Rumblings and Grumblings

 You might've seen this on our sister blog, ThermionicEmissions:

Billy Joel said Taylor Swift was the Beatles of her generation.

Taylor Swift said this 'broke her brain'

What the article didn't say was that Billy was promptly packaged up and taken to the Happy Place<tm>, then an exhaustive hearing test.

I'm always late to the party.

Working from home is the best.

On a particularly boring morning, with plenty to do, I brought up YouTube and listened to a few Jeff Beck concerts. The sound and video were off, so I couldn't watch, but I listened. Then Blow by Blow, my favorite album. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts. If you're wondering why it sounds better than any of his previous releases, it was because George Martin (Beatles) produced it. The band was exemplary. 

I set out to listen to my remastered cd, then remembered that optical drives no longer come on some laptops. Dammit.

We're weird with audio. I remember working diligently to get the most out of a cassette, then saving for a huge, expensive, many-watt receiver to play it through. I remember bitching about mp3s because of the compression. I remember the fight over albums vs CD (still going on). Now we're listening to compressed music through computer speakers or throwing it out to BlueTooth mono speakers. Worse yet, home studios are using small powered monitors, where we used large, unpowered speakers with 12" woofers. Looking at all this, don't tell me there's no difference.

I had to open my laptop the other day. Small wonder I never hear any bass: the speakers were oval and didn't quite reach 3/4". Apparently I paid for hardware compatibility with linux, not audio quality. Oh well, there's always the output jack.

 Memories, sweet memories.

Also watched Joe Satriani, live in San Francisco. It brought back all the excitement I had for Joe when he really started hitting it big. I think I figured out the source of Joe's fusion with Eric Cojeaux(?), his left handed rhythm guitarist: it's the synchronized sunglasses. I watched Eric adjust his for perfect timing. 

I'll bet Eric had no trouble calling Ibanez and getting what he wanted.

Speaking of Ibanez (I have a few), I'm known for having no filters, so I'm either fun or really annoying to be around. I went to an Ibanez artist seminar (Larry Mitchell was previewing a custom guitar). Eventually they got around to its DiMarzio pickups. I perked right up and told them I found DiMarzios  particularly helpful for holding large catalogs and phone books to the fridge. Both Larry and the guy from Ibanez were amused.

I got dragged along to another seminar, with the drummer from Gloria Estefan's group. When it came time for questions, I stood right up and asked what it's like, looking at her ass all night. People were amused, but I never got an answer.

I have this piece of crap Epiphone PR5 acoustic with electronics. The concept is unbelievably useful: it has an unmolested 1/4" strap button output, plus an XLR out with some electronics. At the last gig, neither of them worked - I was impressed. The guitar was purchased because I played a right handed one and loved the neck. Naturally the left handed one didn't have that neck. I had to do a Real Quick Recording one night and the studio guy said it sounded good acoustically. I was worried. Damn if'n he didn't put a pair of Neumanns on it and it sounded good. They must've been Magic Neumanns. I need a Taylor.

• The new Fender American Ultra Professional(?) sets Fender into the $2,000 category for a guitar. Perhaps they're trying to compete with the PRS Strat.
• it has a 'D neck'. That might be interesting. 
• NONE of my local stores have anything above midline Strats