Re: [ARSCLIST] When you die...

[Scott Phillips <scottp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Geez Steven, I'm in my mid 50's and I can still remember my parents say
the same thing, or nearly so. Try to be open minded and move with the
times..! Even I don't like where music is going, but I am ever-so-aware
the my parents thought the same thing.... try to remain open minded. In
between the rubbish is always something different, good, and
interesting. Every era has had it's trash, that is the one thing that
never has changed. It is hard to look between the lines if you have
turned into an old foggy. I had my kids in my forties, and that has
helped me retain an open mind at least.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steven C. Barr(x)
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 10:56 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] When you die...

see end...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Miller" <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Graham Newton <gn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>   ***One very important issue comes to mind which collectors probably 
> all
should address while we still are of sound mind is the following
question:-
>
> ***When you finally croak, what happens to the collection that you 
> have spent
a large portion of your life accumulating and cataloging, not to mention
the money you probably have invested in it.
>
> ***The problem is that we know what happens when an aggressive bean 
> counter
comes in looking for new space, saying "let's dump all that old crap...
>
>   Graham,
>
>   Hopefully Mr. Smolian will jump in here as I believe he has had some

> success
in matching collections with institutions.
>
>   From my own experience, I would ask a potential donor what their
expectations might be. And, as my friends know, I am a firm believer of
the notion that the "bean counters" have taken over and the chance of
stopping them is slight.
>
>   For a mulitude of reasons, some of which you have articulated, (I 
> can supply
a ton of horror stories if you like) most of my friends have opted for
willing their collections to the "last collector standing."  I already
have a garage, and what was once a potting shed (my wife, the gardner in
the family, is the understanding sort), full of a collection owned by
one of my friends, now deceased. We are selling it off to benefit my
record company. As for my own collection, I fully expect it to end up in
a dumpster.
>
>   While I am hopeful that the "trickle down theory" will apply, and 
> that other
insitutions will, at a level proportional to their holdings, follow the
lead of LoC; but at this point, I can only hope.
>
Okeh...first, the ">'s" are NOT accurate in the above!

Then...to KM and other interested listeners:

The situation is not only worse than you imagine...in fact, it is worse
than you CAN imagine!

We know what current "pop music fans" prefer...endless inane lyrics,
sung or spoken, laid down over a computer-generated version (badly
done...!) of the "funk" rhythm first laid down in late-fifties R&B and
then effectively brought to perfection by "James Brown and the Famous
Flames!" It goes without saying that ANY music not fitting into that
category may as well not (or never have) exist(ed?!).
The main function of to-day's "pop music" is to validate the
listener's(s'?) existence through being played through a gazillion-watt
"system" running at deafness-inducing levels in one's impressive motar
car...?!

Now, imagine fifty years down the road...! All of these musically-
intentionally-illiterate individuals will have become "Old F...
ogies," wanting nothing more than a nostalgia-inspired relisten to the
music they recall from a Viagra-free youth...!? In odda woids, our
descendants of 2057 (If Dubya hasn't successfully turned the planet into
a highly-radioactive cinder inhabitable only by mutant cockroaches...?!)
will be paying $400-500 to attend nostalgia-based musical events such as
"Once Again!
Puff-whomever triumphantly returns to the stage (complete with a walker
and his own oxygen line...?!).

Can we assume that any interest will still exist in older songs with
more complicated melody lines and chord structures?!

ASIDE from the fact that as 78-ophiles die off of old age, it will
eventually become unprofitable to offer players therefor (as well, in
fact, for ANY analog format...?!)

So...if you own not only 78rpm PHONORECORDS, but also an apparatus to
obtain audible sound therefrom...it is YOUR job to keep this
increasingly-obscure audio format ALIVE...!

(My great-grandfather just died, and left me a whole bunch of records of
some sort...but nobody I asked knew howinell how to PLAY the
sumbitches...?!)

Steven C. Barr