Larry "Doc" Sportello, the central figure, is a competent, even shrewd detective, but in appearance and behaviour he's a stereotypical 60s dope fiend.
Honesty is valuable, but there's no way to make rock without artifice, and with pluming Afros and a flag draped over one of the guitar amplifiers, the band's appearance strikes shrewd echoes of the MC5.
But people say that it would be a mistake to put too much stock in that grandmotherly appearance, describing her as a shrewd politician.
When the 1965 Newport Folk Festival allowed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to play and to back up Bob Dylan, controversy over the appearance of electric instruments followed, but the shrewd commercial decision meant that, increasingly, electric performers appeared at these events.
But William Monk, a hard, shrewd man who serves this series as "a kind of private policeman," puts little faith in appearances and is not easily shocked.
Each character on first appearance is identified by their nickname and a form of confectionery that they jokily resemble (eg Shrewd Eddie is the Gob Stopper).
Acute came from acus, Latin for needle, later denoting pointed things, so cute at first meant "acute, clever, keen-witted, sharp, shrewd", according to the 1933 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which doesn't suggest the term could describe visual appearance.
It's a shrewd anthology that brings together live performances and studio tracks culled from her own albums and from guest appearances with Frank Sinatra, George Michael and Eurythmics.
