Late last week, I devoted an unwieldy bit of real estate here to a dubiously composed music survey, prefacing same with a windy, embittered rant about the manner in which music is disseminated and blithely taken for granted in the modern age. A regular reader named David George came back with a lengthy reply that was evidently too wordy for the confines of the comments box. But, since he devoted so much thought and energy to it, I thought I'd put it up here to possibly further the conversation. Below is what David had to say. Cheers.
This post hits home in so many ways. I don’t partake in any of the ‘new’ ways to consume music either. I stick mostly with CDs, which I rip to .wav for my iPod , which I only use for travel. The only times I ever bought downloads was when physical media was not available. I have done that less than a dozen times. And I do have a functioning turntable and a subset of my LPs in my apartment, with the balance in storage. I truly miss the tactile aspects of consuming music: in my book nothing beat buying a long-awaited new release (or a hard to find obscurity) and tearing the shrink wrap off an actual LP. And sometimes the acquisition itself could be an adventure. I hitchhiked many miles over the years to visit small hole-in-the-wall record (in those days “head”) shops or cut school to take the A train down to J&R or Disc-O-Mat. That was all part of it.
If the procured LP was a ‘gatefold’ that was gravy. The acquisition process would be followed by delving into and memorizing the song titles, and who played what, when, and where. I was never big on reading lyrics, as I prefer the Muddy Waters school of thought (which was appropriated by the Stones, my long-time favorite), which dictates that lyrics are intended to be learned over time, gradually. I’ve been listening to ‘Exile on Main Street’ for more decades than I want to admit and am still learning bits and pieces here and there. I doubt I’ll ever “learn” all of it and I’m fine with that. The tactile aspects as well as the gradual “consuming” of music is a far cry from the world of downloaders. I read in The Guardian a few years back that something like 90% of downloaders have NO IDEA what they’re downloading: not the artist, not the actual song title, and especially not the album. I think one of the biggest aspects of “albums” that has been lost aside from the art is the concept of actual sequencing in terms of what the artist intended. I believe both ‘Exile” and The Clash’s “London Calling” set the standard in their respective eras for that sort of thing. Each side is a perfect “helping” and stands up on its own. This whole concept is completely lost in the era of shuffling on a device, which I abhor (and do not do). When one of my bands was releasing its first CD I lobbied to have the 10 songs split into only two tracks (sides A and B) to prevent shuffling. I was outvoted.
And speaking of vinyl and that warmer sound, it is legitimate, but has nothing to do with vinyl as the delivery mechanism. It has strictly to do with the recording medium. Pre-digital, the industry standard used in recording studios was 2” wide tape that ran at 30 inches per second. As a musician who started recording in the mid-80s, I can safely attest to the fact that music recorded on tape such as that does have an inherently warmer sound, largely due to ‘tape saturation.’ When CDs were introduced, audio engineers had a real tough time handling the analog to digital conversion, which is why so many of the first-generation CDs of older recordings truly sounded like shit. Compare any of the original London/ABKCO Stones releases on CD with remasters that came out 10 years later and this is very obvious. There is a sterility that took years for engineers to figure out how to beat—and many still don’t know how to do it. This inability has resulted in music that is overly compressed (made louder) so that the dynamics are basically destroyed. Google ‘loudness wars’ to read more. But in terms of vinyl versus digital CD/downloads, if someone like Messrs. West or Bieber recorded as they normally do (digitally) and then released on vinyl it would still sound like the shit that it is. Vinyl is and of itself isn’t the real issue.
Regarding that 2” 30 IPS tape, in the mid-80s reels of that (Ampex 456) cost $100 for THIRTY MINUTES, which is relevant to the predicament we find ourselves in today. From a practical standpoint this meant that bands/artists who were paying their own way had to develop finely tuned bullshit detectors for their own work (and write short songs). You simply couldn’t afford to record 15 versions of the same crappy song, or record 15 songs period (unless you were the Ramones). And keep in mind that the $100 only got you the original (one copy). If you were serious about distributing at all, in those days the cheapest and most widely used option for unsigned bands was the “EP cassette.” No matter how much you cut corners, these were going to run you a buck or two EACH. Compare that to today, when any moron with a laptop, a 2 TB hard drive, rudimentary music recording software, and a Wi-Fi connection can records years’ worth of truly horrible stuff, upload it overnight, and have untold thousands of ‘likes’ by dawn. I believe that if the upfront costs were still significant, there’d be a whole lot less garbage out there. It has gotten way too easy for cultural prostitutes and other non-artists to produce truly bad art.
I looked at the survey at the original source and aside from being a bit long (involves sharing more information than I care to share), I think some of the questions are pretty inane. I’ll cherry pick a few questions though...
8. Music type you find yourself listening to the most?
For me it’s definitely seasonal: I cannot imagine listening to Tom Waits (especially later period) during warm weather. He seems so November to me. I love reggae and I think understandably I listen to more of that during the summer.
9. What do you listen to, to hype you up?
I wouldn’t characterize it as intending to hype me up, but I travel a great deal for business and always set up my music (laptop + external drives plugged into the hotels’ flat screen TV) immediately. Invariably the first song I play is the studio version of “Honky Tonk Women.” This is sort of like a dog marking his turf. I’ve also tested every stereo or other music device I’ve ever bought (like the dozen or so Walkmans I had long ago) with that one song.
11. Last gig/concert you went to?
Ian Hunter at The City Winery.
38. Do you listen to the radio?
Other than NPR in my car, not willingly. I recently joined a pretty low-rent but serviceable gym and going there has included the first instances in which I’ve heard “music” radio in years. I often take note of a lyric and Google it when I get home. My reaction is usually the same: “Oh, so that’s what that jerk sounds like.”
48. Favorite movie soundtrack?
Just about any Scorsese.
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