HERE’S A BRILLIANT IDEA
Please do not play your albums on a turntable with built in speakers. In fact, don’t place your record player anywhere near your speakers. LPs never sound their best that way.
Category: Vinyl / Tunes Blog
MUSIC REVENUE CHART
For folks who care about such things, here’s an interesting chart adjusted for inflation that shows where each music format has fallen in yearly revenue. LPs peaked in 1978, and CDs peaked in 1999. Only sales of new items are included. Colored vinyl is the new collectible fetish. Elsewhere, physical music formats have remained niche products, with revenue from used sales on-line unaccounted for. The days of finding gold in used record stores are pretty much over. Click on chart to enlarge.
WHILE YOU’RE WAITING
While you’re waiting for the earth to end, here’s a cool turntable to play your carbon based records on. The Brian Eno LED turntable is a collaboration with London’s Paul Stolper gallery.
Alive on Arrival
Steve Forbert’s debut album, Alive on Arrival was released in 1978 on his 22nd birthday, December 13. This foretelling unknown gem is still worth repeated listening. The original vinyl sounds great!
GET BACK
The Beatles: Get Back is a new documentary series directed and produced by Peter Jackson. It covers the making of the Beatles’ 1970 album Let It Be, which had the working title of Get Back.
Check it out. All you have to do is look at the 1969 photo above to know The Beatles were way ahead of their time. I mean, who else was wearing Chucks besides George?
VINYL IS HOT
In the last five years new vinyl LP sales in the USA have doubled to over 30 million units sold per year. That’s more than new CD sales today, and these numbers don’t include used record purchases.
Prior to 2016, the sales numbers for new vinyl was increasing but not anywhere this rate. Only problem is, most everything currently released on LP is on backorder. This is primarily due to increased demand and decreased supply (due in no small part to the small number of pressing plants and the lack of vinyl pellets). See this for more:
WELCOME TO THE BOOMTOWN
Seattle is and has always been different. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s an assemledge of people from across the nation looking for learning, recreation and progressiveness, yet it remains reasonable (except for the more recent cost of living increases, homelessness, rioting and traffic problems). Continue reading “”
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Joel Bernstein was a young man interested in photography during the late 1960s.
He was lucky enough to hook up with some folk rock musicians before they became famous. “Almost famous” describes his life, and it might be used to describe mine. We were both very fortunate to be given an opportunity at just the right time. Continue reading “”
CHARLIE WATTS R.I.P.
The only drummer in The Rolling Stones since its inception passed away today at age 80. He was the core of the band. Married to the same woman since 1964, with as steady a beat as was possible, and always a purveyor of fashion, Charlie was as cool as they came. Everyone loved him (bottom right in photo). Only two, Mick and Keith, remain from the original line-up. Kind of like The Who and The Beatles…
This is a real loss, never replicated. Charlie will forever be deeply missed. Continue reading “”
WHO’S NEXT – 50 YEARS LATER
Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Who’s best album. I would say arguably, but the only other contenders are Tommy and Quadrophenia, and while these are classics as well, none has this record’s cache.
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” from the album Who’s Next becomes increasingly relevant with each passing year. Continue reading “”
JULY 4TH
Here’s a firecracker for you.
John Martyn was one of the most talented and intense musicians ever. Never heard of him? That’s not unusual. Continue reading “”
COME MONDAY
Thank you to the one who introduced me to the album Living and Dying in 3/4 Time.
It saw me through 15 years of living the life of a tropical travel stock photographer – a kind of unknown Jimmy Buffett in transit. I did very well, being paid obscene amounts of money as a citizen of the world from the mid ’80’s until 2001. I only had to have one carcinoma removed.
BE CAREFUL KNOWING YOUR HEROES TOO WELL –
A.K.A. WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS
Mentors are important. Heroes can be as well.
When you first meet your hero, you will be less than objective. Every thing you hear from that person will be colored by your preconceptions. Until it’s not. Continue reading “”
ART PEPPER
Along with Bill Evans and Miles Davis, he’s my favorite jazz player. Imagine these three playing together: sax, piano and trumpet. Maybe Paul Chambers on bass and Billy Cobb on drums…
The Notes from a Jazz Survivor documentary film about Art Pepper is not for the those who don’t want to know about the trials and tribulations all three men went through. The Blues for the Fisherman album is an Art Pepper live masterwork that few know about. If you like West Coast Jazz, check them out.
(Photographer: Unknown)
YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHO I AM
The life of a true artist is unique and unlikely to be knowable in its entirety to many, if any at all. Continue reading “”