Re: Easy access to almost everything in Stones world
Posted by:
Rev. Robert W.
()
Date: November 8, 2005 21:04
Well, for my own part, I know that I have to make a deliberate decision to "put on the brakes" and try and focus on things that I already own and know and love and yet am not able to find time to appreciate.
"The Rolling Stones, Now!" is an ideal example. A classic disc by my favorite band and I'm still developing a real relationship to it...there just isn't enough time to give all the attention to all the great recordings out there.
In the past, I've been so busy finding new music that I've neglected even things like "King of the Delta Blues Singers." That's something I've been trying to remedy.
Meanwhile, when I bought "Let It Bleed" and "Beggar's," I had to walk from my boarding school to the adjacent village in Western Massachusetts. It was a whole ritual to go to the store, talk to "Record Ron," (full of weird opinions and rumors--see above post) finally pick out a great Stones or Dead or Hendrix album (this was in the late 80's, so they were firmly established as classics) make the purchase, go flirt with the girls at the diner next door, read "Rolling Stone" over coffee and then walk back through the snow to school.
My friends and I had a rule: no breaking the sealed plastic around the album until you got home and sat down to listen. No idea why that was the case, but that's the way we did things. Tapping into one of those great records was a whole event. Not as ritualized as what the Stones had done twenty-five years before, but an event nonetheless.
Not long ago, I was talking to a friend's daughter as she fiddled with the iTunes store. She's a very cool kid with a keen ear and she was asking me about Neil Young. I told her that "Rust Never Sleeps" is, to my mind, his masterpiece. Literally before I realized what was going on, she had clicked on the whole album and purchased it. The whole thing happened in an instant.
Now, I happened to overhear her listening to "Thrasher" a few weeks later and was impressed by that. I hope that our conversation and having an electronic version of that album is somehow special and memorable to her, but I'm not so sure...
I know that kids are finding new and exciting ways to enjoy music and to create connections online, but I guess I just can't see how it's the same. Boy, do I want to be contradicted on this...