Well, I woke up this mornin' Blue Notes were all around my bed. Yup, it was [Independent] Record Store Day. I felt I should buy some vinyl. In Jarrow or Hebburn? No chance!
When I was young, there was a record shop in both towns. Gordon Eades, on Grange Rd., Jarrow, was my first. The manager was a doddery old gentleman who, if you asked for anything other than a Mozart sonata or an aria by Kathleen Ferrier, would haughtily refer you to his assistant. It was here that I bought my first ever jazz record - Artie Shaw's Traffic Jam.
The Tinkler Music Store in Hebburn was a totally different proposition - I doubt if the girl behind the counter had ever heard of Kathleen Ferrier! It didn't matter - she became my first girlfriend. Her father also had a pub. Shangri-la! A girl who worked in a record store with a dad who had a pub!
Later I worked in J.G.Windows in Newcastle - the only one of the three still standing and, no doubt, contributing to today's promotion.
Unfortunately, this particular weekend, the Metro system was undergoing 'essential maintenance work' so a trip to Newcastle was off the cards.
However, all wasn't lost in Jarrow. A visit to the Sally Army charity shop produced a 10" RCA LP - Hugues Panassié - Dictionary of Jazz (RC - 24002). Tracks by Armstrong, Basie, "Sleepy John" Estes, Hampton, Hawkins, Lunceford, Waller, Yancey.
I had the latest DownBeat with me so I decided a pint of Abbott Ale and a read of DB the ideal way to round off my afternoon. On the box, Spurs were doing the business over a rather sad Huddersfield Town. Yellow cards were being distributed causing me to reflect on the idea of penalty cards in jazz.
Yellow cards: Summertime; Cry me a River.
Red cards: Singing both of the above in the same set
Your thoughts please.
Lance.
8 comments :
Wasn't going to Lance but when I saw it's you, I know you can take it. I too was desperate to buy a record today, but not of the vinyls variety. When record shop day started it was in opposition to downloads, so CDs were fine.
I'd planned to go to Darlo HMV for something by Buddy Guy, Yazz Amed, Zappa, something; but was reminded there was a recorder festival at Ushaw with some jazz. In any case, I got a Kenny Garrett CD through the letterbox - we're going to Malta to see him in July.
It reminded me of walking round Newcastle three years ago while Francis rehearsed with Jambone for the Gateshead International Jazz Festival. People stood in qeues like sheep; look at me, I'm going to buy a (vinyls) record, from the (vinyls) record shop, on (vinyls) record shop day, just like the telly says - erm sorry - cos I'm an independent spirit and it's pure coincidence that we've all decided to do this at the same time as the telly started telling us to.
Actually, if you crunch the figures, it's about half a per cent of the population doing this, mostly buying Bowie, the Beatles, the usual crap. If you consider each person gets one for Christmas, one for birthday, one for fathers day (women aren't that sad) and one just because, as the telly says, they're such big music lovers, that's one person out of a population of 67 million. If they get one for the new fangled grandparents day, that's one percent.
I buy an album every other day so, if you consider most of these people are part of the wealthiest generation the world will ever see, it's possible they may get one just to leave lying around to illustrate how right-on they are. You're quickly under the million mark. Hardly newsworthy but, undeterred, the record companies, backed by the media, step up their campaign with lots of reassuringly expensive vinyls only releases, plans to artificially inflate the price of CDs, with a view to ceasing production of players.
I recently saw a claim that vinyls have smashed the sale of Cds. When I saw Which magazine I thought I'd discovered the source of his mistake. It used a blue line for both vinyls and streaming and, at the top of the streaming line, it had a box saying vinyls revival. The casual observer, who only knows what the telly tells him, probably wouldn't notice the other blue line crawling along the bottom with a tiny lip over the last 2 years. Actually, despite the claims, the increase collapsed last year, down from over a million in 2017 to under 100K last year.
Because I know the person who made the claim - least we're friends on FB - I messaged him to point out his error and the response reminded me of fanatical brexiteers; we won you lost. CD's offered the greatest availabilty of music on a solid copy the world will ever see, which vinyls don't, never did and never will match. Like brexit, we all lose.
Vinyl or Vinyls? That's another argument. Using vinyls rather suggests that the people 'stood in queues like sheep' should have actually been standing like sheeps.
If someone buys an album to leave on the coffee table then so be it that's their problem just as someone who buys a CD every other day must never have the opportunity to listen to them in depth if at all - assuming they eat, sleep and are gainfully employed which they must be.
Personally, I still bemoan the passing of shellac(s). With a 78rpm you had 2 tracks which you played over and over again until you knew the solos by heart. With a CD lasting an hour plus, by the time you get to the last track you, or at least I, have forgotten what the first track was like. 45rpm EPs and 33⅓ LPs sit nicely in between.
However, the real issue is getting the punters in the shop to buy whatever and, in doing so, help to keep the independent retailer on the high street. I feel the same about book shops, bike shops and British barbers who can keep me informed about everything that is happening in the world - you should have been a barber Steve.
Vinyls is the term the kids use - myths are created in language not music - and calling them vinyls separates the kids from the old nerds.
The BBC - in a rare act of defiance - found that almost half of vinyls bought remain sealed
Too much music, too little time. It doesn't actually take that long to listen to an album, compared to - say - reading a book, so I'm not really sure what your point was there. I'd buy a lot more if I could afford it. I play everything three times and keep the ones I feel the need to. At this stage I reckon three times is enough but it's possible some things may take longer - so be it. How many times do you need to play something before you accept you just don't like it? How long's a piece of string.
People say we don't listen to CDs all the way through - people say all sorts of crap to promote the so-called vinyls revival - but I play CD's right through initially and I often selected tracks off vinyls. I think it's a good thing that you can press a button rather than dropping a needle on to it, and if people hadn't spent so much time listening to fillers until they made as much sense as the hits, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in re Beatles, Bowie etc.
I still spend hours in record shops (and bookshops) but I look at CDs and DVDs (and books), not vinyls, VHS, Betamax, 8 tracks, 78s and sheet music; just like when I go in Office Supplies I look at word-processors not type-writers; when I need to warm up the bed I buy an electric blanket, not a bed warmer and when I need to get to London quickly I'll go by HS2, not a steam train.
I don't have a problem with streaming (if I could figure out how to do it), but I fear people aren't committed to playing albums which were made to fit on vinyls but you can nicely fit two on to a CD), so it depends whether you want to listen to a lot of music or a little - you're obviously happy with a little - though it's always the crap that will survive.
Three years ago, people spent the rest of their day wandering around Newcastle brandishing their yellow bags like religious placards, which is precisely what they were.
Ah yes - 'The kids'. I was one myself - long before I became an octogenarian nerdist. I bow down to the 'wisdom' of youth. I must purchase a copy of 'Inglish as it's spoked today by the educashonists of tommorra' when it's available on Nile or Amazon or whatever.
An electric blanket as opposed to a bed warmer...?
Still to each his/her own...
To me, music is music whether it's on cylinder (that Buddy Bolden one I've got is great), or CD, EP, MP3, LP, cassette, tape, piano roll etc. I'm possibly fortunate in that I can hear music and enjoy it whether I'm listening to it over hiss and surface noise, or over other people's conversation at a live gig. I just tune everything out and listen so, if the person sitting next to me thinks I'm ignoring them, I'm not - I'm just getting my priorities right. Likewise, I often hear a mediocre performance which, by the time it reaches my brain, registers as to what the player was aiming at rather than what he/her has actually achieved.
Maybe I need to see a shrink or, maybe, the rest of the world does. When I was in the RAF I was amazed at at how 49 airmen out of a squad of 50 could be out of step.
Strangely enough, or maybe not, this wasn't the discourse I was hoping to create, forgetting that Steve, the Vinyl Slayer, would be lying in wait. No, the main issue that I hoped to raise for discussion was the Yellow/Red Card scenario as applied to jazzers whether players or listeners (or not).
Not sure re: yellow and red cards, as I don't follow the (so-called) "beautiful game". Perhaps, when writing a review one should have a set of cards, along the lines of the one to five star system used in some publications. When asked to review a CD, I generally try and say something good about what I've heard. The one time I issued what I believe what might have amounted to a yellow card I got my fingers burnt, but I guess that's the risk of acting as a referee!
As regards vinyl/non-vinyl, I have my views which do not need repetition - but I did enjoy the (as I believe young people call it) bantz.
Watch you don't get your fingers burnt on that bed warmer, but there's always the chance of being electricuted by the electric blanket. There's always another side to things, but why is it always me (and Hugh) who has (have) to put it?
Go to a soul night and tell them music is music. One of the legends on the scene recently said music first, format second. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, that he mis-spoke, I'm sure he meant to say music first, music second, music third, how long have you got? Music fourth, music fifth...
For the jazzers, if you want to be able to buy a Sun Ra album, keep promoting vinyls record store day. If you want the lot, pray for CDs.
For the musicians, the record companies don't care about you, they only care about how much money they can make off you. If you want to get your music out there on something tangible, pray for CDs.
An interesting quote from Peter Gabriel about 30 years ago, I came across recently.
I'm actually proud of the fact that I spend a lot of time working on the sound of my records... This whole line of thought stems from the fact that we're such a class-ridden society, and i think we expend far too much energy being caught up in awareness of the social ladder and our position on it.
OK, compact discs have certain connotations, but stereo was viewd in exactly the same way when it was first introduced. CDs are simply and straightforwardly a better way to listen to music, and to me the social connotations are the same as those for any technical innovations. They start out expensive and the more affluent have them first, but I think it's pretty dumb to write off CDs as belonging to yuppies. They should belong to everyone, and the price should come down to a point where there are no social connotations involved.
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