Old Audio Nostalgia

It may sound quaint or even downright nutty to reminisce about the days of cassette tapes, but I loved that era of recording my own albums (off records and other tapes) and mix tapes and even music straight off the radio. I no longer listen to my tapes (and believe me, I still have dozens and dozens of those oldies, both store-bought and home-recorded) nor is my tape deck hooked up to my audio system. But I still struggle with the need to free up space in my home and the nostalgic and emotional attachment to my old stuff. Ditching my tapes can at one moment sound like the best idea in the world, then the next I'm fearful of letting go of pieces of my past. 

Even though I cut my teeth on music through vinyl records, I explored and bought a lot more music once I'd moved on to tapes. I assembled a very comprehensive collection this way, filling out the catalogues of bands like Beatles, Rush, Iron Maiden, Cheap Trick, and Max Webster. 

I know deep down that the music on these tapes can be found elsewhere, either on CDs (even the ones in my collection), as online downloads, or in streaming format on YouTube and the countless internet "radio" sites. So in one way or another, I could easily access this music and never miss the tapes. But just looking at those little, pudgy plastic cases with the glossy cover art, I feel as though it would be like putting down an old lovable dog - who isn't sick but just doesn't do much anymore. It would be criminal.

I hauled out and dusted off all this stuff for

the photo shoot

A funny thing though is that I recently read somewhere that tapes are making a little bit of a comeback. Apparently some small-time bands are again marketing themselves with tapes, embracing the methods of the "old days". The cost is not prohibitive and the retro medium has some appeal to artists who are looking for exposure and to sign with a recording label. So they're zipping off singles and EPs or whatever on cassettes, and dropping them off to any music stores that'll peddle them, and getting them into the hands of the industry execs, fingers crossed for a big break. 

The down side of that strategy is that very few of us even have a tape player in our home anymore. Do the record execs even have one in their offices? Does Joe Public? Do you? I have a few, all still functional I think, but I no longer use them. Like that big ass component for audio system use. And a tape/radio combo boombox that I only use to check weather and news in the mornings while eating breakfast before leaving for work. Oh, and my ancient Sony Walkman, which is buried in the back of a drawer somewhere. 

I've debated about converting some of my old tapes to MP3 format, to keep on my computer, a USB stick, and maybe even burn to CD. I don't think there's much, if any, music there worth all the trouble to convert (maybe a few Rush concert bootlegs), but there are some non-music tapes that I've considered. Like years of Rush "album release" interviews that I recorded off the radio... good for a super-fan, but that's just not me anymore. Will I even care to listen to those ever again? Probably not.

One of my last surviving mix tapes...

from sometime in the 90's

Even as I write this, I feel like I'm closer than ever to just throwing all of it into a garbage bag and heaving it into the dumpster. Then there's no going back. If I go that route, I might first pick out a handful of favourite tapes to tuck away into a small box... for old time's sake. Hey, I did that with my old 8-track tapes, too, though they are definitely more of a curiosity and a collectible than a cassette. If I had to choose just a few tapes for a "time capsule", I'd likely hang onto some Beatles rarities (like Something New and Rarities), some comedy (Monty Python, Bill Cosby), the Clockwork Orange movie soundtrack, and Lee Aaron's debut album.

I even wonder about all of the CDs clogging up too many shelves in my living room. Why couldn't those things have built-in Wi-Fi.... so I can just turn on my stereo amp and select an album that reads back to a CD stored in my closet. But even CDs are going the way of the dinosaur, or at least that's what news in the music industry is telling us. Sales are way, way down (not my fault, because I do buy CDs periodically), thanks to the internet (iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, and so on) and the digital format. Plus most of the world, and not just young people, isn't even buying albums anymore.... the average listener today would rather download just one or two songs from an artist's new release. With that kind of thinking, it won't be long before artists won't even want to go to the expense of recording full albums anymore. Just pop out a few songs now and then, they go viral online, sell like hotcakes through iTunes, then money goes into their bank accounts. Yay.

What a dreary world that would be. I think that only certain musical genres would jump on that narrow-minded bandwagon though. There are, thankfully, artists of some genres who understand the importance of the full album release. There are rock and metal bands, and jazz and classical musicians (to name a few obvious examples) who require the longer form to properly express their ideas. Concept music (like in progressive rock and metal), live jazz concert recordings, and classical symphonies all demand the forty-to-sixty (or more) minute length album. And fans of that music expect a full-length release. Something big enough to chew on for a while instead of the quick pop tune that is over before you know it.. So I predict that the "experts" are wrong. Sure, the pop and other Top 40 stuff, which is mostly disposable, can and will eschew the album for the single, but the album - a set of songs - will carry on as an MP3, a CD, a vinyl record, or even a cassette tape. 

For my part, I will pop a few tapes into my little time capsule. Future generations might marvel at that junk. 

The Force Is Drowsy

The latest and greatest news about the next Star Wars feature film is swirling around the globe, bringing fans to feverish fits. Both good and bad fits. Some of us, myself included, are excited about the look of the teaser trailer that has been released. Still, the brief but thrilling peek at Episode VII contains elements that displease some fans. Pop over to YouTube and judge for yourself.

Like what is up with that silly bouncy ball droid? Hey, I happen to like him.... I guess that's a "him", since the Star Wars universe has so far only introduced us to droids with male personalities. Anyway, we'll just have to wait and see if BB-8 (as it is called) is a guy or a gal droid. However odd or silly or even technologically impossible (according to our science) BB-8 may be, I like the idea. Cute and agile and quick. This could be the new R2-D2 of the franchise. But do keep R2 around somewhere, sweeping the gangplank of the Falcon or something. 

I want to show an image of BB-8, but I will desist just in case the Star Wars overlords of copyright are cracking down on unauthorized use of their stuff. Instead, here's our favourite old droid R2, performing duty as a PEZ dispenser (still in package - take note, collectors):

The Millennium Falcon seems to have been revamped for the new "episode", sleeker overall (or is that my imagination?) and the round radar dish of old replaced by a smaller rectangle-shaped dish. But the Falcon is generally intact and instills the same thrill when you see it roaring by, T.I.E. Fighters in hot pursuit. So I wonder if ol' Han will still be piloting the ship, or if he's handed it off (well, sold it off, since the man is all about cold, hard cash - am I right?) to some younger pilot. 

My nifty Millennium Falcon bottle opener, which

opens a Kessel Ale in less than 12 parsecs

The ridiculous reactions to the design of the lightsaber used by the dark-cloaked fellow (a Sith?) Kylo Ren baffle me. Why over-think this? I mean, even the notion of a fixed-length laser is an impossibility by our science (last time I looked), so why quibble over this newly-designed saber. This is fantasy, not hard science. Again, an image would be perfect to illustrate what I'm talking about, but instead, you can legally pop over to starwars.com to see it. The lightsaber in question has two shorter beams popping out from the top of the hilt, near the main "blade", sort of like the guard on the hilt of Earth swords, like this:

I like the look of the scenes that may or may not be set on the desert planet of Tatooine. The "stormtrooper", named Finn, we see in the trailer seems to be in distress. I like to think that he's in disguise - not really a stormtrooper at all - and is in deep trouble. And he must be one of the main characters.

Rey is the young woman who hops on her odd-looking landspeeder "bike" and tears off toward Tatooine style dwellings. I suspect that she, too, is key to this whole story. A daughter of one of the original trilogy's characters wouldn't be a stretch. We shall see. 

The slick new stormtrooper armour is pretty cool, too. The helmet is familiar and yet is slightly updated, probably for more aesthetic than functional reasons. But who knows, maybe these things have better cooling and comms systems than the oldies (remember TK-421 in A New Hope?). The glimpse of Finn's trooper armour reveals a sleeker design on the backplate: the clunky box-shaped gizmo of old is gone, replaced simply by a small, single gray disc.... a photo-cell, perhaps? I don't know the technology of this stuff. 

All in all, this trailer for The Force Awakens evokes a lot of the feel and look of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Less slick and more gritty, more character and less (obvious) CGI. Let's hope there's a return to form here. Fingers crossed.

That 9th hole is a doozy

God Save Queen

Skinny, long-haired freaks rule the world

It was sometime in the mid- to late-70's that a friend prodded me to buy a record - a 45 rpm single, that was - by Queen. I hesitated but made the purchase under pressure. And boy, am I glad I did. The disc had You're My Best Friend on side A, and the B-side featured the song '39. Both tracks became favourites even before I acquired the now classic album of their origin, A Night at the Opera. 

Both songs are among the lighter fare on that Opera album, yet they are the warmest, most approachable music among a set of highly progressive, daring, and blistering pieces. All of which comprise one of the greatest rock albums ever conceived. You're My Best Friend is like a welcoming embrace, its thoughtful lyrics and mid-tempo rock approach (brought to perfection in Brian May's best guitar solo ever, in my opinion) key to the song's commercial and critical success. '39, on the other hand, is even lighter in its acoustic, folky style, yet its rousing pace gives the tune a lively kick. 

That was my first exposure to the grand spectacle called Queen. The British band's musical genius and flamboyant stage presence set down a standard for other rockers to emulate. Freddie Mercury's startling vocal abilities were only the tip of the iceberg. Brian May's six-string prowess and sound was unmistakable (and impressively expressive)... in just a couple of his plucked notes, it is possible to identify him as the guitarist. Roger Taylor provided a powerful backbeat with his loud and energetic drumming technique, while John Deacon anchored the band with his solid, melodic bass. 

In the 70's and early 80's, the only Queen albums I bothered to buy were A Night at the Opera, and A Day at the Races (both named after 1930's Marx Brothers movies). The first recording is, of course, untouchable. Fave tracks are still Death on Two Legs and I'm In Love with My Car. A Day at the Races, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment. Opening track Tie Your Mother Down fooled me into thinking I was in for a great listening experience, but nothing else on there really stuck. That album was left neglected in my 8-track tape collection until the day I ditched all (well, nearly all) of those clunky old things in favour of cassettes, and later CDs.

In late primary school and then in early high school, I heard We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions everywhere I went. Ad nauseam. The former bored me with its endless banging-clapping and chanting, despite a rousing guitar solo at the end. Strange song configuration there. The bombastic We Are the Champions seemed to me, even back then, to have been written with something entirely different in mind... like sports events. And that's exactly where we hear this song all the time nowadays. Yeah, it's a fine tune, but I just couldn't get into it the same way everyone else did. 

Queen's heavy, prog leanings gave way to a more pop, radio-friendly mode as they entered the 80's. I've always been more a fan of their 70's music, but there are songs of the following decade that I can appreciate, like Crazy Little Thing Called Love. A huge departure from their former rock god status, but a fun diversion.

It wasn't until 1990 that I bought another Queen studio album - Innuendo. A very welcome return to form with a selection of great heavy rock songs tempered by some of Mercury's trademark gushing. I admit I wasn't a super fan of Queen; I simply couldn't latch onto a band who was so inconsistent in both sound and quality of songwriting. And believe me, I had a tough time coming to terms with that. I wanted to like them more. I guess their willingness to dabble in odd new sounds left me cold at times.

Anyway, it was during the 90's that I picked up the 17-track Greatest Hits CD (with the red cover). That contained all the hits of the era I liked best. I also took a chance on Queen II (1974), supposedly a prog-rock gem, but I found it rough going. I heard something akin to early Rush in the fantasy lyrical themes and folk/metal experimentation. But for whatever reason, it just didn't take. I had waited too long. I suspect that if I had heard this back in the 70's or maybe even the 80's, I might have been more receptive to this early Queen music. But by the late 90's, my tastes were changing and expanding rapidly. This Queen II stuff felt really dated to me.

Still, Queen is right up there on the pantheon of rock'n'roll immortals, having carved out their place in music history. 

A sixpence British coin, Brian May's

guitar pick of choice... a factor in his

distinctive sound, no doubt