August 23rd, 2006 by Atomictumor
“I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really”
Dylan has successfully made himself appear old and timid in a quote from a Rollng Stone cover interview. Actually, the whole thought of Bob Dylan, the man the 60’s built up as its spokesman, only to find out that he really just wanted to play his guitar, appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone, the holdover from that decade, wrapped up in 80’s glam, 90’s glitz, and 00’s apathy, is kinda funny.
Rolling Stone is a joke, its Entertainment Weekly for the top 40 crowd, and to see Dylan on the cover, crying back to those days, well, its a little sad.
Of course, if you read the interview, he isn’t necessarily talking bad about the music, as Reuters would have you believe, but the recording. The digital revolution wasn’t good to Dylan, and I can’t say I disagree with him. While I disagree that records have sounded bad since 1986, and think thats a pretty dumb statement, I personally prefer to listen to good music on vinyl. Jack White famously eschewed digital recording, most notably with the White Stripe’s Elephant (which was recorded in a hole-in-the-wall studio in England with 4 track circa 1960s equipment), and the record went on to sound fantastic.
On the other hand, groups like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Of Montreal use modern recording techniques to create music that sounds a hell of a lot like it was produced in 1983 by David Byrne.
Then, on the third hand, you have bands like Radiohead, which completely embrace modern recording techniques and tools to create albums that are amazingly innovative while being easy on the ears.
Just because you have producers like The Matrix ruining music for everybody doesn’t necessarily mean you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sure, one of the more relaxing things I can do is pop Bob’s Nashville Skyline onto my turntable, which is one of the more low-fi records ever created (next to Beck’s One Foot In The Grave), but its absurd, Bob-o, to assume that modern sounds are bad.
Just sounds like you’re getting old.
Edit - later that day.
I found this link at a blog I hadn’t been to before, which helps ease my mind about ol Bob. Maybe it’ll be OK after all…
August 23rd, 2006 at 1:45 pm
I have read a number of blog postings on this subject and yours seems to be one of the most reasoned that I have come across. Of course saying that EVERY reconding in that last 20 years is crap is ridiculous, but I have to say that the majority of them are.
I am so sick of that over compressed, over processed sound that is so prevalent these days - and I am not even going to start on the vinyl vs. CD topic…
Did you happen to catch RJ Eskow’s take over on the Huff-PO?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/what-dylan-said-plus-_b_27811.html
I think that his argument about niche audiences and the long tail is much more interesting then the argument about modern recording and production techniques.
And for good measure - here is my blog entry on the topic:
http://www.thisdamnblog.com/rjs-musical-challenge-and-what-dylan-said.php
August 23rd, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Thanks very much for the links, TDB, both mighty fine reads.
I agree, to extent. I’m more optimistic in the music biz than most, because I think the music biz has always essentially sucked.
I mean, its as easy to argue that the majority of recordings prior to the past 20 years were bad, theres just been more time for the crap to filter out. In the past 20 years, more options have opened up for recording this stuff, and I think the artistry has been failing as much as anything else.
A damn fine example is seeing pretty much any artist older than 20 years old, comparing that early stuff to today. Is the reason that Let It Bleed is superior to any of the records that the Stones put out recently the fact that they used analog recorders back then, or the fact that they were in their 20s and pissed?
See, it just discounts SO MUCH music to dismiss it all like this because of recording styles. Hell, all of hip hop and rap production is within the past 20 years, and thats’ opened doors all up and down.
Personally, yeah, I prefer an analog sound, when I can’t get a live sound. I like listening to bootlegs. Love my record player.
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Let it Bleed seldom is out of range of the CD player here — and really I can’t
tell much diff between the CD and the vinyl sound … but I do know that
generally analog sounds much more roomy and warm, but it may just be there
is far too much over-production tech hoo-ha on most CDs since most singers
today fear not sounding polished.
the whole studio production debate has been constant since the Beatles did
Sgt Pepper.
i have a CD by a small band from North Carolina called Stephanie’s Id, and they
recorded a live show on an old reel to reel player/recorder and just miked the
vocals, another on towel inside the piano and another picking up the ambient
sound. it’s one of the best recordings of a live show i’ve ever heard.