30 Years and many paper cuts later...

So the compact disc recently celebrated 30 years! I still remember the very first time I heard and saw a CD। Flashback to one of the early Record Conferences in Toronto. The Record Conference, as it was known then, was a gathering of all the movers and shakers from the Radio and Recording industry. It’s now called Canadian Music Week, which just wrapped up for ‘09 here in the city, with excellent attendance numbers by the way. Back in the day, they did a panel on the new audio format called the compact disc. Rather than only boost the new format’s musical fidelity, which true audiophiles have derided for years, (saying things like “an acoustic piano on CD doesn’t sound at all like a piano on vinyl”), I can vividly remember that the focus seemed to be the disc’s indestructibility as a key selling point. The presenter doing the unveiling of this strange but miniature ‘silvery record’ stubbed -out a cigarette on it’s face, poured sand all over it, also coffee, threw it to the ground and then like magic, he popped it in the CD deck and it played without any glitches or skips. Anyone who’s ever owned a CD, knows that demonstration may well have been the very last time a CD never skipped.

Happy Birthday my shiny round friend! But here’s the thing….Um…It’s not that I don’t like you on a personal level, but while touting your 30th, it’s a little difficult to really celebrate because looking back, you let me down. Allow me to explain. For starters those graphic designers tried so hard to make your inner sleeve and liner notes something special, but CD, you never matched the vinyl album’s layout capabilities. And my eyes are still out of focus from trying to read microscopic liner notes without the aid of a magnifying glass. Sure…eventually you offered fold out designs and even 3 layered thingies, but it doesn’t even come close to the tactile sensation of holding a proper LP in your hands. For the uninformed, that’s not ‘text –speak’ for Laugh n’ Play; LP means long player. LOL. And one of your biggest sins CD, was what I call the ‘wacky fold’ design। Leaves of glossy paper that have to go back in the case just so, or the cover won’t close at all. Paper cut anyone?Jeeezus, I didn’t know I needed a degree from Origami University to play a friggin’ piece of music!

And there’s more about you CD that I still can’t get right. When vinyl was it, your favourite side of the album just never seemed complete without hearing the stylus go round and round picking up nothing but hiss on what’s been called the ‘lock-groove’. Vinyl afficionados will remember this as the silent loop at the end of the last track on a side, designed to stop the needle and tone-arm from skating all over the label itself. There could be music fans out there, brought up only on CD’s, who've never experienced the sound of a side done.

And what about those mysterious etchings on the very center of the album? Runout groove etchings were the coolest thing ever. Kinda like finding an easter egg on a DVD or video game today, these etchings gave you pause to think ‘is this a mini message from the Artist himself?’...‘Whats that mean?’… 'Who wrote that?’… 'Why’s it written there?’

It’s no surprise that throughout the CD’s reign, many artists put out vinyl versions of their work. Some still do. On the smooth end, Van Morrison has put out vinyl and on the rockier side of things so has Motley Crue. There’s many other artists on vinyl of course and they’re apparently as popular as snowshovels in Winnipeg. In fact, in 2008 1.88 million vinyl albums were purchased, more than in any other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan, which began tracking LP sales in 1991.

Happy Birthday CD, save me some cake. And now that the MP3 has taken over, I wonder if there’s similar nostalgia and fondness for the wayward CD?
Now if I could just get these fold-up liner notes back in the damn case. "Ouch...paper cut".

Forgotten Songs

That Atlantic Ocean sure gets in the way sometimes. The recent passing of singer & songwriter John Martyn got me thinking about the lack of true musical depth on this side of the pond. A beloved performer in the U.K., only real music enthusiasts over here, would've heard of John Martyn. Strange because Eric Clapton, a friend of Martyn's from way back, cites him as one of the biggest influences on his career. Same goes for Phil Collins and many others. Martyn always wore his heart on his sleeve, giving us some of the sweetest songs of all time. Shame his stuff was seldom heard in North American while he was with us.

It's a fact of life; there's just songs that don't see the light of day on these shores. Maybe these songs got scurvy on the way over, but it would sure be nice to hear these tracks on mainstream media over here. Sure, some of these may not be your fancy, but still, ya gotta love the idea of these songs just being 'around' rather than 'forgotten' or passed over.

Photo Credit: Debra Ahearn Photography

Allow me to start the funfest. Here, off the top of my head, totally random and with no sequence, order or alphabetical listing are songs well worth a listen, many times over. Feel free to add your own titles and accompanying blather, as and when...

Gabriella Cilmi - Sweet About Me

Mary's Prayer - Danny Wilson

Hue and Cry - Ordinary Angel

Dodgy - Good Enough

Everything But the Girl - Each and Every One

Frazier Chorus - Typical

Sniff 'n the Tears - Drivers' Seat

Gerry Rafferty - Right Down The Line

Will Young - Light My Fire

Amy MacDonald - This is the Life

Hard Fi - Hard to Beat

Jamiroquai - 7 Days in Sunny June

Womack and Womack - Teardrops

Corrs - Breathless

David Gray - Please Forgive Me

Declan O'Rourke - Gallileo (someone like you)

Guillemots - Get Over It

Joan Armatrading - Show Some Emotion

&

John Martyn - May You Never

AB

Tim Grundy - Rest in Peace

The passing of a radio colleague brings me here. Tim Grundy and I worked together as part of the launch team for KEY 103 FM, in Manchester, England. The station in case you didn't know, goes down in history for me as the one having the most esoteric positioning statements of all time! 'Music not music' is how it went. Voiced by Steve Coogan, now a big ass star in Hollywood, the on air mentions of the slogan are still the strangest identifiers to hit the airwaves.

The sad news about Tim came via email the way most news seems to come these days. I'm guessing that there are people who avoid the bad - news phone call, and instead send an email about the serious stuff. Tim was a decent guy and left us far too young at just 50. My condolences to Tim's wife and children as well as friends and colleagues. Tim had broadcasting in his blood, literally. I remember being very impressed, learning from Tim himself that his Dad had interviewed The Sex Pistols! It was at the height of, what I call the great punk rock scare when Bill Grundy had them on his television show. Johnny Rotten and the boys dropped a few choice words and the rest is history. Made national news across Britain. A much more exciting day at the office than my own father was having at the time, I'm sure. Tim went on to be quite successful in broadcasting, not in the shadow of his father, but on his own merits. He started as a tea -boy. Now there's an english thing eh? Much like an intern these days, a tea -boy would bring tea, fetch this and that - a general gaffer if you will. From there Tim rose to the ranks of full blown broadcaster doing Radio and Television.

So it's been a week of thinking about old times, and it's strange the things you remember in times like these. I can vividly remember Tim, who was a huge music lover playing me The Lotus Eaters track "The First Picture of You". Still think of him everytime I hear that song.

Rest in Peace Tim.

AB