It was an emotional roller coaster for your corpulent correspondent on the day Petty died. When I arrived at work folks were talking about it, and I thought it must be a Facebook hoax. Right? People get sucked into those things all the time, ’cause they’re gullible and douche-infused. So, I did not react… walked to my desk… and began doing some shaky-hand investigatin’. And it was not good news, my friends.
At first they said he’d had a heart attack and was in critical condition. Then he was brain-dead and they were pulling the plug. Then he was all-the-way dead. Then he wasn’t anymore. Then he was gone for good.
The news hit me fairly hard. It was upsetting. The death of Prince was surprising, because he was so young and supposedly clean-living. And Bowie was a shock. But the sudden death of Tom Petty was the hardest to take of all the recent rock deaths. For me, anyway. I realize he was 66, but he seemed perpetually young. And check out the right-on-the-money opening paragraph in this Variety magazine tribute. It’s true. There’s nothing not to like about the man. He was unpretentious, consistently great, and relevant for 40 years.
In any case, I think I might’ve killed him, and feel terrible about it. This is a summary of my 2017 Tom Petty activity:
I launched what I called Project Petty and purchased every one of his studio albums on CD — in order of original release date. I owned a handful of his mid-period albums, from my days at WEA, but had none of the early CDs, or anything that was released after 2002 or so. I owned the early stuff on LP years ago, but never CD. The Project caused me to listen to more Tom Petty music in a tightly-compacted amount of time than during any other period of my life. And it helped me to get reacquainted with this often-overlooked gem. I didn’t realize it a year ago, but it’s one of my favorites.
I read this excellent biography and learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know. Highly recommended.
I watched this four-hour documentary on Netflix, also excellent. So many great scenes… One of the most memorable is when he’s blasting some record company weasel for not respecting Roger McGuinn enough. Tom Petty was a badass. If you haven’t seen the movie, and have an interest, don’t hesitate. It’s really great.
And finally, I went to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform in Philadelphia, on July 1. Just three months — almost to the day — before his death. Here’s a newspaper review of the show. I’d seen them once before, at the Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta. But this time I was fully invested, and far more sober.
So, you see, I’m thinking it might be my fault. Maybe I concentrated too much on Tom Petty this year, and it was like the sun shining through a magnifying glass, and poor Tom was the ant? Or something? …And how’s that for making it all about me? Good stuff. I should be a Facebook star!
Yesterday afternoon I went to the car wash at Sheetz, and was briefly thrown into a crisis situation. It was a warm and sunny day, so the car wash was hopping. I got in line and decided I would go with the $7 option, as soon as I reached the front o’ the queue.
After about fifteen minutes I was up-next, and paid with my debit card. I big redneck pickup truck went into the hurricane box in front of me, and the glass doors closed on both ends. And as I sat there waiting, I could see the guy maneuvering his vehicle even after the washing sequence had begun. Wotta shithead, I thought, but didn’t put too much emotion into it.
Eventually the door on the other end opened, and the truck exited. But the rear door, in front of my hood, stayed closed. What the? Then a receipt came out, saying my $7 had been refunded. And on the screen it now said ‘Car Wash Closed. Come Again.’ There were cars piled up behind me, the door was closed in front of me, and I couldn’t open my driver’s door because I was up against the payment station. I felt a slight twinge of panic. I was trapped, and claustrophobia was starting to kick in.
I picked up my cell phone, and called the Sheetz store. But it just rang and rang and rang. What the hell, man?? Would I have to call 911? Or maybe the Coast Guard? I hoped I wouldn’t snap and start trying to kick the windshield out.
Then, through the glass I could see a blurry lesbian messing around inside the car wash. I honked my horn, but it didn’t appear she’d noticed me. She meandered around, with no sense of urgency, and finally made her way to my window. “What did you do?” she asked, in an accusatory tone. Huh? I didn’t do anything, Chaz Bono. “Well, you’re going to have to wait until it reboots,” she sighed. Like I was being pushy about it. I’d said almost nothing. And car washes boot up? Who knew?
Finally the door opened, and she pointed what looked like a TV remote toward the interior. “I gave you the $12 wash for free,” she said, and walked away. There was no apology, or even a hint of humanity. Except for the freebie, I guess. She was not very friendly. Oh well.
The wash itself was pretty eventful. I’d never gone with such a high-dollar option. All kinds of shit was happening, for a long time. And at the end there was a sustained blast of air so powerful I thought my little car might tip over on its side. It was one hell of an automatic wash.
And today it rained. Pass the beer nuts.
Before I call it a day here, I’d like to know how you listen to music. I have a shelf stereo in the bunker here, but the CD player stopped working years ago. So, I’ve been using an iPod Classic, one of the big 80 gig models. I have a docking station, and run it through the stereo. It’s worked fine forever. But now the iPod is dying. It holds a charge for roughly 30 minutes, and the docking station no longer charges anything. So, I have a shitty situation on my hands.
I’ve been looking at stereos, but they’re few and far between. I was in Best Buy yesterday, and there was an old man employee who walks on a radical tilt harassing me the whole time. So, screw it. It appeared they only had about three or four stereos to choose from, anyway.
So, how do people listen to music in 2017?? The mp3, which destroyed the industry in which I worked for 20 years, is now as out of fashion as the wax cylinder. I can’t keep up! Seriously. Through what kind of apparatus do you listen to music? And it’s all streaming now? I’m very skeptical. We’re at the absolute mercy of a centralized database? What if they decide the Fleshtones or the Hoodoo Gurus are not worthy anymore? I’m just done at that point? Plus, every asshole who pays $9.99 per month has access to the same music library as me? I don’t like that, at all. I’ve spent my entire adult life amassing an amazing collection. Now everybody’s on an even playing field? Fuck that.
How do you listen to music in 2017? I was going on and on about it yesterday, to the point where Toney had had enough and we got into an honest-to-God argument. She says I’m obsessive, and ridiculous. But I need to know, dammit. I signed up for a trial membership with Spotify, and have to admit it’s pretty impressive so far. Almost like the old “every record ever recorded” bit by Robert Klein. We’ll see how it goes.
I need to go now. I’m getting a little off-track with these updates, but will make the necessary adjustments. Sorry about that.
I’ll be back on Thursday.
Have a great day, my friends!
Now playing in the bunker
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First? We use Pandora at the shop, we have multiple channels everything from Slayer to Ben folds five. It’s ok put has a tendency to repeat itself. And Johnny Cash has a habit of showing up on every channel. Sometimes we put it on YouTube and play a full album from whoever and just let it take off from there. But even that can get off on a terrible tangent.
My kids use Spotify a LOT, and have many different channels therein. My music-listening time is way less than it used to be, so can’t really comment on that topic.
Too bad about Tom Petty. I have a long list of people you can concentrate your death-attention on if you’re on a roll.
I still have a “real” stereo, what they used to call high-end. It has a CD player and a turntable, plus I can run mp3s or streaming music through an auxiliary input. But I don’t listen to the stereo that often. I have a Sirius XM subscription, both satellite and streaming, for 90% of my listening. For portable music, I play mp3s or stream. I sometimes play CDs in the car. I see no reason to get rid of the music I’ve already collected. And if I want to own new music, I’ll buy the CD.
The car came with Siris but they got a new program dr and screwed it all up. The 80’s channel now sounds like the Lionel Richie channel. BBKings blues channel is the only one worth saving. I got my 20 yr old Volvo back after daughter went off to school. Rigged it with a new 95 dollar stereo with a AUX cord hole. Have to keep the old pod plugging into the cig lighter permanently but I’m loving the hell out of it. I bluetooth the phone to the stereo in the house. Too bullheaded to pay for music I already own.
Questions on a Tuesday afternoon:
1) Is there one PD for all of Sirius? With all those satellites, ONE asshole can fuck up this part of the universe? PDs have a special place in hell just a-waitin’ for them.
2) I understand BB King isn’t feeling well. Is somebody else spinning the platters for him?
3) With the lighter tied up, how do you stoke up the doobies during Stairway to Heaven?
I have more questions, but the Krakens are singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me.
John
1. There are 2 PD’s out of the dozen in my past that are going directly to hell. Bad people, really bad.(arms moving like playing invisible accordion)
2. The voice of BB Kings channel does a good impression. His enunciation is perfect except “BB Kangs Bluesville” I laugh every time.
3. The only doobie I stoke these days are the Doobies. Even as an impressionable teen I hated Stairway to Heaven. Loved it in radio, enough time to take a pee.
John, looks like the Kraken is sleeping. shhhhh.
If I want something specific I search for it on YouTube and hook my phone up to a Bluetooth speaker. If not I dial up a Pandora station I pre-built. Sad but that’s about it. No fancy stereo or racks of components. Just my phone and a speaker I got at Big Lots. And I’m 51.
When it comes to streaming I use Slacker Radio. It’s the same as everything else, but I already have my heavy metal stations and comedy stations pretty well established on it. They know what I like and whatever algorithm it uses has me pretty much figured out.
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For transportable MP3 and .wav files I use this guy. It’s a beast. the user interface isn’t the best, but the fact that it is plug&play and can hold over 100GB of music make it the king.
https://www.amazon.com/Fiio-FIIO-X1-SILBER-FiiO/dp/B00PQ2UVHY/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_23_lp_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NAFD1BP4JXJD281YE1S0&dpID=410P%252B94BD3L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=detail
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For home listening I use this little fella.
It accepts every type of media other than 8-track and wax cylinder. The speakers are crap, but I just went an got some big ol’ wood grain Pioneer cabinet speakers and it sounds just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KS77TFI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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I create youtube playlists. Sometimes it’s a while album (e.g. The Killers or Gin Blossoms). Sometimes it’s one hit wonders. I have ad block browser in my office, so no paying for YouTube red for me. All the music is music that I have chosen, which I like. None if that thumbs up or skipping crap. In the car I Bluetooth to the car system. I have T-Mobile unlimited streaming, so I can again, no cost (there are, however, commercials).
For a while I was listening to my own MP3 library from discs I burned, but now I just use Google Music. $15/month for the entire family. I play it on an older Android tablet. The tablet is connected with a regular 3.5mm audio cable to a small amp, which is connected to a pair of bookshelf speakers.
The amp was maybe $15, the speakers I got on sale years ago for $20. The sound is much bigger and fuller than any PC speakers I’ve ever run before, and the amp gives me a physical volume knob instead of needing to mess with my tablet constantly.
The other benefit is that if there’s a live show, youtube video or NPR Tiny Desk Concert I want to listen to, I can put that through the speakers, too. Oh, and everything is hardwired — no Bluetooth to dick around with.
I have a couple of real hi-fi’s, one in the basement office, one in the lounge. The lounge one is decent gear with some big ass Bowers & Wilkins speakers, and CD only. The basement one has a 300 CD carousel attached and can stream off the network too.
I have no time for listening to music on shit systems. Why would you do that? It’s the same as people who watch movies on their phone. Why? Do you not know how much effort went into each scene, and you’re watching it on a 7″ screen and how much you are missing?! WTF!
MP3s make me cry.
Oh, Limey, you make my heart sing. Neither do I understand why anyone would listen to good music through shitty speakers. Everyone keeps telling me to put all my music on my computer. No, thank you. I started out with NAD components and moved up to a Hafler amp and pre-amp; nice system though it is older now but it’s in pristine condition, has lots of power and processes great sound. I have a pair of big ass KEF speakers that are awesome and something I waited a long time to invest in. CDs only, thank you. I ain’t streaming nothing nor using a iPod and dozens of other gadgets to play it through my speakers. Though I don’t get to listen to music as much as I used to, there is nothing better than sitting in that room and cranking it up to about 11. I love it!!!
Nothing wrong with NAD stuff, Jeff could do a lot worse that buying some used NAD gear off eBay.
I failed to mention that when I upgraded, I kept my NAD equipment. The audio store wanted me to trade it in on my Hafler and I refused (particularly when they really started pressing me to trade it in). They could have sold it for a pretty penny. And you’re right, Jeff should look into NAD on eBay. There are some good deals to be found out there.
Totally agree!! I enjoy music in the car most of all. Old Lucy, Volvo wagon, has Alpine speakers that still sound like gold. $95 radio has an equalizer that reads in Hertz, can you guys help me out? Frustration has me giving up and choosing a preset. I had sliders back in the day that I could physically/ visually set my sounds. Quite the aesthetic, that wave glowing from across the room..
I have an ancient-but-still-good component system at home. My Dual turntable (bought at Crazy Eddie) is old enough to be president. I also built a media server several years ago. It has audio of every CD I’ve ever had possession of, plus a few LPs. Digitizing an LP is tedious and time-consuming, so I’ve only done a few. Finally I have a thumb drive with 4000+ songs (from the media server), which I can plug into the car for mobile use.
Anything on youtube can disappear at any time, so I don’t like depending on it for anything that I’d value in the long term.
If I go to a concert, I’ll buy a CD or two to support the band; it costs about the same as Amazon, but this way the band gets most of the money.
Don’t feel too bad Jeff,
I went on a vacation to the Outer Banks and bought a pair of sandals for the first in my life. The next day Jerry Garcia was dead.
Sorry
With the fine old Marantz 2270 and accompanying Big Ass Speakers stored safely in the heated basement for this chapter of my life, I still need to be able to hear, with considerable clarity, this kind of music because of the unstable imbecile in the Oval Office. . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHZ72yHQ0K8
John
Oh-Oh John you’re about to raise the Kraken.
Yeah, I know. Some people think the 2270 is past its useful life because it isn’t entirely solid state, but the presence the tubes give you — for example the ability to hear every cymbal tap and wind chime breeze on Moonchild from “In the Court of the Crimson King” — make it all worthwhile.
John
Also, I’ve always thought that their best album was “Kraken: Una Leyenda del Rock”. Elkin Ramírez really lets it go on that release; sadly, his voice was stilled last January when he died at age 54 of brain cancer.
John
Certain self-styled “golden ears” might give you the High Hat about equipment that contains *any* solid state.
One of my erstwhile college classmates – a more talented engineer than I’ll ever be – built an audio amplifier out of a transmitter tube, the venerable Eimac 4CX250B (an RF power tetrode). It seemed like a cool project. I looked into doing something like this, but the associated transformers, cooling chimneys etc. are expensive enough that I never pursued it. If I did, I’d have to make the early stages solid state just to piss off the Golden Ears.
Chill, I’m familiar with the audiophile tube-only “analog” movement, but I thought the war had ended in the 90s — that all the treaties had been signed and violated and all the injured had been bayoneted.
Turns out that, as I understand it, using analog-formatted media to play music optimized for “analog”, sounds warm and present, and that playing digital-formatted media to play music optimized for “digital”, sounds precise and particularly clear in the mid-range. In other words, if “records” are not entirely re-mixed from the original recordings when CDs (or any digital media) are created, don’t buy the digital media, because they are carefully engineered to, among other things, avoid having a timpani (or Hendrix guitar) make the needle (which doesn’t exist) jump from an inner groove (which doesn’t exist).
I bought a CD of an early Sonics album which, I now think, had been created by playing a Victrola across the room from a couple of cheap digital mics. The Sonics, perhaps inventors of punk, and certainly an exciting listen on the gloomiest of days, sounded like the Carpenters AFTER Karen had burned her last calorie.
I had to make this a longish comment because I didn’t have anything as glamorous as “cooling chimneys” to talk about.
John
Cds and Records
I never cared for Mp3s and I don’t want to do streaming. I have 3 stereos. They are mostly old – parts and pieces people gave me over the years. I have boombox from the early 1990s (Sony). It was stored in a closet and never used. I bought it a few years ago for 20 bucks.
Like you believe you killed Tom Petty, my family believes we killed Harry Kalas, the long time Phillies announcer. One night, just that the baseball season was starting, we were debating about buying the MLB package that would allow us to hear all of the Phillies games on the computer. “It’ll be great”, we said, “We’ll be able to hear Harry Kalas every night”. That was the clincher, so we made the purchase. The next day old Harry was dead in the broadcast booth… It had to be our fault!
Tom Petty was an American original, long career and a large following. I find it interesting that many younger adults prefer the old time artists like Tom Petty, Boz Skaggs, CSN&Y, Allman Bros, R. Stones, etc. Good music endures. Although based on this, I would have expected Benny Goodman and Fats Waller to be acts at Woodstock. I think it is a tacit recognition of old artist skill as well as an indictment of the current state of pop music.
I have a vintage Cambridge Audio AM/FM radio that I use to play Pandora and other net sources…too cheap to signup with Sirius, allthough there are some really nifty receivers currently available.
Benny Goodman was on a different branch of the music tree: one that used no individual amplification, which was a critical distinction when music exploded after WWII. Count Basie would have been closer. Fats Waller was dead.
jtb
In my opinion, “Sing, Sing, Sing With a Swing’ has a reasonable claim on being a rock record. Proto-rock, whatever. I like me some Count Basie too. And the Ramones, of course.
Good point; nice cap.
jtb
Bose Soundtouch… you can play whatever you want on it via your wi-fi… stream, MP3 library… control it wherever you are on your phone. It works great.
No highs or lows, it must be Bose! 🙂
Damn, I thought it was only us AV geeks who knew that!
If I had the money, and I don’t, a ludicrous hi-fi is one of the items I’d indulge myself with.
As much as I love music and believe that music is encoded with our cultural DNA, I’m not an audiophile. In the ’60s and ’70s, when good bands were spending time and money with good producers to publish albums that had serious depth (every time you played them on a “better” system you heard something new), I had a tube component system and a pair of bigass speakers which had dual midrange horns because I loved Mose Allison and Gerry Mulligan and Muddy Waters as much as I loved the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, yeah, and the Beatles (I guess that should be yeah, yeah, yeah).
That was just the entry point if you were serious about music, whether or not you were serious about gear. I don’t think I knew a male who didn’t have a sound system that didn’t cost at least three month’s wages (just an arbitrary measure — of course it’s way more complicated than that).
Then, as now, it was easy to “overplay” an album. Most everybody, including said Beatles and unsaid Bob Dylan issued all of their early releases in mono. Monaural played on a good system can sound rich and deep and present, but played on a system that doesn’t account for effects like phase cancellation and other audio artifacts I don’t understand can sound terrible (that’s part of the danger of buying an expensive system assembled by a non-audiophile — you can end up with a muddy sound and no waters).
For several years I lived in a big house with a few other guys, and mine was about the third best sound system. The one we put in the dance room was a fine component system playing through Speakerlab Ks (five foot tall pentagonal speakers that routed bass to the back and had to be placed in a corner). Like a European sports car, it was a little rough at the low end (Joan Baez would get hopelessly lost and perhaps she deserves to — live and be well) but in a sort of certified test, we could hear the fucker three blocks away when Zep played/sang Whole Lotta Love.
But people fall in love or get married — and everything changes. I am an unrepentant feminist, but I swear the loud music gene group lives on the Y chromosome. The exceptions are legion and evident, so don’t write unless you get work, but that’s my experience. At the minimum, a living room dominated by a sound system rather than a sectional or Louis XV fucking chairs is a guy thing.
And now I grow old … I grow old … I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled, and I can’t hear the mumblings of the young people at the checkout counter or my SO, so some nice bookshelf speakers with a sub-woofer driven by a receiver work just fine. Bob Dylan sounds injured, Leonard Cohen is gone, and the rest are dropping like flies at a petrochemical farm.
Limey, I’m glad you still care. Buy that shit while you are still passionate and can still hear. Just a little free advice.
best,
John
John,
You’re right about it being a male thing, my wife periodically complains that that “stuff” shouldn’t be in the lounge, but elsewhere, perhaps the garage or the end of the yard? To be fair I feel the same about all the fucking candles.
I only really listen to the big system when I’m home alone and the cats can escape to the basement.
If you haven’t already, give the 50th anniversary remix of Sgt. Pepper’s a listen on a good system!
Limey.
Limey,
I tried briefly to check on this, but didn’t find the answer. . .
I think Sgt Pepper was a transitional recording which was released in both mono and stereo versions (feel free to correct me). In any case, I remember distinctly hearing a mono vinyl version of the album at the time on a good sound system, and remember it sounding less poppy and more rocky, less pretty and more gritty than the stereo version I later heard on a good sound system.
Do you know whether they released a 50th anniversary mono version as well as a stereo version? Also, I see that this comes in both vinyl and CD (and, I suppose other digital formats). I assume they started with the original tapes to make each. I suspect otherwise, one format would be sub-optimized. Do you know whether this is the case?
Thanks for still caring about this important record. If I knew that you were a Liverpool or Celtic fan, I’d sing you a verse of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. When those two clubs play each other, it’s a sound to behold. Never been there live, but 80K people singing that Rogers and Hammerstein ditty explains, in part, why the British Army had just won the war (can’t say English).
Sidebar: My grandfather was born just south of Glasgow and was a fan of the local club, which was just a club then (circa 1890s). No Rogers, no Hammerstein, just football with a very heavy leather ball that grew heavier in the glomen.
John
John,
My understanding is that at the time the mono mix of Sgt Pepper’s got all the focus, since actual stereos were much less common, and the stereo mix was rushed through. I would assume there is a 50th anniversary mono version too, but I only have the stereo one. What really struck me was how they have brought the bass and drums more forward (hardly surprising considering which of The Beatles are still alive), and the whole album grooves along like never before. McCartney’s deeply funky in places. Give it a listen!
I’m a pure home counties boy, Liverpool, never mind Glasgow, are out in the wilds of the north to me 🙂
Limey.
Afternoons and coffee spoons.
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
John
I now listen to most of my music (from whatever source) via my cell phone. My new hearing aids are not only tiny but also Bluetooth enabled. Nobody has a clue that I have totally tuned out their boring yammering. The sound quality probably isn’t Symphony Hall level but neither are my ears re: hearing aids.
They’ll also start the coffe maker when I turn them on in the AM or open the garage door when I get home at night but I don’t see me ever setting that up.
I would like to take a solid dump on the side of the audiophiles but with 57 year old ears I can only say screw the the technicalities give me a playlist with 30% of Steely Dan and Elton John and for everyone else “Get off my goddamn lawn “
Steve, mine are ten years older, and I still want to hear every bass note Nathan East plays, but I don’t place a high priority on hearing Donald Fagen fart while playing ten diminished chords in a row. Why, in Heaven’s name, do they have the mic stand that low?
John
Ten diminished chords in a row would be a good name for a pretentious little craft IPA…
.best bass joke: A man goes on a vacation to a tropical island. As soon as the plane lands, he gets off and hears drumming. At first, he thinks, “This is pretty cool”. He ends up going to a luau and hears the drumming. He eats lunch and hears the drums. He goes to the beach and hears the drums. He tries to sleep, but can’t because of the constant drumming.
The drumming goes on for four days. The guy has to go down to the front desk because he can’t sleep. He asks the manager “What is the deal with these drums! Make them stop. I haven’t got any sleep this whole week!”
The manager of the hotel says “No. Drums don’t stop. You don’t want the drums to stop, sir.”
“Why?”
“Because when drums stop… Bass solo begins!”
Nice. Sadly, I think I saw that band in concert. Many years ago. At least one of us might have been stoned.
jtb
Wow, I don’t understand 50% of what I’ve just read. I still have a 32-year old rack system, complete with turntable, cassette deck and CD . Run the flat screen through it and it still sounds great. Do the vast majority of listening in my 13 year old truck so it’s either FM or CDs for me. Glad to hear that MP3s are going stale, before I even stuck my toe in the water on that front.
Because I travel almost every week, the preferred means of listening is out. I rely on Mp3 on an Ipod, but what really makes it tolerable are Bose noise cancelling headphones. On planes and in hotels, doesn’t matter, this shit works.