Florence Dore’s rousing “Twelve Great Minds (Department Meeting)” sounds like a gritty honky tonk rock song that might be about some hard living and the foibles of life on the road. But it is a different kind of hard road about which Dore is giving pointed words about and that is the dysfunctional world of academia and how normally intelligent people in the rungs of academic bureaucracy and set aside the great ideas and thinkers they studied to get where they are only to set aside high-minded conceits for petty power struggles and the like that happens in higher education. Dore sums it all up succinctly with the spirited refrain of, “Twelve great minds and twelve ways to fuck it up.” If you’ve ever been in academia change the parameters and you can hear in Dore’s song your own struggle. Listen to “Twelve Great Minds (Department Meeting)” on YouTube and follow Florence Dore at the links provided. Dore’s new album Hold the Spark releases May 1, 2026 via Propeller Sound Recordings.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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