in this place where the shadows run from themselves

 

Today I was still thinking about music artists whose work I would buy on vinyl if I decided to get a turntable.

        There was an article (opinion piece) in the NYT titled "Why We Are Not Facing the Prospect of a Second Civil War," by Jamelle Bouie.

I asked myself, if I think about vinyl and turntables and rock-and-roll and Norman Maslov's videos, instead of reading the op-ed and the Reader Comments, is that sort of like Nero fiddling while Rome burned?

(Maybe I can think about both.)

If I like the turntable-vinyl-record sound, after Dylan, the Beatles, and the Stones, I would want Fleetwood Mac represented in the State Of Vinyl, and Creedence Clearwater Revival -- and, I thought, Eric Clapton, specifically the album titled The Cream of Clapton.  However, that's priced at $60 -- so that would be a No.  I'm not doing that.

        Albums I would buy for a small, limited collection, would have to be in 20-dollar range.  And from each artist or band, one or two -- just a representation.

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle:  The 20 Greatest Hits, vinyl record, $22.97.  Yes, I am here for that.

-30-

"I said, move over once! Move over twice!"

 

The Beatles

I was imagining what it would be like to have a turntable and some vinyl records.  I had those things many years ago, in childhood and teen and college years.

        Then in the 1980s when CDs (compact discs) came in, further music collecting was done via that technology.

CDs are good:  they don't skip as easily if there's a step, or vibration; there's no pick up the needle, set down the needle -- you just put the disc in, press button to close and press play.  It's cleaner and less risky, in a way.

With a needle and turntable you always had to be careful.  Come to think of it, I like CDs!  They work for me, for my purposes.  I just want to play the album, I just want the music.

One thing I miss, having CDs instead of record albums is -- liner notes.  No room for it on CD packaging, unless they made the print too small to read.

        The inverse is true, I think, on the actual compact disc vs. vinyl -- they can fit more songs on a CD.  Like when Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album came out in 1976 there wasn't enough room on it for another song Stevie Nicks had, called "Silver Springs."  But when that album was reissued on CD in 2004, it had "Silver Springs" on it.  Because they can fit more on. ...

My idea of a turntable now is not a rangy big set of equipment fit to fill a nightclub with dance music.  I would just want a record player with the speakers right in it.  I'm into simplicity and compactness.  (Which is why I should maybe stay with CDs, I don't know....)

If I did get a turntable, I would begin with only three record albums:  one by The Beatles, one by Bob Dylan, and one by the Rolling Stones.  And then see if the sound given by vinyl records makes a difference to me.  And if I like using the "classic" record-playing equipment.

------------------------------------------

On You Tube (or m.youtube)

type in

The Beatles, one after 909

and after standing up, PLAY.

(One has to be on their feet, because one will want to dance.  [We don't want to be caught unawares and lose any dance time.])

-30-

above fame

 

I kind of wanted to study the Decluttering-Just-Stop-Buying-Stuff subject some more today, but then the New York Times had an opinion piece (by an author who never makes sense to me) about the Beatles, trying to explain their popularity in terms  of -- 'people like music because other people like it.'

        (See?...That does not make sense to me, either.)

But the Reader Comments, well worth a glance:

fast / furious

DC

    The Beatles taught themselves to be great performers during the rough years in Hamburg when they struggled to get the attention of drunken sailors and other club goers who were bored and just there to score pills.  

A tough crowd.  

It was in Hamburg (and to a lesser extent The Cavern) that The Beatles really learned to put on a show and get and hold people's attention.  

Without the training of those early years of playing live for hours in sleazy venues, nothing Brian Epstein could have done would have mattered.

Robert King

Nashville, Tennessee

    and Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, and Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, and Berry Gordy, and Clive Davis, and many others.  But that was before record labels became entirely corporatized, and entirely focused on the bottom line.  Label heads used to be interested in musical quality, artist development, art.... That's pretty rare these days.

manfred marcus

Bolivia

    The Beatles...were willing to fail in the process, so to make their eventual successes the sweeter.  In Spanish we say:  'Quien no arriesga no gana' (who does not risk doesn't win).

Durham, North Carolina

    This world has never been, nor ever will be again, as united as it was when we all loved the Beatles.

Joanne Witzkowski

Washington State

    I was 11 when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. ...it was all over the school the next day - big time! ...What was their magic?  It was their music, their exuberance, their uniquely tailored suits, their humor, their hair! their sex appeal, their accents, their charm.  

It was a total je ne sais quoi, a tsunami. ...and they did it all on a generally plain and basic stage - no big light show, no special effects, just their vibrant selves, thrilling us all.

Kurt

Chicago

    Some songs are so inherently good that they will prevail regardless of the times and how they are promoted.  The Beatles had a couple dozen of those at least.  

The mystery to  me is what makes them so good?  What combination of notes and beats and lyrics make a song transcendent?  

I'm not sure even John and Paul know the answer.

Michael Skadden

Houston, Texas

    You must remember that the Beatles (originally The Quarrymen) got their start in 1955.  It'd be seven long years of hard work and learning before "Love Me Do" came out....

Tim

San Jose

    I remember the excitement in Junior High School when we first heard "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," "I Saw Her Standing There."  It was romantic and thrilling music....

Michael Kennedy

Portland, Oregon

    ...First, news of the teenagers in Europe, going bonkers preceded them.  

Their performance before the Queen in late 1963, was in Newsweek magazine.  

Then President Kennedy was assassinated. The young people, indeed the nation went into shock.  

Within the awful weeks that followed, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" came to the USA.  

You have no idea what that did to raise the spirits of the young people. 

...They brought us together through imagination, their sense of humor, professionalism, and genuine charisma.  

Indeed they still influence our culture to this day.  

They were and are above fame.  

The Beatles were four working class men who showed how to do it well and with grace.

-30-

...how come you declutter so good?

 

Clutter-and-decluttering is such a hot topic, even the New York Times ran an article about it titled,

"Why We Clutter, and What to Do About It."

---------------------- from the Reader Comments:

Kathleen

Los Angeles, California

    Play upbeat music as you de-clutter.  Celebrate the task and reap the rewards.

(...I'm no school boy but I know what I like

You should have heard them, just around midnight...)

Pat

Ohio

    I know why we collect.  It is the Hunter / Gathering instinct that still exists in our DNA.  We have this need to go out, get something and bring it home.  Hoarding is primal.

Arete'

Texas

    I am a constant pruner.  That saves a lot of time.

JLMB

NYC

    Do you not use a coffeemaker, kettle, toaster, microwave, blender etc.?  We use those items daily.  It seems a waste of time to carry a microwave or toaster to the kitchen counter and then return it to a shelf when done.  

        We don't have enough cabinets in our rental apartment to store those items anyway.  That's what the counter is for.  I love visually how an empty counter looks but for my lifestyle it's not practical.

Cavatina

United Kingdom

    While visiting the US, I was telling an American friend that in the UK two-car garages are very rare.  Her response was "But where do people keep all their stuff?"

Bill Strong

Davidson, North Carolina

    The only person I ever knew who handled this well was a secretary who worked for my dad.  

She left work every day and went home to cook supper.  

While her husband and kids did dishes she took on one spot EVERY day - a shelf, a drawer, the summer shirts in her son's closet.  

        The minute they finished dishes she stopped and picked up at the same place the next day.  

When working in a child's room they were excused from dishes and worked with her.  

It took about 6 months to get through the house and then she started over.  

Very methodical and a bit dreary, but she never had clutter overwhelm her.

-30-

only sauerkraut tastes good warmed up

 

L to R:  Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker, in the original Sex And The City TV-series

The makers of Sex And The City have made another show (a reboot?  a sequel?) titled And Just Like That.

It's on an HBO channel that I don't have, so I've not been able to watch it.  But if I want to watch people dissing this show, all I have to do is go to You Tube.

People are Up - SET.

One commenter in the New York Times likened it to "warming up," or "re-heating" something that was made earlier -- and she finished by quoting her grandmother:  "Only sauerkraut tastes good warmed up."

Does a reboot or sequel "re-heat" an earlier show?

If a reboot or sequel isn't good, does that hurt the original show?

        That question is kind of like -- if people were married for 30 years and then they get a divorce, does that subtract all value from the 30 years they spent together?  Was it all a mistake?  Was it all a lie?

Logic tells me something in the future cannot change something in the past, either for better or worse.

        Yet still, with art many people are against "messing with" it -- and they feel by doing something with it (or to it) later on, that the original is being harmed, or de-valued.  ("They've ruined Sex and the City!!")

A good TV series is like capturing lightning in a bottle.  Whether you can do it again is always up for debate -- always a risk.

Problems with And Just Like That:

Samantha Jones (portrayed by actress Kim Cattrall) isn't in it, so instead of four friends, it's three.

Story-lines that go nowhere.

Some vulgar stuff that isn't necessary -- You Tubers complained mightily.

And to me, from what I was hearing, it sounds like the writers were at times just taking some moments, or scenes, out of the original series and shoving a replication of the scene, or a reference to it, into the new show.

Then, adding insult to injury, there are podcasts and a documentary from showrunner Michael Patrick King and some of the writers, where they discuss how great the new show is, and how great they are.

And then that just makes the You Tubers madder!  LOL.

The fashion and style of the original series was very important to a large number of fans, and they're vocally unhappy with this aspect of And Just Like That, too.  Pat Field did costumes for Sex and the City, but she is not involved with this show, so they have somebody else doing the clothes.

----------------------------------

A commenter under one video said she has a friend who worked as stylist on various TV projects -- she said, you have to kiss the a-s of the stars and "make them feel thin" all the time.

-30-

musical technology

 

------------- [excerpt from Life, by Keith Richards] ---------------- All my stuff came together and all done on a cassette player.  With "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Street Fighting Man" I'd discovered a new sound I could get out of an acoustic guitar.  

That grinding, dirty sound came out of these crummy little motels where the only thing you had to record with was this new invention called the cassette recorder.  And it didn't disturb anybody.  

Suddenly you had a very mini studio.  

Playing an acoustic, you'd overload the Philips cassette player to the point of distortion so that when it played back it was effectively an electric guitar.  You were using the cassette player as a pickup and an amplifier at the same time.  You were forcing acoustic guitars through a cassette player, and what came out the other end was electric as hell.  

An electric guitar will jump live in your hands.  It's like holding on to an electric eel.  

An acoustic guitar is very dry and you have to play it a different way.  But if you can get that different sound electrified, you get this amazing tone and this amazing sound.  I've always loved the acoustic guitar, loved playing it, and I thought, if I can just power this up a bit without going to electric, I'll have a unique sound.  It's got  a little tingle on the top.  It's unexplainable, but it's something that fascinated me at the time.

In the studio, I plugged the cassette into a little extension speaker and put a microphone in front of the extension speaker so it had a bit more breadth and depth, and put that on tape.  That was the basic track.  

There are no electric instruments on "Street Fighting Man" at all, apart from the bass, which I overdubbed later.  

All acoustic guitars.  

"Jumpin' Jack Flash" the same.  

I wish I could still do that, but they don't build machines like that anymore....The band all thought I was mad, and they sort of indulged me.  But I heard a sound that I could get out of there.  And Jimmy was onto it immediately.  "Street Fighting Man," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and half of "Gimme Shelter" were all made just like that, on a cassette machine.  I used to layer guitar on guitar.  

Sometimes there are eight guitars on those tracks.  You just mash 'em up.  

Charlie Watts's drums on "Street Fighting Man" are from this little 1930s practice drummer's kit, in a little suitcase that you popped up, one tiny cymbal, a half-size tambourine that served as a snare, and that's really what it was made on, made on rubbish, made in hotel rooms with our little toys.

        That was a magic discovery, but so were these riffs.  These crucial, wonderful riffs that just came, I don't know where from.

___________________________________

-30-

back in Denmark Street

 

I listened to and watched some You Tube videos by people who discuss turntables and vinyl records.

(For the record -- oops, a pun! -- "in the day" we didn't call them vinyl records, we just called them records, or albums, or record albums, or 45s.  But for 21st-Century collectors and debaters, "vinyl" is the key word....)

"The White Album."

The Beatles had a White Album.

So did Fleetwood Mac.

And one of Joan Didion's books was titled, The White Album.

__________________________________

Some of the turntable videos are by people who are saying, "You get what you pay for!  This turntable costs too little money and so it's not good!  Rar-rahr!"

But I could not help but remember some expensive pens I bought in the past which I now use only as paper-weights / book-marks, to hold a book open to a page where I want to make notes, I don't write with them.

        (I will keep the ones I have, but I would not buy another expensive pen.)

        The problem with the expensive pens is, the re-fills are too expensive, and the pens are too bulky and heavy to use for long-term writing.  Some of them have a decorative band or something, right where you hold it when writing, so it's uncomfortable....  The best pens for me to use are the inexpensive ones -- Bic Clic Stic; PaperMate Profile; Uniball Power Tank.  Other Bic styles, as well.

        Someone who likes beautiful, high-priced pens that are pieces of furniture might look at my pens and say, "My God, you're like an ascetic with those plastic disposable pens, do you only consume tap water and stale bread at mealtimes?"

But it's true -- the plain ones are the best ones for writing.  And I wonder, then, about turntables, if maybe a perfectly usable one can be had for a budget-friendly price.

        One You Tuber, Norman Maslov, talks about vinyl records.  He has an extensive collection of albums -- in the videos you can see them behind him.  It's just walls, of shelves, of albums.

So.

Many.

That is a serious, dedicated collector who is passionate about his music and has layers and layers of knowledge.

Also -- layers and layers of records.

Just looking at it I thought, When you have that many of anything, you have bought yourself another job.

Music CDs are good.  Why would we need vinyl records now?  Vinyl enthusiasts have their reasons.  Some say the music sounds better in that form.

------------------------- Keith Richards on the subject of technological advances:

Very soon after Exile, so much technology came in that even the smartest engineer in the world didn't know what was really going on.  How come I could get a great drum sound back in Denmark Street with one microphone, and now with fifteen microphones I get a drum sound that's like someone shitting on a tin roof?  Everybody got carried away with technology and slowly they're swimming back. ...

________________________________

-30-