It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, but He Likes It

A former Washington lobbyist celebrates the 40th anniversary of Woodstock with the release of ‘DICKFISH,’ a novel unabashedly laced with liberal politics and rock culture

By Chase Johnson

"DICKFISH" by R.S. Moore

For nearly 25 years, Randolph Scott Moore spent his days on Capitol Hill uniformed in Armani. As a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., Moore often discussed public policy with some of the most influential people in the country.

After work, however, Moore was a different person entirely. Night after night, he eschewed his designer duds to sink into the dank, underground world of rock ‘n’ roll. He enjoyed the dichotomy: decorous, laced-up politics by day, grimy, unbridled rock ‘n’ roll clubs by night. He especially enjoyed the knowing glances he sent and received when recognized around town by a fellow member of the rock ‘n’ roll cognoscenti.

Yet, after many years fighting an intractable political landscape with Republican roadblocks at every turn, Moore grew weary of “religious, right-wing and sexually repressed” America, he says. “[My wife] Pamela and I always felt like we were Europeans trapped in American bodies. We just regarded ourselves as cultural trannies.”

So, six years ago, Moore and his wife moved to Brussels and later Paris. There, between travel and many, many bottles of wine, Moore wrote “DICKFISH,” a “mock memoir” whose roots can no doubt be traced to Moore’s experiences running in dueling social spheres.

The book follows six young professionals in Washington, each an ardent “rockaholic” very much in the mold of Moore himself. Rock music plays a huge role in “DICKFISH,” so it is no coincidence that the book’s release coincides with the 40th anniversary of the legendary Woodstock music festival. What’s more, the book is rife with what Moore calls the “Woodstock culture.”

“Woodstock was just a brilliant, brilliant festival that no one knew was going to be brilliant,” he recalls. “My characters embrace a lot of the principles, good and bad, of Woodstock, which is to say you’ve got people whose lives center around, to some extent, altruism, generosity of spirit, social tolerance and individual self-expression.”

Moore insists that the book is not autobiographical. “Each of the six main characters is, to some extent, informed either by my own personal experience or by the kinds of friends I have had in life,” he says. “But the story itself is fictional.”

There are still striking similarities between fact and fiction. The main character, Axel Finn, is from the Bible Belt, as is Moore. In addition, both men attended the College of William and Mary and became journalists after graduating. What’s more, each of the five other primary characters represents something important to Moore. For example, the character Carlo Dante Falcone is inspired by Moore’s close friend whose family ranch in Argentina also inspires the setting for a scene in the book. Another example is Cabell Valentine, a lesbian lawyer whose names are drawn from among the first families of Virginia. The author admits Cabell represents a jab at the “old-fashioned, racist” Virginia that Moore grew up in and disdains to this day.

Yet, chief among Moore’s contributions to the book is his love of rock ‘n’ roll.

“I always loved that music,” Moore says. “I always thought it spoke to me and my generation about questioning authority and social tolerance and expressing yourself in your own unique way as opposed to just becoming part of the establishment and being kind of an antiseptic automaton.” Moore wanted music to play a central role in the book, so he laced the story with rock lyrics that mirror what is happening in the characters’ lives. “Rock ‘n’ roll isn’t just music, and it’s not just the soundtrack of our lives; it is our lives,” Moore says. “Putting a rock ‘n’ roll lyric as an indicator of what’s going on every couple of pages is really nothing more than a metaphor for the lives of my entire generation.”

Music is also the rope that binds the friends together. Their careers run the gamut from Senate staffer to lobbyist, from corporate lawyer to art gallery owner. Despite their disparate professions, the friends are united by politics and music. One of the companions, Mick Gallagher, owns a music club called DICKFISH, which serves as the hub where the characters express their joys, vent their frustrations and get lost in the music.

“They all are sorting out their lives as early-30s, liberal Washingtonians in the age of [George W.] Bush,” Moore explains. “They all have different things in life, but the point is they all dig rock ‘n’ roll. That’s the animating feature of their lives. Whether they’re leaving a fundraiser on Capitol Hill, or whether they’re leaving the law firm on a given night to go out and hear something, they’re going to see shows every chance they get.”

That is Moore’s takeaway: Don’t live life like a road map; live life as it comes to you and pump up the volume along the way. Moore doesn’t care who you are, who you vote for or what bands you love, so long as you appreciate the simple message that was, perhaps, best said by the great British poet Mick Jagger: “I know it’s only rock ‘n’ roll, but I like it, like it. Yes I do.”

Still, he knows he can’t please everyone.

“I am quick to say, if you’re an evangelical, you’re not going to recommend this for your book club,” Moore admits. “This novel is clearly written from a liberal point of view, but it is openly tongue-in-cheek. As I say, nobody is covered in glory; my guys are deeply flawed people like all of us. But the difference between us and them, which is to say progressives and retrogressives, is that we get laid and they get old.”

“DICKFISH” is available for purchase at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com and AuthorHouse.com.