Posted on 01/12/2015 7:24:14 PM PST by Squawk 8888
Albums are almost as old as recorded music. A hundred years ago when the most music a 78 RPM record could hold was four minutes, long pieces like operas or symphonies were broken up over multiple discs. Those discs were then sold in book-like packages that reminded many of photo albums. That’s how the record album got its name.
The multiple disc problem was solved by Columbia in 1948 when in June of that year, they unveiled the 33 1/3 long-playing album. When RCA countered with the 7-inch 45 RPM single a year later, the LP became the domain of “serious” music–classical, jazz, folk, Broadway show tunes–while the 7-inch ended up as the heart and soul of rock’n’roll. Adults bought albums; kids bought singles.
Oh, sure, there were rock albums, but usually only the form of a compilation of an artist’s singles. It wasn’t until the Beatles and Bob Dylan came along that the album starting becoming a thing for rock and pop. And it didn’t take long for the marketplace to adopt albums. By the end of the 60s, albums were king and stayed that way for the next thirty years.
Along the way, though, the music industry abused its customers, especially towards the end of the 90s. By phasing out singles, the industry forced people to buy an entire album for just one song. When the price of CDs didn’t come down fast enough to suit consumers, they got pissed. VERY pissed. When Napster came along and offer an opportunity to get just the songs you wanted without the filler–and for free!–there was no going back. The breakup of the album had begun.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajournalofmusicalthings.com ...
You’re pushing too hard, man.
That’s how Jerry Garcia learned how to play guitar. Playing Wildwood Flower at 16.
Jerry’s problem is he forgot the songs were slowed down and kept playing painfully slow his whole life.
Gelding Lee.
Worst ever, even worse than Plant.
Long before Columbia’s LP came along, from 1931-1933, RCA Victor was producing vinyl (or vinyl-like) 33 1/3 records.
They were not a commercial success for several reasons. One was the Depression. Two, the material was too soft to stand up to the machines of the day, with tracking forces measured in ounces rather than grams. They wore out very quickly. And very few machines were equipped to play at that speed.
The grooves were the same as 78s, the Columbia LP had a much finer groove for longer playing times.
I lived in Hollywood back then - loved Tower records.
There was another shop west on Sunset that, IIRC, had their LPs in wall mounted racks. The store front reminded me of a Drug Store.
I bought “The White” album there after hearing it played in its’ entirety with comments before each song by some cat named George Harrison who was sitting in the KRLA studio.
” I remember walking home from the A&P with my purchase of the Markeys’ Last Night,”
For me, the first to 45s I got were “Hound Dog” and “Raunchy/” But Link Wray put me over the edge! So powerful!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucTg6rZJCu4
The first 45 I ever bought was Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGPG_Y-_BZI
I have two McIntosh Monoblock amps for my stereo. WM2s. Really early! KT66 tubes. I need to set it up again.
“Gelding Lee.
Worst ever, even worse than Plant.”
I agree! Couldn’t listen to either. The singers hertz my ears!
Those old tube amps are no good, but I will do you a favor by taking them off your hands.
I’ll even pay for shipping.
“I’ll even pay for shipping.”
Okay. Two grand each, and there are actually four chassis in separate metal boxes, potted in some kind of tar. Each chassis weighs about 30+ pounds! They were the reference amps in an old recording studio in Cleveland. Having two of them for stereo is a real coup,,, or coupe as bola was pronounce it!
I was just kidding, of course.
Actually I have one of those, I paid $500 for it. I’d love to find a mate for it. That’s a hard amp to find.
It mega hertz!
” I paid $500 for it.”
500 is a great price for one! I’ve been told that I could sell my stereo pair for huge bucks to someone in Hong Kong!
Gotta say I never even heard of 8RPM's - some low-fi recorded talking-book kind of thing maybe.....
Nice ! You really do. While I've not spent much time listening to tube amps I'm running 25 some year old Carver Silver 9-T monoblocks. At the time, Carver published a white-paper claiming that this amp was engineered to have exactly the same transfer function as his S.E.T. tube monster amp (I think it was the Silver Seven) and thus sound identical.
Whatever the case, I can tell you they sound awesome when paired with his AL-3 Ribbons.
Good listening to you.
“Tis a true story, Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony personally specified that the CD was to be long enough to hold a complete 9th as it was his wife's favorite piece of music. The original Redbook CD spec was just short of 74 minutes long, (a tad over 700 mb).
Another story as I heard it was that Michael Jackson wanted to get one of his double albums on a CD and that resulted in pushing the capacity up to 80 minutes. I recall that when the first 80 minute blanks hit the market they were almost $100 each.
Having written all this, I went went over to Wikipedia only to learn that they have a totally different take on all of what I just relayed, so I could have been totally wrong about most everything I just said, but then again it is Wikipedia so take all this with a really big grain of salt.
Thanks for the info - yeah, Wikipedia can be questionable, but on the other hand I think I picked up the 9th Symphony story from a History Channel special on “80’s Tech” a while back, so I’m not sure it’s any more reliable - one of the joys of the modern information age seems to be sometimes TMI and figuring out what if any of it to believe....
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