Lou Barlow: Goodnight Unknown, part 6

Listening Envy, Part 3
From: Scott

To: Monty and Brian

The era of album artwork, liner notes and production credits was merely a blip in the history of recorded music. Your Grandpap wasn't staring down a picture of Bix Beiderbecke when he threw a 78 on the gramophone. Nor was Grandma idly studying up on the third chair oboist in Glenn Miller's band while the needle spun through the grooves. Their vinyl came in a plain brown sleeve, like a dirty magazine or a wino's bottle, as it should. This mania of information came down through the jazzbos who needed to intellectual and visually justify the racket they were making. A few well chosen words from Leonard Feathers and a drip painting on the cover could effectively foist the latest series of unrelated scales from Freddie Hubbard onto the backs of college boys. This mania for non-musical content was adopted whole heartedly by the newly self important rock world of the 1960's, who added gatefold covers, die cuts, lyric sheets, posters, glossy pictures and obsessive production details to the barrage.  

But now, thanks to advances in technology, we never need indulge in the trainspotting the details of music. I never again need to see what a band looks like, leading to some interesting surprises attending live concerts (let's just say that MTV never lived up to its promise to weed the weedy out of rock and roll, and yes, I'm speaking of you, The Hold Steady). I don't need to know what cool producer they have hired, whether they use Gibson guitar picks because they want the best, whether they spent a month in Jamaica or a long weekend in Queens recording. I don't have to puzzle over 5pt type lyric sheets. I have a larger and more varied collection of music than I ever have, I don't ever have to set foot in a armpit stinky record store, I never have to convince myself I like some crappy record I bought based on some mistaken assumption of quality, and I don't care anymore!

-Scott