J Larsen

Yeah, maybe if 70% of the packages they sent me didn't get "lost" they wouldn't have to raise the prices.

As I mentioned in another thread, I cleared out my shopping cart the other day in anticipation of the rate hike: Miles Davis: Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings 1963-1964 1 $41.93 T. Rex: Tanx (Deluxe Edition) 1 $11.98 The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin 5.1 (1 CD/ 1 DVD-Audio) 1 $11.98 Billie Holiday: The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes 1 $35.94 Led Zeppelin: IV (ZOSO) (Remastered) 1 $5.99 Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 1 $35.94 Chet Atkins: Chet Atkins: Guitar Legend The RCA Years 1 $11.98 Jeff Buckley: Grace (Legacy Edition) (2 CD/ 1 DVD) 1 $17.97 Miles Davis: Miles Davis - In Person Friday And Saturday Nights At The Blackhawk, Complete 1 $23.96 Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Remastered) 1 $11.98 Led Zeppelin: Houses Of The Holy (Remastered) 1 $5.99 Led Zeppelin: III (Remastered) 1 $5.99 Led Zeppelin: I (Remastered) 1 $5.99 Led Zeppelin: II (Remastered) 1 $5.99 Arvo Pärt: Pärt: Lamentate 1 $5.99 Dave Holland & Barre Phillips: Music For Two Basses (Remastered) 1 $5.99 Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: The Eleventh Hour 1 $5.99 The Move: Message From The Country (Remastered) 1 $5.99 The Stooges: Fun House (Deluxe Edition) 1 $11.98 The Stooges: The Stooges (Deluxe Edition) 1 $11.98 Cream: Disraeli Gears (Deluxe Edition) 1 $11.98 The Cure: Three Imaginary Boys (Deluxe Edition - Expanded & Remastered) 1 $11.98 The Cure: Pornography (Expanded & Remastered) 1 $11.98 Frank Sinatra: Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (Remastered) 1 $5.99 The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man 1 $5.99 Some of these are discs that my ex took with her when she moved out last year.

I have nothing against the Euro copywrite laws, either. But if the Euro labels don't have access to the tapes, what are they going to master from?

Thanks. At least now I know what I missed out on! Actually, I got both those boxes cheap (one from a record club a long time ago, the other on St. Marks) and I have a pretty healthy OJC collection at this point, so it's probably not a great loss. I'm still sure I would have found a way to drop a few bucks on the sale, though...

What was this Concord sale I keep reading about?

Frankly, I find this set vastly overrated.

No, but it's their fault that they missed to hop on any kind of new technology. I am somewhat forced to believe there ever some kind of market for quality as opposed to cheapity, how ever small it may be. Edit/addition: I suppose is the bigness of these multis (Universal, Sony/BMG, what else remains besides them? Warner? Hah....), their huge oversize, that's the problem. They got so big they have to always deliver, and how can you do that if not by giving panem et circensis? The future lies in the hands of small enterprises, it seems, but of course they have to fight just as hard, only not in such megalomane dimensions. It's not just their size. Any publicly traded company has to be able to justify investing in a particular division on the grounds that they expect a better return on their investment than if they were to put that money in another of their divisions. The jazz reissue division clearly does not fit that bill currently (and isn't likely to in the future either, I'm afraid). RDK is probably correct that increased leasing activity is more likely than spin-offs. Leasing is preferable from a preservationist standpoint as well, as I would suspect that the majors have better facilities for storing the source material.

No. The term Black was in common usage by the time JB recorded "Black and Proud". The term Black was made popular years before JB's record. People who inspired this redefinition were Elijah Muhammad, the Black Panther Party, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and lots more. James, actually, was kind of late to the game and surprised a lot of us when he got on the bandwagon. Where I grew up (semi-rural East Texas), "Black" was considered a "militant" word (look at the list above, and you can see why people light-years behind reality on both sides of the tracks might see it this way). An African-American in those parts who referred to themself as "Black" outside of the African-American community was definitely not the norm. But afer JB's record hit, it was. The previously accepted term in the region, "colored", was over immediately. And it pissed a lot of white folks there off that "those people" would suddenly demand to be addressed in terms of their own choosing rather than accept what was offered. Now, I was only living in one place at one time, but I can't believe that the experience in my region was completely unique. Well, my friend that's the difference between the north and the south. By 1968, most of us were calling ourselves Black. Even my parents, who grew up in the south were calling themselves Black. And as far as "militant", "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud" sounds pretty militant to me. I loved and respected JB but let's not get overly sentimental and attribute things to him that he did not create. People were already saying "I'm Black and I'm proud". It was even being taught to children in Head Start schools. "Black" was being used in the formerly "Negro" newspapers all across the country. Black people were rejecting others definition of them and were defining themselves. Then after MLK was assasinated in April, 1968 and riots ensued all across the country, Black people were universally pissed off. Any Black person who hadn't been calling themself Black before certainly made the transition. That's when the terms "colored" and "negro" were over immediately. (Remember Los Angeles had already had a riot in 1965. Also, Black people's awareness had increased by the frequent killings of Black Panthers, some of them while they were in their beds, the jailings and brutality that we watched on the nightly news, the enlistments of Black men to go fight in a war in Viet Nam when they had to fight and march for civil rights back home in the U.S.) "Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud" was released in August, 1968, after the riots. James was not a leader in this, he was a follower. People were already saying "I'm Black and I'm Proud", he just put it to music. Thanks for taking the time to post this, Cali; having been born in '75, this historical context is very interesting to me.

I agree. At the same time, I'm a little surprised that there are so few records I really dislike on this list. There are a few (Elton John, Madonna, Stone Roses, Paul Simon, etc), but overall I either love, like or tolerate everything they listed. PS: Robert Johnson was a great 60s artist.

Weird logic how they found four of the top albums of the aughts to be collections of material from earlier decades.

Thanks for posting. Wish I had known about this before clearing out my cart at yourmusic in anticipation of the rate increase. Oh well, just ordered both set anyway...

If they are unable to make an acceptable profit off Verve, maybe they will sell it.

I agree with that, except that I think you have to answer the "important to who" question first. It's when you get to ranking unquantifiable items that I lose interest (and in this case, it also seems rather distasteful to me). I think we may be in agreement on that point as well.

If you really must have the "most important black people/black Americans of all time" discussion (which, for the record I think is fundamentally misguided, but no time to go there), I think there are a few things that need to be set straight in order to make the conversation somewhat meaningful and to minimize the risk of the project becoming offensive. First, what makes a person "important"? Second, what makes a black person in particular "important"? Are there different criteria for blacks in particular? If so, why? Third, important to who? Americans? Humans in general? Other blacks? (For instance, if the answer is "Americans," you might have a better argument for J Robinson than if the answer is "humans in general.') Fourth, are we really talking all time? This isn't a conversation I mean to encourage, but if it's going to happen, then I think that these issues have to be addressed.

I'm sure I talked about the Emma Peel set up there somewhere. Fun show; though it could get a little too silly for its own good at times (e.g. the ridiculous christmas tree episode with the psychic).

I don't know everything that is going on, but I'm checking out Zorn and Steve Bernstein at Tonic on the 31st, largely because I like the venue and it is a ten minute walk from my house. It should be a pretty good show.

Yep. I like Chewy from some good dealings we've had offline exchanging CD's, hope to see him learn to post in a way where he will be able to gain some credibility in the neighborhood rather than being dismissed out of hand. He's a good guy. I've enjoyed Chewy's presence on a couple boards going back six years or so, and way back when I likely did a trade or two with him too (though I don't have a specific recollection). However, I've always assumed that his self-chosen role on message boards is one of comic relief. I meant nothing more.

I have not had that issue, but then again I have all of my songs on the internal harddrive of a music-dedicated powerbook. Unfortunately Apple has developed a reputation for exagerating its specs in recent years. However, it makes sense that higher-density files would go through more juics (more bps = more processing power = faster battery drainage). So it's probably a little of column A and a little of column B.

Glad to hear it, but that is exactly what this thread was becoming. You are aware that we're talking about Chewy here, aren't you?

No prob - my first name starts with a "J" but sounds like it starts with a "Y".

My grandmother sent me a check which is really embarrassing because she is poor and I'm not (anymore). However, I fully intend to use it because rejecting a gift is usually a terrible thing to do. She needs to feel like she gave me something. A friend gave me a Tivoli clock/radio as an early xmas gift last month.

Who are Brian and Jimmy?

Anyone who doesn't agree with that is kidding themselves. But I still don't like it. Then again, though he was making a completely different point, Clem is right when he said there is plenty of good music out there on cd already - more than I am likely to get a chance to listen to in my lifetime.

Even my girlfriend (who is no audiophile) can tell the difference between a redbook cd and an MP3 burned to cd on my mid-range system. The MP3s sound thin and harsh. I haven't downloaded an MP3 in about a year because of this. It is a far more dramatic difference than that between vinly and cds.

I fail to see how this is a useful or even interesting path for discussion.