Having loads of fun with CDs. I splashed out and got myself a really decent (ish) CD player, as opposed to the Cambridge Audio 50 quid bit of shite I've had for years. The one Lulu DESTROYED.
Despite the ridiculous, carefully manicured self-image I tender of being THEE vinyl junkie (what nonsense!) I've slowly began to admit to myself that collecting records isn't that important to me. Maybe this is akin to Luke's recent admission that he wasn't so interested in the pirates as a result of writing about them. Maybe one wears these more meaningless obsessions away in the process of writing about them? And more essential ones rise to the surface, like a well-grounded affection for music itself.
Quite a few months back my good man Sermad Buni asked me down to the Vinyl Vultures record meet. These dudes are scary nuts about records. All full to the brim about tales of 4-day taxi rides around the Bahamas and sojourns deep into the lost bins of Europe. There was even a celebrity digger present in the form of Bill "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" Brewster. Actually I just *knew* what the musical territory was going to be. Library records, Funk and Disco obscurities etc. Just for a giggle I brought my Cold Rush Gabba records down, in part to spin them to Phil Sherberne (yo Phil wazzup!) who was in town. And of course I was greeted with half-cocked eyebrows. Er, Gabba? Well, in my defense, they are VERY RARE records. I do respect these guys, but a big part of me is thankful that other people are going down these long narrow corridors and doing useful things like making compilations, so I don't have to. If I may be a teensy weensy bit critical about the digger culture though, they can harbour an almost innate suspicion of new music. Taxidermists the lot of 'em! I think the experience went some way to making me question the importance of vinyl. I mean, luvvit, but it's only a format at the end of the day. Nice big pictures on the sleeve etc. But...
I just love my CD player. It's a real relief to have separated CDs from the computer's own player. I've got some funky oxygen-free cables, and I've been loving the CD-Rs that I've been getting from friends across the net in exchange for stuff. Really loving these funky silver things with their hand-written tracklistings. There's something deeply personal about them, like a stash of secret wholly personal music that's worthless to anyone but me. I find that attractive. And of course the copies sound as good as the originals (the wonder of 0's and 1's), and cos the original shop-bought CD is a wholly shit, essentially rubbish object then these proliferating copies aren't "delibidinized" in comparison with the original.I even PREFER them to the originals. CDs! I've got racks of 'em.
After my filesharing rants this may sound like rank hypocrasy, maybe it is, and unforgivable in consequence; but really I do insist there's a difference between making a mate a copy of a CD and just blankly offering it up willy-nilly to the whole P2P universe. Though I ask you, if mp3s do prove to be it's downfall, how stupid was the recording industry to invent CDs? The whole principle of digital music and the ability to make perfect replicas! Did they not consider this in the least? Remember how worked up they got about home taping?
Funny to reflect that my Dad had a huge (really!) collection of C90s he made of recordings of concerts on Radio 3. I think my bro got them and either taped over them or chucked them out. Don't think I'm condemning him mind, cos I got Dad's old records (a long time before he died) and flogged them. I kept the Wagner for a bit then relented. That probably sounds really callous (it was a bit, the sort of thing you do when you're young) but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. Actually I think Dad ended up being more fond of his CDs, and Mum's got those ;-)
Posted by Woebot at August 6, 2004 08:35 AM