Whither Rock Puritanism

[Jeff]

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14467222/

Dylan says today's recordings sound ‘atrocious’: Legend fine with illegal downloads because ‘it ain’t worth nothing anyway’

“I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really.”


Does he have a point or are these the ramblings of another crusty purist?

[Betterout]

Does he have a point? Sure he does. But I completely disagree with him, at least as far as the modern sound is concerned. Recordings from the good ol' days of rock are for the most part little more than poorly hewn chunks of sound, with little to no panoramic separation of instruments or vocals, a generally narrow frequency range with almost no bottom end to speak of, and as much hiss as music. Now, I love that stuff--don't get me wrong. But let's face it; even the cutting edge of technology back then was just barely good enough to allow artists the freedom to do what they wanted to do. Listen to Sir George Martin talk about technology sometime. He doesn't exactly brim over with longing for a return to the days of 4-track studios. Nuff said.

I completely agree with him about downloads, but probably for slightly different reasons. I think his comment about worthlessness is aimed at the whippersnapper artists (including producers) these days. I would say that so called intellectual property itself is worthless, as is the recording industry founded and guided by the establishment and trade of such properties.

BUT... that said, my big comment here is, "You tell 'em, Zimmy! Stick it to the man."

A few years ago, after Liz Phair decided to butcher her own good reputation and put out a "kids" album partially penned by Avril Lavigne's production team, I remember reading an article about her in an airline magazine. I believe it was called, "Liz Phair: She's Done Being a Genius," or something equally hysterical. At the time, I laughed quite a bit, but the more I think about it, I suppose there's something else this whole thing. I mean, she has more than earned her chops, so maybe she's entitled to sit back and coast a little bit.

Now, I could be wrong, but Dylan seems to have made a career of doing just this sort of thing over and over again. He makes his earth-shattering statement, relaxes for a few records, makes another earth-shattering statement, relaxes for a few records. Repeat as necessary. I think he's been in this last relaxation phase for quite some time now. But, the point stands, the guy has done plenty to define rock. A curmudgeonly turn isn't what we would expect from lifelong pollyanna types like Hanson, Jonathan Richman, or Jeff Lynne (the latter of whom lives in such an upbeat sunny world, that he refuses to take off his Ray-Bans... or cut off his 'fro, but that's another story), but it's in keeping with the character who almost single-handedly gave rock its protest cred (yeah, it's on loan from folk, but it's got louder pipes and shinier chrome). I'd be much more disappointed if he suddenly became an old softy. And, again, he can say whatever the hell he wants to say. It's hard to understand him, anyway.