Something Old & Something New

I'd like to make one additional comment regarding my post of of September 9, 2008 titled Are The Beatles Really The Greatest Of All Time? I acknowledge that The Beatles are not everyone's favorite artist. When I posed the question of whether or not they are the greatest act of all time it wasn't only because their music is so loved by so many people. It's because of their undeniably huge influence on pop music that continues to this day. Even if you like someone else a whole lot more than The Beatles it isn't a stretch to say they are the most influential and most important artist of the last half of the Twentieth Century. If you don't believe me read your music history.

But enough of living in the past. Let's move on to the the new millennium.

It's been a couple of months since I got my first ipod, a charcoal, 3rd generation, 8 GB nano. So far I've loaded over a thousand songs onto it and there is still a lot of space left.

Maybe it's the generation gap but I'm a late comer to Apple's sensationally popular miniature music player. I was hesitant about getting one for years. While I love the portability, flexibility, the size, the large amount of music it holds, and especially the shuffle feature, I was reticent for a couple of big reasons. First, and here is where the generation gap comes in, I grew up on LPs, cassettes, and best of all CDs. Owning a physical copy of a recording is something I loved and was accustomed to. I love album art, lyric sheets, and liner notes. While I know you can get all of these things on itunes and elsewhere online it just doesn't feel the same as owning a hard copy of the recording. It's not easy to fathom that a piece of music is really mine when I can't see the media or hold it.

I still play CDs in the car so I've used the ipod only with headphones or by plugging it into my large home theater receiver, almost always in shuffle mode. In the process I've noticed that mp3s don't sound as crystal clear as CDs do. Another disappointing thing I've discovered is that the era of single songs is returning. Appreciating an entire album is becoming a thing of the past because itunes allows the purchase of individual songs in lieu of the entire album.

My biggest apprehension regarding the mp3 format is a possible PC disaster. If you don't make backup copies of everything purchased online all your music could be lost forever, and without warning, should something bad suddenly happen to your computer. Everything needs to be backed up, burned to CD, or stored somewhere else in order to reinstall it on a new computer, something that could be a long and involved task.

Despite its drawbacks I've learned to love my ipod because it has helped me become reacquainted with lots of music I haven't heard in a long time and because of its unique features and conveniences.

Finally, as part of this totally self-serving post, here are the first twenty songs played during my first ipod shuffle.

Absolutely Sweet Marie - Bob Dylan (Blonde On Blonde)
Till The Morning Comes - Neil Young (After The Goldrush)
Always Love - America (Here & Now)
Every Little Bit Hurts - Paul Thorn - (Hammer & Nail)
Medicine - Del Amitri (Live In Aberdeen)
Nothin' To Be Proud Of - Bett Butler ((Myths & Fables)
So Excited - Stevie Ray Vaughan (The Sky Is Crying)
Sea Legs - The Shins (Wincing The Night Away)
(I Know ) I'm Losing You - Rod Stewart (Every Picture Tells A Story)
Modesto Is Not That Sweet - The Hold Steady (Live at The World Cafe, Volume 24)
Line For Lyons - Chet Baker (Career)
The Load Out/Stay - Jackson Browne (Running On Empty)
You May See Me - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (This Is Somewhere)
I'll Walk Away - James Hunter (People Gonna Talk)
Tell Me Why - The Mavericks (Trampoline)
The Price Is Right - Billy Bremner (Bash)
When God Made Me - Neil Young (Prairie Wind)
For My Lover - Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman)
A Time To Love - Stevie Wonder (A Time 2 Love)
Green and Red Of Mayo - The Saw Doctors (All The Way From Tuam)