Dr. Rock's Blog & Roll

Pure Pop for Now People

Metal heads, Deadheads, rapsters, punkers, glammers, Goths and rock purists beware! Movin’ Out is definitely not for you, unless you’re able to withstand 90 minutes of pure pop-rock in the form of hit after hit by Billy Joel.

The former Broadway musical is now touring the land, and made a stop last night at our local gilded palace. For Piano Man devotees it was pure, unapologetic heaven….even though the sing-along gal next to me had to apologize, and in advance. Twenty or so B.J. hits sung and danced to by a typically anonymous cast of theater-tour studs and starlets backed by a decent pop-rock band fronted by a Joel sound-a-like piano player.

With an intermission and a few classical and non-hits songs (including “Invention in C Minor” from Fantasies and Delusions) to break up the stream of hits, the show is musically entertaining, I’ll admit, for anyone who can endure AM pop for that long.

What’s confusing is the plot. Without reading the program, it wasn’t hard to figure out that the main characters, Brenda and Eddie, are high schoolers on Long Island in the early 60’s. Midway through the first act Eddie and friends go off to ‘Nam, one gets killed and the rest return to the ‘hood to find things have changed (seen that in a movie before?).

By the time the break rolls around, the plot’s contrived to fit the subject of the individual songs strung together to keep your foot tapping.

In Act II, it all falls apart and you’ll have no idea what’s going on, plot-wise.

Joel won a Tony Award in 2003 for the orchestration in Movin’ Out. The music’s good, but that’s about it. Even if you’re only a marginal fan of Joel’s music, you should catch this.

When the house lights go down, just imagine you booked a Billy Joel concert, he took ill and a stand-in came along to do the show. Otherwise, the stuff on stage is worthless.

Posted by Dr. Rock on June 5th, 2008 at 4:57 PM | 8 Comments

A Founding Father of Rock Dies at 79

Elias B. McDaniel died yesterday from heart failure at age 79 in his Florida home. In his passing, we lost one of the Founding Fathers of rock ‘n’ roll music and a giant of popular culture in the 20th century.

The world knew him as Bo Diddley. Along with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and a handful of others, he created the devastating blend of Delta blues, Southern gospel, traditional country and pure R&B that quickly caught fire among the youth in America and Britain in the mid-1950’s. Though he only received limited commercial success in the 50’s and 60’s, his musical style is central to rock ‘n’ roll and its offshoots, and his custom guitars, stage antics and raucous character were copied by some of rock music’s biggest names, including Hendrix, Presley, and nearly every British Invasion band. You’ve heard his trademark “thump-a-thump-thump, thump-thump” beat in dozens if not hundreds of rock songs, including:

“Bye, Bye, Love” (by the Everly Brothers)
“Desire” (U2)
“I Want Candy” (The Strangeloves)
“Magic Bus” (The Who)
“Not Fade Away” (Buddy Holly, with covers by the Stones and the Dead)
“She’s the One” (Springsteen)
“Whole Lotta Things” (Southern Culture On The Skids)
“Willie and the Hand Jive” (Johnny Otis, with countless covers, including Clapton).

Posted by Dr. Rock on June 2nd, 2008 at 10:54 AM | 1 Comments

See The King Before It's Too Late

You’d think an 82-year-old performer would have trouble staying awake past 8 o’clock, much less playing a mean blues guitar, leading a first-rate backing band, and working the crowd with stories and quips. Not B. B. King. He sat in a stiff but padded chair, front and center on the stage, for nearly two full hours last night, playing a mix of jazzy blues numbers and his own “hits” (“Every Day I Have The Blues,” “I Need You So” and “The Thrill Is Gone”), grinning, swaying, snapping his fingers and spilling out a captivating monologue atop the band’s cranked-down bed of smooth roadhouse blues.

The music was great and expectedly so from the undeniable King of the Blues and the backing band of veteran, mostly gray-haired blues musicians, including a horn section that played just about every brass instrument there is.

The set led off with two long instrumentals neatly show casing all eight of the band members (only two of whom appeared to be less than 50). Drummer Tommy Coleman and bassist Reg Richards played non-stop for two solid hours. That’s endurance, but then B.B. was out front for all but the 10 minute intro by the band, and he’s at least 30 years older than Richards.

The King is lucid, clear eyed and talkative. He told jokes, spun yarns and entertained the audience with a big smile, broad sweeps of his arms, a lot a kudos for the band, and even moments of social commentary — he twice delivered straight-on appeals to today’s “blues and rap players to talk more respectful of the ladies.” And he led the crowd through a hokey but well-received sing-a-long of “You Are My Sunshine.”

Even The King knows it won’t go on forever, and while he promised to return for a fifth visit to this city, he acknowledged that at some time his 250+ nights per year touring will stop.

My advice: make an effort to see the world’s greatest blues guitarist and a terrific showman before it all ends. There’s a tour listing on www.bbking.com, his official website.

Posted by Dr. Rock on May 15th, 2008 at 12:03 PM | 1 Comments

Beware the Broadband Profit-Mongers

For a country that invented the Internet and has benefited mightily from it, we’re falling behind the rest of the world in fully-realizing and utilizing this single most important technological advancement of the past 20 years.

Like water and other natural resources, the Internet is an economic growth generator. Productivity and efficiency, business expansion, start-ups and entirely new industries are driven by fast, cheap and widespread Internet service. Yet in the U.S, we’re operating with a combination of slower speeds and high prices than many other advanced countries, and that’s a potential for trouble. If we can’t compete, Korea, Japan and others will get the benefits of increased economic activity, not us.

So what are we doing about this? According to a recent Time Magazine op/ed piece, not much. Instead of a joint government/industry project to expand affordable, high-speed Internet service to all corners of the U.S., the major broadband suppliers are starting to roll out new tiered pricing schemes that will penalize you for overusing their system. Much the extra charges for exceeding the limits of your cell phone calling plan, you’ll be hit  and hard  with charges for going over the number of gigabytes you sign up for. The cost might be in the $7.50 range per gigabyte of excess usage. For a four gigabyte hi-def movie, that’s $30. Netflix, anyone?

So, be forewarned and be ready. If you download a lot of movies, you could find it expensive to do so. Downloading songs won’t be a problem unless your plan limits are set too low. And deciding where to set your upper limit  and what you’re willing to cough up if you go over the top  will require some research and understanding of your past broadband usage. If you think you’re Internet service is expensive now, wait until the profiteers really get going.

Posted by Dr. Rock on May 5th, 2008 at 3:02 PM | 0 Comments

When an Album is Not an Album

Many consider audio quality to be the primary victim of the digital revolution in music. I disagree. While mp3 and other digital file formats deliver a lesser quality of sound than the CD or even the LP, for most of us the difference is hardly noticeable. And we don’t expect anything more from our earbuds. Maybe someday, but not any time soon.

The real victim is the album. The phenomenon of purchasing and downloading digital music has changed not only the way we listen to music, but the way we collect it. In today’s digital world, an album is no longer an album in the true sense. We no longer purchase an album as a packaged collection of songs, but as a group of songs sold together.

The difference? Download any digital album, and there’s no album. Gone is the packaging – often novel and usually imaginative – that identified the disc as a unique album and far more than just a collection of songs. Gone are the album covers, the artwork, liner notes, song lists and all of the information that came with it (remember lyrics on the paper dust jacket?). Gone are the paper, cardboard and plastic containers that allowed for stacking, storing, arranging, displaying and viewing. A downloaded album is a collection of digital files. Nothing more.

Never again will we enjoy the unique packaging of the working, steel zipper on the Stones’ Sticky Fingers. Remember the Big Bambu supersized rolling paper from Cheech & Chong and the mesmerizing graphics of Yes albums? How about the “Loss Leader” and “Hot Platter” offers on Warner Brothers dust jackets? And colored vinyl? The white vinyl of the Beatles’ White Album and the hot pink vinyl of the Sex Pistols’ first LP? No more.

For many of us, the physical copy of the music is as important as the music itself. That’s why we’re still holding onto our vinyl and plastic albums, be they old 78’s, 33 1/3 RPM LP’s or compact disks. Eat a Peach on your iPod is just not the same as the vinyl disc on your shelf.

Posted by Dr. Rock on April 15th, 2008 at 6:00 PM | 0 Comments

The Queen of Soul (and everything else)

Aretha Franklin brought her large band – and large self – to Dr. Rock’s town for a free concert in the field house at our local liberal arts college. Backed by a 16-piece band (including her lead guitarist son Teddy and a Steve Cropper lookalike on rhythm guitar), the incomparable “Queen of Soul” belted out a gospel-based, mix bag of soul standards, pop/funk/jazz stuff and soft ballads, including her ageless hits “RESPECT”, “Freeway of Love” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” She ain’t called the Queen for nothin’.

After a 50+ year recording career, Aretha still has the voice and the stage presence to tour and draw large audiences at her advancing age (she turned 66 on March 25). That’s no small tribute to her musical and physical stamina. What’s amazing, to me at least, is her size. She’s always been a large and natural woman, but I hadn’t realized just how huge she is. The last time I saw her in full-frame and other than in a still photo was as Mrs. Matt “Guitar” Murphy in the Blues Brothers first movie, and she was a big girl then but doubly so now. Nevertheless, even with the volume of her enormous corpus, she rocks and sways gracefully and even gave soft-shoe dances during several of the bands jazz and funkier instrumental interludes.

I’m want to name another rock, R&B, or pop artist who’s recorded at least one album in each of the six decades since her first record, Gospel Soul of Aretha Franklin, came out in 1956 when she was just 14. And, with 20 Grammy Awards, 17 US Hot 100 Top 10 hits, ninth place on the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, a revered spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there really are no contenders for her title, whether gospel, rock, country, or any other genre. She’s bigger than life, and seeing her will prove it, musically and physically.

Posted by Dr. Rock on April 6th, 2008 at 4:33 PM | 0 Comments

Underdogs in the Hall

OK, so the annual televised induction ceremony for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame can be an over-the-top commercial affair. And yes, the annual inductees aren’t just rock musicians, let alone rock ‘n’ roll musicians. And, of course, the induction ceremony is a Madison Avenue affair held in New York City, several hundred miles from Cleveland, the site of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame & Museum (and the city recognized as the birthplace of the term rock ‘n’ roll).

But it’s all about the music that’s a huge part of our culture and, for many of us, our lives. So some amount of excess is permissible, even enjoyable, as it reflects on the exuberance and longevity of rock ‘n’ roll and its many permutations over 5 decades.

This year’s inductees covered the usual ground of varied performers, sidemen and industry luminaries. Every one of them deserves to be in the Hall and warrants a mention here. For me, however, the inclusion of the Dave Clark Five had a personal appeal, as they were an early favorite of mine, a rougher alternative to the Beatles and the polished sounds of the Beach Boys. The DC5 were one of the few serious challengers to the Beatles’ dominance in the mid-60’s, charting 17 Top 40 hits in the U.S. before fading away and disbanding in 1970. I’ve always rooted for the underdog. When great British Invasion rock ‘n’ roll is added to the mix, it’s even easier to pull for an upset.

Cleveland is not exactly a tourist destination, so you might never consider a long-weekend or mini-vacation there. But, it’s worth a visit to the now-revived “Mistake by the Lake” to spend a full day at the Hall of Fame. I did, back in January 2007, a surprise weekend trip on the occasion of my 50th. I recommend it, and, if you do go, take some sage advice. Plan a full day, or the better part of one, at the Hall of Fame. There’s a lot to see and hear, and a few hours isn’t enough. From the historical and biographical displays to the constant visual and aural entertainment, the hours slip by quickly and disappointment is guaranteed if closing time comes and you still haven’t made it to the top floors.

Posted by Dr. Rock on March 30th, 2008 at 11:34 AM | 0 Comments

Happy Birthday, Baby

Now, I’m not suggesting that there’s anything special about this coming week in the annals of rock music. Does the second week of March stand out from the other 51 weeks in the year for the breadth of artists who are celebrating birthdays this week? I’ll bet not. With the randomness of birthdays and the universe of thousands of rock musicians from the Boomer years, no seven-day period can top any of the rest for “Most Famous Musicians Born.” But to be safe, I’ll get my Rockettes research staff on that one right along.

So why this list? Only because I happened to note that J.T. was born in Boston 60 years ago on Wednesday, and when I checked the BTO Encyclopedia I found several artists who have birthdays over the next few days and, in one way or another, influenced my youth and musical tastes and thus form some small part of my mental and spiritual make-up (including Mickey Dolenz, my first rock idol, who was born on March 8, 1945).

Did anyone below have a special influence on you?

(Check out BTO’s Encyclopedia for more info on these and 10,000 other rock musicians).

March 9
Mark Lindsay (lead singer, Paul Revere & the Raiders) 1942
Robin Trower (Procol Harum, then great blues-rock guitar solo career) 1945

March 10
Dean Torrence (Jan & Dean) 1940
Tom Scholz (mastermind behind Boston) 1947

March 11
George Kooymans (Dutch-born Golden Earring leader, co-wrote “Radar Love”) 1948

March 12
Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane/Starship) 1941
James Taylor (the original “singer/songwriter”) 1948

March 13
Adam Clayton (U2 bassist) 1960

March 14
Jim Pons (bassist, The Leaves/The Turtles/Mothers of Invention) 1943
Walter Parazaider (wind instruments,Chicago) 1945

March 15
Phil Lesh (bassist for the Grateful Dead, yeah!!) 1940
Mike Love (lead singer and hits co-author, The Beach Boys) 1941
Howard Scott (War – top 70’s funk) 1946
Sylvester “Sly Stone” Stewart (“Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin”)
1944
Ry Cooder (eclectic solo, session and soundtrack career) 1947

Posted by Dr. Rock on March 9th, 2008 at 4:02 PM | 1 Comments

Breakfast, God and the British Invasion

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood played before a full house at Madison Square Garden in New York City last evening (2/25/08), the first time they’d appeared on stage together since the breakup of their supergroup, Blind Faith nearly 40 years ago. Their show mixed selections from their respective solo careers with classic Traffic and Cream tunes, several Jimi Hendrix covers and an unusual, solo piano rendition of Ray Charles’ “Georgia on my Mind” by Winwood.

Coincidentally (or maybe not?), the Clapton/Winwood first show occurred 45 years to the day that the Beatles’ first single, “Please Please Me” was released in the U.K. It stayed at the top of the British charts for an astounding 30 weeks and launched Beatlemania in England (and eventually the world). “Please Please Me” was released in the U.S. as the Beatles’ second single once “I Want to Hold Your Hand” rocketed up the U.S. charts in December 1963. While “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was technically the first Beatles hit outside of England, “Please Please Me” is widely recognized as the song that launched the Beatles and thus the ensuing British Invasion. And, of course, Clapton and Winwood were two of the key names in the wave of British music that flooded the U.S. and Europe following the Beatles’ lead-off success. The Yardbirds featured Clapton on lead guitar (“For Your Love” hit #6 in the U.S. in 1965, but E.C. barely played on it and was gone to John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers within months). Winwood’s high tenor provided the lead vocals for the Spencer Davis Group’s two U.S. hits in 1967, “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m A Man,” before he departed to start Traffic.

And the breakfast thing? My wife and I ate Sunday morning at a shoebox diner on Madison at 61st Street. While we were waiting for our food, in walked a slender, medium-height, scruffy-bearded fellow in jeans and a sweater. Surprisingly, no one else seemed to notice that the Guitar God himself was amongst us mortals. Had others flocked to swoon and bow before Him, I would not have joined. But no one did, so I walked up, shook the Slowhand and basked in His glory for a few minutes. (I was able to momentarily confuse Him and He acknowledged with a smile and slight laugh when I said “we’re looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night.”)

CLAPTON/WINWOOD SET LIST: Madison Square Garden may be the self-appointed “World’s Most Famous Arena”, but the acoustics are not the best by any stretch, particularly in the upper reaches and in the private boxes, where we were fortunate to sit. Several people have asked me about the set list. Here’s what I heard:

1. “Had to Cry Today” (Blind Faith, 1969)
2. “Low Down” (J.J. Cale, 1996)
3. “Forever Man” (Clapton, 1985)
4. “Them Changes” (Buddy Miles cover, 1970)
5. “Sleeping in the Ground” (Blind Faith, 1969)
6. “Presence of the Lord” (Blind Faith, 1969)
7. “Glad” (Traffic, 1970)
8. “Well All Right” (Blind Faith, 1969)
9. “Double Trouble” (Clapton, 1976)
10. “Pearly Queen” (Traffic, 1968)
11. “Tell The Truth” (Derek & The Dominos, 1970)
12. “No Face, No Name, and No Number” (Traffic, 1967)
13. “After Midnight” (Clapton, 1970)
14. “Split Decision” (Winwood, 1986)
    
15. “Rambling on my Mind” (Clapton, 1975)
    
16. “Georgia on my Mind” (Ray Charles cover)
17. “Little Wing” (Hendrix cover)
    
18. “Voodoo Chile” (Hendrix cover)
19. “Can’t Find My Way Home” (Blind Faith, 1969)
20. “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Traffic, 1967)
21. ENCORE: “Crossroads” (Cream, 1968)

Posted by Dr. Rock on February 26th, 2008 at 2:05 PM | 2 Comments

Going the Way of the Buffalo

2007 was another down year for album sales, the fourth in a row. Consumers purchased 500.5 million CD’s last year, down about 15% from 2006 and a full 36% off the peak of just over 785 million in 2000. On total sales of $5.6 billion, the average price paid for a CD in 2007 was about $11. Using that average price and applying some quick math to the 785 million CD’s sold in 2000 suggests that the music industry had $3.8 billion less in sales in 2007 than just seven years earlier. No matter from what angle you come at it, that’s a huge drop, and there’s no end in sight.

It’s no surprise that the decline in CD sales started concurrent with the advent of Napster and other file sharing services, mostly illegal, like KaZaa. Enter Apple’s iTunes and other legal download sites, and the CD has been free falling since 2001. As you might expect, sales of digital singles continued to rise last year, reaching 844.2 million units, an increase of 45% over 2006. But the $836 million in sales generated by the digital-single download is but a fraction of the $3.8 billion in lost CD sales from 2000 to 2007. Digital downloads will never fill the gap in lost CD sales (at a solid 20% annual growth it would take 8 years to make up the difference, and that’s just not going to happen).

With iPods and other portable music players selling briskly (over 20 million units last year) with no foreseeable peak, digital downloads  legal and otherwise  will keep growing. Realizing there’s no recovery, artists and music industry executives are making the appropriate moves, many of which will further hasten the decline of the CD. Record companies are downsizing, spending less on new artist development, focusing on new ways to reach the consumer, and praying for the next big hit. And artists across all genres are looking for new ways to market their music, moving away from the major labels to more lucrative arrangements with indie labels and concert promoters, and testing the Internet as the way to reach their audiences.

The CD will have a life after death, much of it coming from reissues and compilations for the serious music collectors who’ll always be out there. But the wax cylinder, vinyl LP, and the 8-track and cassette tapes are clearing a spot for the CD in the backwater of recorded music history.

Posted by Dr. Rock on February 11th, 2008 at 6:06 PM | 63 Comments

Time Travel: 1968

1968 was a tumultuous year, to be sure.

In January, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and North Vietnam launched the Tet offensive. By the end of March, growing public discontent over the war caught up with LBJ, who declined to seek renomination for a second term. Less than a week later, Martin Luther King, Jr. was felled by an assassin; that same night, scores of cities erupted in pent up violence. Barely two months after that, Robert Kennedy was fatally shot following his win in the California presidential primary.

Richard Nixon became the Republican presidential nominee in early August, and the Democrats selected Hubert Humphrey three weeks later, while demonstrations and violence swirled in the streets outside their Chicago convention hall. Concurrent with the Chicago beatings, a “police action” of a different and more ominous sort was being carried out in Czechoslovakia, where tanks and troops from the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact puppet states invaded to stop the democratic movement known as the “Prague Spring.”

In October, the Olympic Games opened in Mexico City, without 32 African nations whose boycott protested the presence of South Africa, but with two American speedsters (John Carlos and Tommy Smith) who bowed their heads and raised their black-gloved fists in Black Power protest during the playing of the U.S. national anthem following their gold medal sprint in the 200-meter dash.

The year ended with Apollo 8 astronauts Bill Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell taking turns reading from the Book of Genesis as their cramped spacecraft orbited the moon on Christmas Eve (who planned that?). During one orbit, with the Earth rising over the moon’s horizon, Lovell sighted the Earth behind his outstretched thumb and realized “how insignificant we all are if everything I’d ever known is behind my thumb.” (Under my thumb?)

The music scene in 1968 was just as tumultuous. Nascent rock ‘n’ roll had nearly expired (“the day the music died”) within five years after its “official” birth in 1955. The sunny, upbeat, mixed but bland mainstream pop and R&B of the late 50’s and early 60’s had buried the pure rock ‘n’ roll music of Chuck Berry and Bill Haley that had coalesced in the mid-50’s. Rock ‘n’ roll was declared “dead” by 1962.

A miraculous rebirth occurred with the release of the Beatles’ first U.S. album in 1963. Within months rock ‘n’ roll returned to the Victrolas and airwaves of America (the Brits were way out front on this one). And within another six months, the British Invasion was on in full force, bringing scores of R&B- and blues-oriented rock ‘n’ rollers to the U.S. to resuscitate the music many felt had all but died when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J. R. “Big Bopper” Richardson were killed in an Iowa plane crash in February 1957…

By 1968, the British Invasion and all its permutations (including many American wannabe bands) had run its course, but not before it returned rock ‘n’ roll to permanence on center stage in contemporary Western popular music. In keeping with (if not partially driving) the socio-political times, rock ‘n’ roll music began splintering in the late-60’s. New genres redefined mainstream music. Pure rock ‘n’ roll blended with a “new” country-western sound (led by the Byrds), deeper traditional blues-based music (Clapton and others), harder blues-influenced bands (Led Zeppelin), R&B with a tougher edge (Booker T. & the MG’s), “progressive” bands with a classical bend (Yes), jazz-influenced bands (Santana), post-folkies, and many other styles, including the psychedelic bands emanating from San Francisco.

“Rock” became the new, broader, catch-all term for a disparate, fragmented, multi-dimensional, sometimes grittier, often louder, but nonetheless exciting sound that evolved in the late-60’s.

In 1968, FM radio was just around the corner. The Beatles were completing their transformation from the mop-topped Fab Four of 1963’s “Love Me Do” to a totally different image and outlook with The White Album and “Revolution 9” in 1968. Music from Big Pink by The Band debuted that year and merged folk and gospel influences with a tougher rock edge. Traffic’s eponymous debut was released in 1968, Jethro Tull brought a different type of Brit-folk to the scene, and Steppenwolf released two albums of “heavy-metal thunder.”

To be sure, Billboard’s Top 100 list for 1968 still had “feel good” pop songs like the Grass Roots’ “Midnight Confessions” and a syrupy “Love is Blue” from Paul Mariat (#2 for the year!). But classics like “Sunshine of Your Love” from Cream and Sly & The Family Stone’s “Dance to the Music” were heralding a different type of music that migrated away from the mostly pop-rock sounds of the Billboard early and mid-60’s Top 100. Read the Top 100 for 1968 and you’ll find “Sympathy for the Devil” within a row or two of “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro.

Man, the times they were a changin’! Long live 1968!

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: You can listen to and download 50 great tracks from 1968 on the Playlist page under Year Playlists. Click on the link at the end of each track and you’ll be sent to iTunes, where the BTO iMix will appear and you can purchase and download any or all of the 50 songs included from 1968 for $.99 each. The fifty songs included for each year aren’t the Top 50 for that year. They’re more than that. But, if it’s the Top 50 you want, we’re working on Top 100 playlists for 1960-1989, also with download links to iTunes (and, eventually, Amazon for those of you with mp3 players). If you have yet to register as a BTO member, consider doing so now so you’ll keep up-to-date on what’s happening, including new playlists and iMix links as they’re created.

Posted by Dr. Rock on January 26th, 2008 at 5:35 PM | 5 Comments

The First Modern Format War

Sixty years ago last week, Columbia Records introduced the 33-1/3 rpm, “long play” (LP), 12-inch diameter, “microgroove” record. By World War II, disc records (more accurately “Gramophone” records) were mostly pressed from polyvinyl chloride (a few were still wax and shellac-based) and came in sizes ranging from 7 to 12 inches and played at speeds from 16 to 82 rpm, with 78 rpm being the most widely used. Columbia’s President at the time, Ted Wallerstein had pushed the notion of a higher quality record that could play an entire symphonic movement without having to flip the disc. By January 1948, his persistence led to development of the 33-1/3 LP.

RCA Victor attempted to compete for dominance with its 7 inch, 45 rpm, “extended play” (EP) disc beginning in 1949. For a short period in the early 1950’s, a showdown raged to capture the hearts and ears of audio consumers. But a market compromise was reached by the mid-50’s, playback equipment manufacturers began offering gramophone turntables in both speeds (as well as 78 rpm in most cases), and the 33-1/3 started on a four decade run as the dominant analog music format.

This first, modern “format war” preceded those in audio tapes (8-track vs. cassette) in the 1960’s, in video tapes (Beta vs. VHS) in the late 1970’s, between the cassette tape and the digital CD’s in the 1980’s, and today’s death fight between the CD and the digital music file.

You’d likely think otherwise, but vinyl records are still produced today. About 800,000 discs were pressed last year, and the 33-1/3 gramophone LP record remains the disc medium of choice for serious audiophiles. Despite being prone to surface scratches and warpage, it is still the highest quality medium for storage and playback of recorded music and spoken words.

Long live vinyl!

HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE: In January 1966, David Robert Jones, then just 19 and a saxophonist in a number of different bands in the U.K. (one of which, the Manish Boys, featured pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page as a session musician), decided to change his name so as not to be confused with fellow Brit, newly-minted teen idol and sometime horse racing jockey David “Davy” Jones. Jones the latter, of course, was a Monkee and performed weekly on hundreds of thousands of American TVs. He was the featured singer on a number of their late 60’s hits (e.g., “Daydream Believer,” “Valleri” and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You”) before largely fading away in the 70’s. And Jones the former? He went on to a highly visible and successful career for over 30 years as a Prog- and Glam-Rocker under pseudonym David Bowie.

Posted by Dr. Rock on January 16th, 2008 at 2:07 PM | 0 Comments

Life in a DRM-free World

A world free of restrictions on the use (and sharing) of downloaded music came closer to reality last week. As first reported on Businessweek.com, Sony BMG Music Entertainment will shortly announce plans to drop Digital Rights Management, or DRM, copyright protection from the music it sells. Sony will become the last of the four major music labels – EMI, Warner and Universal came out in 2007 – to abandon the DRM software in favor of unrestricted use of music downloaded from various Internet outlets.

So what does this new DRM-free world look like for us music lovers and downloaders? For one, more competition among legal download sites. Right now, Apple controls the market with at least 70% of legal downloads coming off its iTunes site. Apple’s products are, of course, pretty much restricted to their various iPod products. If you have something other than an iPod, you’re wasting your time on iTunes. Other sites like Napster and eMusic peddle songs in the mp3 format that play on non-iPod products. And newcomer Amazon, who seems to have forced the issue of DRM-free downloading with the Big 4 starting early in 2007, is poised to make a serious run on Apple’s market dominance. That’s a good thing for us consumers.

Music executives are smart people; they’re strategizing survival in the DRM-free world. It’s a new game with new rules that haven’t yet been fully defined and may not be for a few years out. But with time and deep pockets, the Big 4 will stay in the game and maybe retain their position in the promotion and distribution system. Staying on top will mean new, innovative and creative ways to bring the more music to market. That’s another good thing for us music lovers.

The best thing to come of all this is that we’ll have more and different products available to store and playback digital music. Gone will be the iPod vs. everyone else environment. The digital music world of tomorrow will be similar to yesteryear when storage devices – vinyl discs and chromium oxide cassette tapes  could mate with any number of playback devices across a wide spectrum of price and quality.

Welcome to the new world!

Posted by Dr. Rock on January 6th, 2008 at 2:01 PM | 2 Comments