A Devotion to His Artists
Then, there was the co-founder of Atlantic, Ahmet Ertegun, who was a little bit cleverer than Wexler and thought a few steps ahead. “I saw in him a potential genius entertainment executive or entrepreneur,” Ertegun said back in 1990. “He was very bright and very fast. He was younger than me, and he had a keen sense of where youth was going in America.”
Photo by Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection / Getty Images
Ahmet worked his charm on Geffen, who thought he was “the most sophisticated, amusing, and encouraging man I had ever met in my life.” Within weeks, CSN became an Atlantic act. Wexler came to appreciate Geffen: “Later, I saw his devotion to his artists,” he admitted. “His group of California rock poets worked for him without a contract – that’s how deep their trust ran.”