Scott Dolan

VERY underrated song from an oft maligned album. Nicely done, Jim! BTW, Randy is just fucking kicking ASS on this one.

I use Safari, so I'm not 100% sure this works, but give it a try. https://www.maketecheasier.com/disable-video-autoplay-firefox-chrome/

Hmmm...you're right! I hadn't quite looked at it that way.

I keep reading the thread title as "first time with a vocal socialist"!

Not sure that I'd ever bother trying to make a top "welcome to Zappaland" list, but if I did it would definitely include Peaches, Watermelon, The Black Page (New Age Version), Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel, and The Closer You Are. Ultimately, I'd just play somebody the first disc of YCDTOSA Vol. 2. If they don't make any kind of connection there, they probably never will.

No Watermelon In Easter Hay?! Even my wife likes that tune, and she can't stand Zappa.

The problem being his only improvisational skill is to say nothing, then repeat it several times. Perhaps he's more "Smooth" Jazz.

It doesn't have to be, Clifford. But a nice biopic of one of the most influential musicians in history would be nice. Maybe something in the same vein as Ray, for example.

But the differences in results are all but negligible considering how advanced modern codecs are.

Like a .zip file. 100% on the money. Which is why I always found it humorous that some claimed to "hear" a difference. And "lossy" has become a misnomer with modern codecs.

Ha! I rip in lossless as well, and I'm not entirely sure why either.

Eh, doesn't matter. Most, if not all folks wouldn't be able to hear the difference in a properly encoded AAC. I can't and relatively speaking I'm one of the youngest posters here with average to above average hearing, and an excellent playback system. Either way, yes I've been told by people that they can indeed hear a difference between FLAC/ALAC and .wav.

Ah, but make no mistake, FLAC/ALAC are compressed files as well. They aren't a complete .wav, and I've heard folks say, without any sense of how completely full of shit they sounded, that they could hear the difference. Also, as far as "MP3" technology is concerned, once AAC VBR became a standard in the industry I stopped hearing a difference. The older 160kbps MP3's, yes, there is a discernable difference between those and CD, and the 96kbps turds were likely the ones that made your head hurt. But when I put together my new system, I did an honest comparison between 256 VBR AAC and CD because I wanted to make sure I was getting the best playback possible, even if it meant going back to buying CDs. After about 45 minutes of trying to convince myself I could hear a difference, I gave up. I heard no difference, and was just wasting my time. And to those with thousands CDs to rip, I do the same as Lark spoke of above. Don't worry about, or even attempt, to rip your entire library, it will drive you insane. Just rip something when you want to hear it. I've been doing that for the last decade now. Come to find out, there are CDs in my library that over the course of that time I've simply never had the urge to listen to. Also, Jim: iTunes match can do everything you're looking for EXCEPT stream uncompressed files.

Actually, it's not hard to quantify at all. Surface noise, higher levels of harmonic distortion, deterioration of sonic quality the closer you get to the end of a side, and limited frequency response. No, that's actually incredibly easy to quantify. The LP sound is romanticized and mythologized, but it is still incredibly flawed compared with lean and clean digital. As I've said before, one can prefer LP over CD, but to claim it's sonically superior is laughably incorrect.

Analog is always in the chain. It's the final product that you hear no matter the original source.

No, I just recognize it for what it is. As does ArtSalt. Not to mention the knockdown dragouts over the years here where the vinyl defenders noisily claimed how superior vinyl is over CD/digital left me a bit cranky about the subject.

Yes, but doesn't the compession of the audio make it nearly unlistenable, crisp? Haha... I love that vinyl fetishists can't hear the distortion inherent in the medium, but at the same time claim to hear the dreaded compression of digital audio. Or the difference between 44,100 samples per second and unbroken analog. What selectively magic ears they have...

Isn't that kind of like saying the Model T is what got Americans into driving cars?

That should do it.

Calling them names? Are you serious? Even Art used the term describing himself in that phase in the post above mine.

I'm shocked the vinyl fetishists aren't in this thread screaming bloody murder.

As usual, Jim makes some salient points. Even if they are obscured by his..."Jimness". A buddy of mine said something years ago that has always stuck with me. "We're the only creatures on earth that go to sleep when we don't have to, and wake up when we don't need to." What other creature needs an alarm clock?

That's my biggest downfall, as well. I always fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. But three hours later *BLAM*! Sometimes I'll drift in and out over the next few hours...sometimes not. I do know one thing, though. My body staunchly refuses to get more than 6 hours of sleep per night, regardless. That said, my sleep HAS been better recently. I still wake up nightly at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30, damn near on the nose. But, I usually fall back asleep after a few minutes before my alarm goes off at 4:10. Though, I rarely wake up to my alarm. I'm usually turning it off about 4:07.

The fact that Detroit makes it in at 70th on that list makes the whole thing rather dubious, IMO. There are many other U.S. cities that I would rank well ahead of Detroit.

I like what little I've heard from him. The only irritating aspect is that there seems to be yet another Avishai Cohen who is a bassist, and when you do a search in the iTunes store both artists are mixed together, which makes it difficult to know which one you're looking at album to album. I do love the way he plays, though. I need to get some of his material.