A Commentary

Lately I have been thinking about the quality of the reproduction of the music that I listen to. Like many others, I embrace the ease of loading all of my music onto a computer and transferring them to my iPods as it is very convenient for me to carry all of my favorite bands ENTIRE collections with me wherever I go. The question is, now that the excitement of this revolutionary device has died down, and it is now common place in my life, have I happily traded fidelity for portability and convenience? Are iPods and compressed files sucking the life out of the music I so enjoy?
The answers sadly to both questions is yes. No doubt the compressed mp3 files are ‘thinner’ sounding, many times crackly and tinny sounding. What’s even worse, new releases these days are engineered louder knowing the end user will either buy it compressed to begin with, or rip their own CD’s for their devices, which eliminates sounds and range contained on a recording. You would think knowing these things would make me trash the ipod and go back to only CD and vinyl, but convenience has trumped sound in the overall scheme of things.
One factor is when I listen to music. The majority of the time it is in the car to and from work – and at work on my ipod ready portable speaker system. I rarely listen to music at home anymore with all the other factors of life occupying that time. (Grand kids, favorite TV shows, sports, etc..). I used to just sit and listen to music growing up. It was an activity. The other side of this however, is that I actually listen to MORE music now than I have at any other time in my life. That is a direct result of the iPod’s portable convenience. The downside would of course be it becomes the background while I am doing something else rather than being THE thing that I am doing.
I have however retained my listening habits. I’ve never been a ‘mix tape’ kinda guy, I’m an ‘album guy’, and I preferred to listen to an artist work from start to finish, in the order it is on an lp or CD. I still do this even on the iPod. It is incredibly simple to create play lists on the iPod, heck you can even have it create them for you, but I prefer to listen to one artist instead of moving from one artist’s song to another’s. To me there is an art to listening to music, and the move to the jukebox-style playlist mentality delivery of songs was one compromise that I can say with pride I did not make.
So what to do? Well I will never abandon my iPod. It has become my central music delivery system, and shows no sign of being replaced any time soon. But to combat the degradation of sound quality in this MP3 era, I’ve started re-ripping my favorite music into a ‘lossless’ format, preserving the sound closer to it’s original intent. With external hard drives getting larger and cheaper all the time, storage of these much larger files is really not the issue of space and cost that it once was.
What’s lost is that there was a magical almost romantic quality with the album that has been lost in reducing the packaging and music that was inside to digital content. I do long for the days of listening to music on vinyl, holding the large sleeve, checking the sides to make sure it is centered correctly, looking at the lyric sheet, watching the label turn on the turntable. You felt like you were buying something to be cherished and that you became a part of. We will never feel that simply downloading a few files.

Aerosmith - Tampa, Florida - 8/7/10

Set List:
01. Train Kept A Rollin'
02. Love In An Elevator
03. Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)
04. Livin' On The Edge
05. What It Takes
06. Pink
07. Last Child
08. Cryin'
Drum Solo
09. Come Together
Joe Perry Guitar Battle
10. Stop Messin' Around
11. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
12. One Way Street
13. Sweet Emotion
14. Baby Please Don't Go
15. Draw The Line
---Encore---
16. Dream On
17. Walk This Way
18. Toys In The Attic
19. Milk Cow Blues
20. Walkin' The Dog

Awesome show. Got a lawn ticket for $10 and then at the show upgraded to a seat for another $10. Awesome show for just $20!!

Pink Floyd wins!

Pink Floyd doesn’t want you to download their music track by track – only purchase the entire record. Now the courts say you can’t!!
Here is what I’ve read:

Britain's High Court has ordered EMI to stop selling a la carte downloads of Pink Floyd tracks rather than as part of their albums, says the Wall Street Journal in a news alert. Judge Andrew Morritt backed the band’s contention that its contract prohibited selling unbundled tracks, explaining that the contract protected "the artistic integrity of the albums." By extension, the ruling will likely have the crew at the iTunes Store jumping through hoops in an effort to comply

iTunes LP Dead?

Looks like the iTunes LP format just never did catch on. It seemed so promising! Nothing digital will ever ‘feel’ as good as holding the large sized record in your hand!
Here is what I’ve read:

“The iTunes LP format has totally fizzled in the six months since its launch, GigaOM reports. Industry sources told writer Paul Bonanos that the vast majority of iTunes shoppers have no idea the format even exists, and only 29 iTunes LPs are currently on sale—including the dozen that were available at launch. Not surprisingly, labels are finding it difficult to justify peeling as much as $60k out of an album’s marketing budget to produce an iTunes LP. The bonus materials may interest super-fans, but they aren’t generating much buzz among mainstream consumers, and don’t appear to be stimulating album sales whatsoever, Bonanos notes. “It’s something most people will look at once,” one person told him.”

John Ono Lennon - 10/9/40-12/8/80

Another year passes but the pain never diminishes

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
- Carl Sandburg, "Grass"

Are we here again? Has it been another year? Must we live this day once more: the day of loss, the day that cannot be revoked, the day of remembering?

I pull on my black sweater and pants, and pin my "John Lennon: 1940-1980, We Still Miss You" button on the collar and go out to face the world, grim. The ritual is repeated - two years, ten years... year after year. And yet, the pain is never diminished by the passage of time.

I try to take solace in the fact that John is now "free as a bird," that he is home, safe and dry. In Tell Me Why I read Tim Riley's brilliant words, "When [John] looked at himself and the world around him, he felt unsettled, dissatisfied. Life wore on him." And I try to rejoice that John is now in a place where he "fits in," where he is completely and utterly happy - a place where nothing chafes and everything comforts.

But I am not comforted. I am selfish and feel deprived of the man who walked headlong into life with a "chip on his shoulder that was bigger than his feet." I have the records, but not the voice. I have the movies and interview DVD's and photo stills, but not the guy with the Goon grin or the cackling laugh or the serious sneer. All I have is memory. All any of us have is memory.

And that is not enough.

The world without John Lennon is not better off. It is less spontaneous, less ingenious, less original, less playful, less magical, less lovely. He gave us a collective vision that we couldn't summon for ourselves. He made us believe in Lucy and Prudence and Mr. Kite and the illusive lady of Norwegian Wood. He showed us that if you're sure you can, you can. He pummeled the status quo so that we didn't have to. And in the pressing crowd that was the 1960's, he shouldered ahead of us and paved our way.

Don't get me wrong. I don't see John as a saint. He would hate that. He would far rather be known as the irreverent rocker he was. But even sardonic, temperamental geniuses have those who love them. And for those of us who do (love John, that is) this is a shadow day. A great light has been extinguished here. That it shines on elsewhere is our only joy.

-Jude Southerland Kessler
Author of Shoulda Been There

KISS - Tampa, Florida - October 21, 2009

Set List:
Deuce
Strutter
Let Me Go, Rock 'N' Roll
Hotter Than Hell
Shock Me
Modern Day Delilah
Calling Dr. Love
She
Parasite
100,000 Years
I Love It Loud
Black Diamond
Rock And Roll All Nite
Shout It Out Loud
Lick It Up
Love Gun
Detroit Rock City

The photos were taken with my iPhone from the 4rth row center stage seat 6. Not bad if I say so myself!!

The Beatles Remasters are released – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:
The look and “feel” of the boxes are just great. You know your holding something special in your hand just from the sheer weight of the set. The remastering job that has been done with the sound on these releases is just top notch. My initial impressions abut the sound is that they used excellent EQ and levels, there is a a bit more "punch" (i.e. some limiting/normalizing applied) and overall they are quite satisfying. This is how the 1987 CD’s should have sounded!! “Beatles For Sale”, for example - the clarity and depth of the remaster is such that I feel like I'm sitting in Studio 2 with them. For the “white album” - when Ringo's hi-hat started on the intro of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" it induced a huge big grin - that's how a hi-hat is supposed to sound! :-) Not some muddy upper-mid range wash of sound. On Abbey Road “Here Comes The Sun” is simply FABtastic sounding!
I love how they're using the "correct" Parlophone labels and Apple labels where appropriate for each release. My only “gripe” would be "Let It Be" should have a red apple on the label – but since this set is following the UK releases (except, of course for “Magical Mystery Tour”, which has the Capitol label), “Let It Be” has a green apple.

The Bad:
The packages are nicer than the old official releases, but still leave me wanting more compared to other reissue series (e.g. The Who).
The booklets – while expanded greatly over the 87 issues with lots of pictures corresponding to the era in which the CD was recorded - leaves a lot to be desired as far as information. There are the “original” liner notes from each record – then a small “historical notes” section. Key word here is SMALL. They should have gone into detail on the dates the songs were recorded, takes used, mixes, etc. This info is available in the fantastic Lewisohn books – but would have been an extra classy touch and not have taken very much room. (Does anyone else have trouble putting the booklets back in the digipack properly ? You have to shimmy it in there. They come out very easily, but then you go to put it back in and suddenly that little lip of cardboard seems to be in the way! Very frustrating. Also – the discs themselves are wedged into the side slots so firmly it’s hard to remove them! I’ve never been a fan of digipack packaging – and this is WHY!!!
The “Magical Mystery Tour” disc had the now often reported mis-print saying the "Let It Be mini-documentary" on it. Just makes that seem shabby.
Speaking of the mini documentaries – what a wasted opportunity and incredibly underwhelming. It’s basically like a bad mini “Anthology”. My opinion is, they should have done so much more. More recent interviews. How about some interviews with Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick? How about some info on how the they remastered the albums? I think they took the easy way out. 13 of arguably the most important albums ever made covered in 49 minutes? C’MON!!
(Oh and did anyone else notice the date of Paul McCartney's liner notes in the "Sgt. Pepper" booklet – 2008!!??? Wow - how long have these remasters REALLY been ready???)

The Ugly:
So they have spent many millions all summer hyping the remasters, commercials on TV, online promotions – just awesome in your face advertising. So come 09-09-09 and you want to actually go buy the box sets. They are nowhere to be found! Yesterday we spent the morning driving around Orlando and hit many different stores: 2 Best Buy's; 2 Barnes and Nobles; 1 Border's; 1 Target and 3 independent record stores. Saw a grand TOTAL of 6 Stereo boxes for sale and not a SINGLE mono boxes at all!! I ended up getting the stereo box at Borders and then finally just ordered the mono box at Amazon.com as they now show them to be back in stock – shipping October10!!. CHRIST
So yeah – let’s hype the mother f#*ker all summer and then can't buy the damn thing when it's released. What a damn shame. Shame shame EMI.
My fist stop was Best Buy the minute they opened. They had 2 of the 6 Stereo boxes I saw and they were snatched up before I even made it over to the rack (using a cane and all couldn’t very well run – but hey – maybe I shoulda used it as a weapon??). There was a small group of about 10-15 of us waiting for the doors to open looking to get both box sets and a few to get the “toy” (aka Rockband) - all of us leaving empty handed. Literally THOUSANDS of dollars left unspent today at just that one stop!! From my online reading – this scenario played out all across the United States.
(To be fair – I DID see 5 mono box sets behind counters at 2 different stores, but they were being held for people who did pre-orders. You’d think they woulda HID them instead of flaunting it in our faces! I DID try to bribe the workers there with CASH in their pocket to get them to sell me one to no avail.).

Ok – now that we have this – how about the re-MIXES now 

Paul McCartney

Planning a trip to Atlanta to see Sir Paul McCartney in concert.
Should be a great show.
Brandon, Penny and Hannah planning to fly in for the show as well so it will be good to see them too.
A splendid time is guaranteed for all!!

John Lennon 1966 Pic

I just saw this John Lennon picture from 1966 taken while he was in Spain filming "How I Won The War". He had his Rolls Royce delivered to him and it can also be seen in the photo.
Never had seen that picture until today.
Pretty kewl!

Fleetwood Mac – Amway Arena, Orlando, Florida 4/20/09

Set List: Monday Morning, The Chain, Dreams, I Know I'm Not Wrong, Gypsy, Go Insane, Rhiannon, Second Hand News, Tusk, Sara, Big Love, Landslide, Never Going Back Again, Storms, Say You Love Me, Gold Dust Woman, Oh Well, I'm So Afraid, Stand Back, Go Your Own Way, World Turning, Don't Stop, Silver Springs

The latest tour by Fleetwood Mac is being billed as the "Unleashed" tour. While there wasn’t any reckless abandon one would associate with being ‘unleashed’ what Fleetwood Mac delivered was a set full of the hits in a 2 hour 20 minute concert Monday night at the Amway Arena in Orlando.
Just to have it said and over with – I really missed not seeing Chrisine McVie. To me, Fleetwood Mac is as much about the sweetness of McVie’s voice in the mix as anything, but the band members Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and John McVie were all in fine form and they had a trio of backing vocals and two additional musicians rounding out the band.
No offense to Mick or John, but this was basically a Buckingham-Nicks concert! And they delivered. Relying heavily on the “Rumours” lp (7 songs from the record were performed) they delivered the hits mostly in the arrangements we’ve all come to love from years of rotation on the radio.

Stevie Nicks, now at 60, mostly stands in silhouette with her trademark lace and bead capes and doesn’t do much spinning these days – but her voice has not failed her, and she was definitely the star of the show. “Sara” and “Landslide” were simply fantastic, and her vocals at the climax of “Gold Dust Woman” brought chills to the spine.
Lindsey Buckingham, also at 60, probably ranks as one of the most under-appreciated guitarists around. He CAN play that’s for sure – but it was his solo spots – most notably in “Big Love” (barely recognizable from the original in this frenzy version) - that had the isles full of people heading for the next beer and bathroom. His solos during the hits, while mostly spot on, often turned into bloated wanderings that at times sounded like he was playing a different track than the rest of the band, and was WAY to loud in the mix. His extended solo in "I’m So Afraid" - while impressive, turned into an overlong session on how to play the same highest as possible note over and over and over. But none of these things really detracted from the evening very much, and his voice is as strong as ever.
John McVie and Mick Fleetwood laid down a solid backbeat all evening and they are still the ‘core’ of the band. But besides a “frantic” or shall I say “unleashed” drum solo from Mick during the encore, they relegated themselves to being background session men – which is I’m sure just how they prefer it.
If you get the chance to see the band on this tour definitely do so. It was time well spent.

“Landslide” performed in Orlando – 4/20/09

Pars Defect

Went to the pain management doctor this morning. He will be the one to actually do the spinal injections. There will be a series of three injections. One this coming Wednesday - April 1 – and then every other week for 2 more weeks – a total of 3 injections.
To better explain what is going on – I have what is known as a “Pars Defect” in my lower L5 vertebrae causing ‘spondylolysis’. It is a defect in the spine that occurs in only three to six percent of the population. This defect can cause instability in the vertebra, much like a loose hinge in a door.

Now what that means is – I have a defect of the L5 vertebrae that over time has fractured on my left side. A stress fracture. This causes the spinal canal to narrowed because the fracture effectively flattens the canal and pinches the nerves running through them when in motion. The first picture I posted is from the cat scan I had on Monday and is showing the L5 vertebrae. You can see the ‘void’ on the left side of the vertebrae (which is actually on the right side of the picture) and this is the fracture and where all of my pain is coming from. The right side is normal. The second picture is from an x-ray with an arrow pointing to the “pars defect” which gives you a better idea of where this is located in relation to the rest of your body – and where all of my pain is radiating from.
This pain is in the hips or upper legs and is often confused with “sciatica” which is what most people think of when they hear of pinched nerves – usually from a slipped disc. This is not my issue.

Oh my aching back...and knee...and hip...

It's not everyday that you visit the dr and he tells you that you have a broken back!! And I never thought it would happen to me.
Well - I have a broken bone in my back - a stress fracture - which has slid the spine forward. Have to get a cat scan this afternoon. Once the cat scan results are in, I have to have injections directly into the fracture – a concoction of pain meds; anti-inflammatory and some “stuff” that helps promote bone healing. That all will begin this Thursday.
I also have to go physical therapy twice a week starting tomorrow. They will then re-evaluate the back in 6 weeks. If not improved, the option may be to do spine surgery to fuse the fracture.
And as for the knee – will probably have to have surgery on that very very soon. As soon as next month I think. I have 2 bone fragments floating around impacting my knee cap and tears on both sides of the meniscus.
How did all of this happen!!! Well - The spine dr. said that actually this all began when I was a kid - and is found in mostly men over the height of 6'2". Our bodies when we are younger grow faster than our spine during growth spurts in tall men causing weak spots to develop. As we get older and abuse our bodies - these weak spots can sometimes fracture - which mine has.
so while not COMMON by any stretch - it's not RARE either. It's mainly in men (women are build differently you know) and the dr. didn't seem that concerned about it and said there is a great chance all of my pain could be gone in 6 weeks with the shots and physical therapy.
fingers crossed...
updates as they occur.

Where Are the Beatles Reissues?

In an era of declining music sales and rapid technological advancement, it’s still hard to fathom the sorry lot of the Beatles canon. Not only is the catalog of rock music’s most successful and influential act still not available for legal digital download, for the most part it hasn’t received even the basic remastering afforded pop music acts with a fraction of the Fab Four’s historical importance and consumer clout. Thus the Beatles catalog continues to be represented by thin-sounding, now two-decade-old digital mastering accomplished at the dawn of the CD era.

Worse, the culprits for the Beatle catalog’s perpetually sorry state of affairs seem to be the surviving band members and the heirs of John Lennon and George Harrison themselves. As partners in the band’s Apple company, they have final say as to what product music distributor EMI is allowed to issue — which, outside of the Anthology series a decade ago and the recent Love collaboration with Cirque du Soleil — hasn’t been much over the course of the 40 years since the band dissolved. Even more inexplicable is the fact that the Apple principles hired a veteran label exec two years ago specifically to develop a reissue program.

Typical of the situation were last year’s rumors — purportedly floated by an EMI insider — that the band was preparing a deluxe 40th anniversary edition of their monumental White Album. Instead, eager fans were eventually directed to the band’s official website, where they were offered a commemorative White Album fountain pen — for $395. And while the upcoming Beatles edition of Rock Band should please video gamers, what of the basic catalog of epochal recordings that inspired it?

Some Fabs fans already know that comprehensive sets of Beatles reissues are already available — they’re just not legally authorized. While an already sizable trove of leaked Beatles outtakes continues to grow (the latest, a radically expanded early version of “Revolution,” surfaced just last month, a cadre of more industrious — if legally unsanctioned — fans strives to preserve the band’s recorded legacy in other ways.

At least three different entities have now issued sonically upgraded versions of the Beatles catalog, usually using pristine vintage vinyl editions as source material for their digital upgrades. The most ambitious is a virtual “label” known as “Purple Chick” (the moniker is part wordplay on two notorious bootleg labels, Great Dane and Yellow Dog), which issues continually upgraded editions of each original Beatles album that include not only its officially released mono/stereo mixes and period singles, but every available alternate mix and studio outtake as well. Some PC editions are only two CDs in length, while their White Album sprawls over a dozen virtual discs.

When the separated master four-track recordings of a handful of Sgt. Pepper’s tracks surfaced in late 2007, Purple Chick quickly added yet another volume to its already comprehensive chronicle of the album. It can do so quickly because its releases are virtual, shared on the Internet via torrent, blogs and file sharing services, many of which are difficult to police at best. Then there’s the disclaimer the label adds to the equally accomplished artwork provided with its releases: “Fan Created..NEVER FOR SALE!!!”

The virtual label’s most ambitious project was A/B Road, an 83-volume set chronicling the Beatles’ January, 1969 sessions that eventually yielded Let It Be. Painstakingly assembled from a jumble of film sound outtakes and other sources, the set took a full year to complete. PC has also tackled other personal music obsessions, like the Beach Boys lost Smile sessions and, most recently, an exhaustive, 10-volume chronicle of Buddy Holly’s career.

So if/when September 26 rolls around this year and there’s no official, remastered 40th anniversary edition of Abbey Road available — or, worse, a $395 commemorative fountain pen instead — be advised that Purple Chick already has a version available (three discs worth, in fact) somewhere in cyberspace.

Lists

I love lists. There is a strange comfort that I get out of putting in order the seemingly random. I can remember my mom always buying “The Book of Lists” series of books. I’m sure that’s where my own fascination with lists springs from.
My other passion is music. So of course a list involving music is downright orgasmic.
I am currently listening to the “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” list. (You can follow along on the music blog I contribute to where I am reviewing each record). I compiled each album into nice and neat folders on a hard drive that I have hooked up into my computer.
I have also compiled the “500 Best Albums Of All Time” list from Rolling Stone magazine – as well as their “500 Best Songs Of All Time”.
I recently added “VH1’s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs” as well as “VH1’s 40 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs”.
I then put together a collection of every “Album Of The Year” Grammy award winner.
I have really enjoyed putting together these lists of music – although it has taken a lot of time. It’s more than just compiling and downloading the music – it’s organizing and properly tagging, etc. that takes all of the time – but it is nice to see a list get filled up and completed.
I just added a few list spreadsheets to my collection which are my next project. A series of books by Martin Popoff. They are “The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time” and “The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time”.
Let the downloading and tagging madness begin!

Great photo of John in 1980 talking to a New York Times critic while recording "Double Fantasy".

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

The Dakota

This is the Dakota building where John Lennon lived and was killed - circa 1880.

John Lennon 1940-1980 - Rest In Peace

It was 28 years ago today (can it be so) that John Lennon was robbed from us.
May he rest in peace. We miss you John!!

Eric Carr - Rest In Peace

Today is the 17th anniversary of the death of KISS drummer Eric Carr.
May he rest in peace.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN.
We miss you!