I found this photographic essay in Slate of interest. I thought seeing old favorites on labels I was unfamiliar with fun. It has also made me feel old .
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/ ... s_and.html
"Waxing' nostalgic!
- Jack of All Parades
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"Waxing' nostalgic!
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
- Otis Westinghouse
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Re: "Waxing' nostalgic!
Wow, very nostalgic. I can almost smell my first turntable. Really basic stereo, bought off a bloke for £20 or something. Had a lovely hint of tobacco to it. Lasted me through all my teen years. Loved seeing Unknown Pleasures here. the black label, like the cover, was 'Inside', aka Side 1, and the white one depicted 'Outside'. I played in a band called Outside Volume, so this was very significant (actually, it's probably half of where the name came from). Sigh.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
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Re: "Waxing' nostalgic!
Stating the obvious alert! -
Almost every technological advance, invariably trumpeted as an objective and absolute leap forward that only fools would regret, in fact represents a bittersweet mix of gains and losses. (Hell, you could argue this of modernity itself). The LP was an attractive, tangible object with stunning opportunities for iconic visual presentation. The 'distortions' (the pops, static, even small scratches) added a kind of warmth to the proceedings, to say nothing of the superior warmth of the sound reproduction itself - I'm reminded of Dylan's comment that "he misses the wind" from a cleaned-up recording of an outdoor performance. But the one thing I really miss is the division of the album into two distinct movements, Side One and Side Two. To this day I think of CD and MP3 versions of even new releases in terms of first and second halves. And old albums suffer from the lack of this when transposed onto the new media. Consider Sgt. Pepper: on LP version, you get 'Mr. Kite,' and thunderous conclusion to the epic first side. Stunned silence can descend. Everyone can discuss what they've heard, or the solitary listener can sit there and process before moving on. Then you flip over; and the pause is absolutely key to building tolerance for the ponderous 'Within You and Without You" and indeed a necessary and quite intentional prelude to it. On CD version, one lurches immediately into the latter song, probably impatiently fast-forwarding to 'When I'm 64.' It's a whole other dynamic and fundamentally an inferior one.
All that said, I wouldn't trade my iPod for the world. Not only does it allow me to play thousands of podcasts (university lectures, public talks, Melvyn Bragg's wonderful In Our Time BBC broadcasts, all great when walking the basset hound) but the instant access to one's entire music collection is - unlike CDs, really -a fabulous gain on what went before. Yet the nostalgia for LPs is more than just nostalgia.
Thanks for the post!
Almost every technological advance, invariably trumpeted as an objective and absolute leap forward that only fools would regret, in fact represents a bittersweet mix of gains and losses. (Hell, you could argue this of modernity itself). The LP was an attractive, tangible object with stunning opportunities for iconic visual presentation. The 'distortions' (the pops, static, even small scratches) added a kind of warmth to the proceedings, to say nothing of the superior warmth of the sound reproduction itself - I'm reminded of Dylan's comment that "he misses the wind" from a cleaned-up recording of an outdoor performance. But the one thing I really miss is the division of the album into two distinct movements, Side One and Side Two. To this day I think of CD and MP3 versions of even new releases in terms of first and second halves. And old albums suffer from the lack of this when transposed onto the new media. Consider Sgt. Pepper: on LP version, you get 'Mr. Kite,' and thunderous conclusion to the epic first side. Stunned silence can descend. Everyone can discuss what they've heard, or the solitary listener can sit there and process before moving on. Then you flip over; and the pause is absolutely key to building tolerance for the ponderous 'Within You and Without You" and indeed a necessary and quite intentional prelude to it. On CD version, one lurches immediately into the latter song, probably impatiently fast-forwarding to 'When I'm 64.' It's a whole other dynamic and fundamentally an inferior one.
All that said, I wouldn't trade my iPod for the world. Not only does it allow me to play thousands of podcasts (university lectures, public talks, Melvyn Bragg's wonderful In Our Time BBC broadcasts, all great when walking the basset hound) but the instant access to one's entire music collection is - unlike CDs, really -a fabulous gain on what went before. Yet the nostalgia for LPs is more than just nostalgia.
Thanks for the post!
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
- Otis Westinghouse
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Re: "Waxing' nostalgic!
I recently had the experience of contrasting the song Hotel California on CD and vinyl on a very good system with top end turntable and v good CD player too. CD was good and powerful, balanced, natural, etc., the vinyl sounded like the band were in the room with us. No contest. Very good demonstration of how vinyl as a reproduction of sound really can't be beat.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
- Jack of All Parades
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Re: "Waxing' nostalgic!
My oldest has been on a mission to collect as many of her grandfather's albums on vinyl as she can find. She is a committed convert to the aural heaven of a turntable and a good vinyl record.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
- Jack of All Parades
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Re: "Waxing' nostalgic!
This is most encouraging from today's NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/arts/ ... f=nyregion
Now I am going to have to make some regular trips out that way into Brooklyn.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/arts/ ... f=nyregion
Now I am going to have to make some regular trips out that way into Brooklyn.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
- Jack of All Parades
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Re: "Waxing' nostalgic!
That other 'fated' meeting at a 'crossroads' over 50 years ago gets its own Heritage Blue Plaque:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-25384381
the 'glimmer twins' are duly honored for that historic meeting on a train platform in Dartford
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-25384381
the 'glimmer twins' are duly honored for that historic meeting on a train platform in Dartford
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'