked, 'What kind of music do you like to listen to?' and I said, 'Well, I do like Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky but I also like Fats Domino and Ray Charles and they literally said, 'Either forget about that or leave.' I was doing a few gigs around town so I said, 'Thank you very much,' and I was gone."
So how to write your profile? Start with an initial focus; organize your questions coherently; be sure they are carefully written: general or specific, depending on your personal judgment, itself based on wide reading or models.
Then as the interview unfolds, you may get further ideas, which may change your focus and motivate follow-up questions. After the interview, you organize the responses.
You may wish to cut each response or type each one on an index card (like I advised you to do in speech class). Then play around with them; try to find a pattern that makes sense: that's your focus.
Now decide which quotes are memorable enough to quote directly; and which can be quoted in indirect discourse ("Mr. Chen dislikes Western beers" instead of writing, "'I dislike Western beer,' he said." Only quote what is well phrased or otherwise memorable, either due to slang expressions, idiomatic language, etc.
Finally you find transitions to take the reader smoothly and logically from one quote to the next. That's coherence.
Now you have coherence and focus. But unlike the Winwood article, you'll spend a little more time on descriptions of the person and his home/office or the setting where the interview took place. Here too always use judgment; NEVER include details just to include details. Details must somehow add up to a point of view, be part of your focus, or revealing of the profile subject in some way.
One final comment: good luck.
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