Entries Tagged 'Music' ↓

in Salon: Don’t steal music, pretty please. Boutin suggests that current record company tactics should, and will, change to adapt to the new environment in a way that satisfies consumers. I’m not as optimistic, though I share his analysis of how they could make this whole MP3 thing work for them.

: Former Beatle George Harrison Dies at Age 58. Of course I’d heard he was ill, but it’s still quite a shock.

that has most touched me and my friends - far more than Napster since I know so many writers - is being heard by the Supreme Court next week: Writers Fight for E-Rights. A couple of things spring to mind. First, there were signed contracts that specified the limited rights of the publications that purchased the articles. Second, this can be dealt with easily by splitting things up the middle - keeping the publications and historians happy by mandating that the items be licensed by writers for archival purposes, but paying them for the additional usage. Third - this is coming to the music world eventually. As I’ve written, I’ll come much closer to supporting record labels in their anti-Napster (etc.) fight the minute I see them taking steps to commit to paying the artists for electronic rights to the music.

John Phillips of Mamas And Papas Dead at 65.

I can’t remember not knowing the Mamas and the Papas music, and although the band hasn’t retained the same cachet as VU or Dylan some of the others of that era, they were still a giant group. John Phillips contribution in particular was huge - from great songs to his spearheading the Monterey Pop and bringing Jimi Hendrix back to the US.

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray
I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day
I’d be safe and warm if I was in L.A.
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day

Stopped in to a church I passed along the way
Well I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray
You know the preacher liked the cold
He knows I’m gonna stay
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day

Liberation Musicology: an interesting take on the Napster decision from The Nation. I’m a sucker for phrases like, “The Napster case has much to teach us [...] about the liberative possibilities of the decay of the cultural oligopolies that dominated the second half of the twentieth century.”

Tom noted that NME is reporting that the Deal sisters played a Breeders comeback show in LA last night. As Tom said, this is big news for all right-thinking people.