Soaring above the fray with Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson /
The Englishman fancies hot air balloons and space travel.

Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate, investor and philanthropist whose heart and soul are in the right place. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which benefits more than 400 companies. He's dabbled in a variety of media, including print, film and television; opened a chain of record stores, and started an airline.

Branson, 66, who was knighted by the Queen in 2000 for "services to entrepreneurship," is a fancier of hot air balloons and space travel. He's an avid fan of Star Trek. There is a highly competitive nature to him, but he doesn't seem to be in-your-face about it. And, when the man with the brilliant mind speaks out, people listen to him.

"My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them ..." Branson wrote in his autobiography.

Sir Richard Branson / He founded the Virgin Group,
which benefits more than 400 companies. 

When Branson hasn't set his sights on breaking world records for travel, he's been focused on humanitarian activities. For instance, in the late 1990s, Branson and musician Peter Gabriel discussed with Nelson Mandela an idea for a small group of leaders working in unison to solve difficult global conflicts. In 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mandela announced the formation of a group called The Elders, which included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan and former director-general of the World Health Organization Gro Harlem Brundtland. The Elders, funded by a group of donors, including Branson and Gabriel, describe themselves as "independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights." With almost 1,000 years of collective experience between them in the group, The Elders have worked on solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems such as climate change, HIV/AIDS and poverty.

More recently, in 2014, Branson joined forces with African Wildlife Foundation and partner WildAid for the"Say No" Campaign, which was an initiative designed to bring public awareness to the issues of wildlife poaching and trafficking.

With just two weeks until Election Day in America, Branson has shared access with both major-party candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. In a recent article for BusinessInsider.com, Branson expressed a lunch encounter he once shared in Trump's apartment as "bizarre" and revealed a "vindictive streak" he noticed in the Republican Party standard bearer, which he admitted "wouldn't bode well for a president who should be more concerned with global affairs than personal vendettas."

Sir Richard Branson and Donald Trump /
The two business titans fundamentally disagree on
what makes a great entrepreneur.

Branson and Trump, I learned, fundamentally disagree on what makes a great entrepreneur. Branson believes it involves being a good listener, putting others before oneself, being an effective delegator and striving to make a positive difference to the world. "Great entrepreneurs build businesses with purpose at their heart and always treat people with respect. These are not characteristics I see in Mr. Trump – neither in his previous dealings, nor in this campaign."

In a recent blog post, Branson wrote about his meeting with Trump: "I left the lunch feeling disturbed and saddened by what I'd heard. There are a lot of frightening things about this election, not least that policy has been pushed so far down the agenda. "

Branson called Mr. Trump's temperament "irrational, aggressive and he lacks informed ideas on how to grow jobs in America. An entrepreneur president would put that at the heart of his plans and yet his fear-based campaign blames immigrants and open borders."

By contrast, Branson also broke bread with Clinton in which the two discussed a variety of important issues such as women's rights and education reform. He noted that the Democratic Party nominee for president was both a "good listener" and "eloquent speaker."

Branson wrote of Clinton: "As she understands well, the president of the United States needs to understand and be engaged with wider world issues, rather than be consumed by petty personal quarrels."

Earlier this month, in a blog post on Virgin's website, Branson endorsed Clinton over Trump for president. "I would like to see an entrepreneur become president one day," Branson wrote. "I believe entrepreneurial thinking is incredibly valuable in leaders, and there are many entrepreneurs who I would be delighted to see in power – just not this one."

Sir Richard Branson weighs in on the U.S. Presidential race.

While Branson is not an American citizen, nonetheless, he has been a keen follower of the U.S. election because it 'will have major implications on the rest of the world."

Branson gets it.

Indeed, the whole world is watching.

"The U.S. is faced with a monumental decision: whether to vote for Hillary Clinton – a safe pair of hands and a leader of supreme experience and know how. Or to vote for Donald Trump," wrote Branson.

"America was built upon a collective embracing of diversity and openness – not division and close-mindedness. There are too many examples of Mr. Trump's lack of empathy and respect to name. I agree with many on both sides of America's political aisle that he is unfit for office."

Photos: Courtesy of Google Images.

Scratch My Back

Comes a time in many a musician's career to record a cover of another artist's music. Whether paying tribute, a throw-away statement (as described by New York Times critic Jon Parales), or to fulfill a lifelong dream, it happens all of the time.

Just do a song search on iTunes for any Beatles song ~ like "Hey Jude" ~ and you'll see what I mean. Dozens of covers are out there in the music stratosphere. Some covers do justice (Norah Jones singing Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" on Herbie Hancock's award-winning The Joni Letters comes to mind) and some are just plain painful to listen to (Tony Bennett covering The Beatles' "Something" before his '90s comeback was agonizing).

Along comes Peter Gabriel, a favorite singer/songwriter of mine ~ with one of the most distinctive and recognizable voices on this planet from his own songs like "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" (described by Parales as ancient-mariner baritone) ~ who has turned recording covers topsy-turvy thanks to his creative and thoughtful muse. His new album, released earlier this month, is called Scratch My Back and its title comes from his interest in interpreting other musician's works ~ and, in return, hopefully having that artist record one of his songs.

On Scratch My Back, Gabriel pays homage to Paul Simon, David Bowie, the Talking Heads, and Neil Young as well as to younger artists like Arcade Fire, The Magnetic Fields, Bon Iver and Regina Spektor. And in doing so, he has stripped away all guitars and drums ~ a self-imposed restriction in the creative process ~ and re-scored 12 songs, adding chamber strings to some, piano to others. Thus far, in this social networking experiment, Simon has returned the favor by recording the Gabriel classic "Biko" and Stephin Merrit of Magnetic Fields has covered "Not One of Us."

One song in particular from Scratch My Back immediately caught my attention from first listen two weeks ago: Gabriel's interpretation of Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble."

A great pop song in its own right, "The Boy in the Bubble" first appeared on Simon's 1986 Graceland album and is very lively and upbeat when performed in concert. In an interview with NPR, Gabriel called "The Boy in the Bubble" one of the "great pop lyrics of the last century."

"It was a slow day,

And the sun was beating

On the soldiers by the side of the road,

There was a bright light,

A shattering of shop windows

The bomb in the baby carriage

Was wired to the radio,

These are the days of miracle and wonder,

This is the long distance call,

The way the camera follows us in slo-mo

The way we look to us all,

The way we look to a distant constellation

That's dying in the corner of the sky,

These are the days of miracle and wonder

And don't cry baby don't cry

Don't cry."

Taking a very upbeat and vibrant song as written and recorded by Simon, Gabriel transformed "The Boy in the Bubble" into a slow and somber ~ almost dirge-like ~ minor-key work with just the barest piano and sparse string accompaniment. It's the tone and shape of Gabriel's voice ~ whispery but full of theatrics ~ that struck a chord with me. I gain something new each time I re-listen to it.

"We sort of sucked out all of the African elements, and you're left with the skeleton, which is an extraordinary thing in itself," said Gabriel in the NPR interview for Weekend Edition Sunday. "And I think a lot of people, myself included, heard the lyrics in a different way, in a new context."

Stripping a song down to its bare melody and lyric ~ desperate and exposed ~ can be a thing of simplicity and beauty. Sometimes empty is better than full.