When I was an undergraduate at UW Madison, I teased one of my classmates by, after telling me that she was moving to California, warning her that she might fall into the ocean after “the big one.” She stared at me with this icy glare and said: “ROGER, YOU CAN’T LIVE IN FEAR.” Very good advice: fear causes cancer faster than cigarettes I would imagine. Living without fear has been a goal I’ve strived for, with a fair amount of success. I grant you that 21st century fear is very different than early hominid survival fear, but it is fear none the less.
All that having been said, and knowing that I’m really an optimistic fellow, here is a video that just might make you afraid about the possible impact of a meteor on the planet. I don’t speak Japanese, but you get the idea really well. Ursi made me do this. [Ursi Spaltenstein is one of my blog heroes.]
Tony Glover’s article in The Business online.com tells us that LPs are outselling CDs at the Virgin Megastore. You heard me right.
Up to 70% of sales of new releases are vinyl. The fans of popular new rock bands like Arctic Monkeys and The Raconteurs prefer vinyl to CD,” said Campkin. “When the Raconteurs’ latest single was released, 80% of high-street sales were for seven-inch vinyl and only 20% were for CDs.”
We are not just talking about vinyl singles but also about albums – the format is just continuing to grow,” said HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo.
I don’t completely get it. The article implies it’s one way dealing with the rampant digital copying, or is it nostalgia? When I give lectures, very often I use LPs to demonstate. The students get this glassy look in their eyes and I can tell it’s warm-and-fuzzy time. The pops sends them into ecstacy. One of my students gave a presentation and used an LP to play some out of print music. He had no idea how to hold the LP much less how to put in on the turntable. (I guess I have to add that to the curriculum.) I’m not about to get up and tell you that LPs are the way to go. I just have several thousand of them and they still work just fine. I didn’t see any need to replace them with CDs. Now it looks as though I have nice little investment. Go figure.
My second favorite band of the 60s behind the Beatles is the Byrds. Nearly everything they did from 1965 to 1970 in their various incarnations was interesting, although after Crosby, Clark, Clarke and Hillman left my enthusiasm wained. Gram Parsons and Clarence White were two post-Byrds mega-stars that put in time. I’m pretty sure I own all of the LPs they put out at this time, together and apart. So despite their already having put out far too many greatest hits and reissues, a new set called “There is a Season” is slated for release by Coumbia/Legacy on August 29, 2006. It will include a 4 CD set of the standard Byrds fare, but also all the early stuff like the early bands called The Jet Set and Beefeaters, as well as later reincarnations of the group in 1973 and 1990. A DVD of live performances promises to make this set unique.
After a little hunting around I see that Roger McGuinn owns byrds.com where he posts with his wife Camilla from time to time. David Crosby has his own website where finally he has free reign to talk politics as well as his music. He used to irritate his bandmates by chatting politics with the audience when all they wanted to hear was “Turn Turn Turn.” Like the other two living Byrds, Chris Hillman is alive and well. His website will bring you up to date on his career, and be sure to check out the various photos of his musical career. Not great pics but marvelous documents. Although Gene Clark has been dead since 1991, his music is more popular than ever. geneclark.com will show you the extent to which this is true. The most invisible member, Michael Clarke, a heavy drinker, succumbed to liver failure in 1993. Clarke will be remembered for providing cool drum parts to early Byrds records as well as the Flying Burrito Brothers. At the end of his life he pursued appearing on TV to warn children of the dangers of alcohol. The foundation Campaign for Alcohol-free Kids carries his dream on. Read “Death of a Rock’n'Roll Legend” for the sad end of his life.
I look forward to revisiting these old friends. No, it won’t be the same as it was when they were together, and that’s just fine.
From the creator of Sequenza 21, Jerry Bowles, has created blognoggle, a compendium of RSS feeds about music, mostly contemporary and classical music. It has two cousins, that focus on Politics and Business as well. Several of my posts have appear there, along with a bevy of other thoughtfully curated posts. Red Black Window is in blognoggle’s 100 Top New Music Blogs
Here are Jerry’s thoughts on his new site:
I started blognoggle pages on new music, business and politics because
I realized that only a small fraction of internet users now bother
with RSS readers and those that do become quickly overwhelmed by too
much information. My hunch is that web readers (particularly music
lovers as opposed to techies) would much rather go to a web page where
the most important and freshest posts from the best sources have
already been automatically selected for them to quickly review.
I’m amazed: who’d a thunk it? CMT, or Country Music Television, has a website, and featured in it is a tribute to one of my old heroes, Gram Parsons.
I think the argument can easily be made that Gram Parsons was to country-rock what Hank Williams was to mainstream country. Each simultaneously catapulted a musical genre light years ahead of what it had been, and each left a romantic image of a brilliant but doomed wastrel country poet who died young. Hank was 29 when he succumbed to too much dope and liquor in the back seat of his Cadillac, and Gram was 26 when an overdose of dope and liquor claimed his young life in a motel room in the California desert. [Editorial Director Chet Flippo.]
With the exception of Emmy Lou Harris, Gram has hardly received the respect he deserves from the country music world. Perhaps this article is the turning point. It doesn’t tell any of us Parsons experts anything new, but it DOES tell us that there is a new GP documentary and 3 CD box set due on the shelves June 20, 2006. The 3 CDs are his Reprise recordings.
Who knows? Perhaps now they will come to their senses about k d lang as one of the greatest country artists ever. (She didn’t have the patience or artistic sloth to stay and wait for approval and moved on.) I heard k d with the LA Philharmonic two summers ago. She is at a new level. She has always been a great performer, but she has matured into a great artist. I can’t help but think that her passion for Buddhism has centered her into a new level. I anxiously await her next project.
I was surprised to read that Paul and his 2nd wife, Heather Mills, have split after four years of marriage. They blamed “intrusion from the media” for the split. Uh, yeah. Is that kinda like “the devil made me do it?” Here’s the kicker: Paul is worth around 1 billion dollars, and they didn’t have a pre-nuptial agreement. I’m amazed Paul.
rss feed
My second favorite band of the 60s behind the Beatles is the Byrds. Nearly everything they did from 1965 to 1970 in their various incarnations was interesting, although after Crosby, Clark, Clarke and Hillman left my enthusiasm wained. Gram Parsons and Clarence White were two post-Byrds mega-stars that put in time. I’m pretty sure I own all of the LPs they put out at this time, together and apart. So despite their already having put out far too many greatest hits and reissues, a new set called “There is a Season” is slated for release by Coumbia/Legacy on August 29, 2006. It will include a 4 CD set of the standard Byrds fare, but also all the early stuff like the early bands called The Jet Set and Beefeaters, as well as later reincarnations of the group in 1973 and 1990. A DVD of live performances promises to make this set unique.
With the exception of Emmy Lou Harris, Gram has hardly received the respect he deserves from the country music world. Perhaps this 
