spc-cu-261-50 0001 Desert Island Records

Direct link to the episode:

 MP3 -> http://media.libsyn.com/media/msb/spc-cu-261-50-0001-Desert_Island_Records.mp3

 m4a -> http://media.libsyn.com/media/msb/spc-cu-261-50-0001-Desert_Island_Records.m4a

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This podcast marks a departure from the stuff I have done to date.

That's because I am recording this for my communications class at "St Peter's College".

Its an episode called "Desert Island Records".

In it we're supposed to make up a playlist of the twenty songs we'd take with us if we were going into exile on a desert island; an un-powered, unpopulated, desert island. (There are consistency problems with the premise as explained; its not twenty albums but twenty songs, an impossibility pre-iPod / iTunes. since the media wouldn't allow for such a division of an artist's opus. Besides, what am I supposed to play the records "with", a gramophone? "I doan' t'ink so"...)

But, since we are now perfused through and through with the constant presence of our fellow man (or woman,) via satellite communication and, since we now have personal tech which offers us the ability to carry thousands of songs on our hips, I'll play along with the premise, as long as its clearly understood that its impossible.

The first order of business is to choose from amongst the tens of thousands of pieces of music I know. Since these are characterized by mood, not by artist, genre or even performance, giving rise to millions of combinations, I have decided to let prior experience lead me on and I present to you my twenty selections:

   1. "Shakespeare's Sister", "Heroine", 1989 off of the album "Sacred Heart",

   2. "Mocean Worker", "Shamma Lamma Ding Dong", 2007, off the album "Enter the MoWo", [ http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=257837257&s=143441 ] 

   3. "Aaron English", "Animals Like Us" 2003, off the album  "All the Waters of This World", [ http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=4053404&s=143441 ]

       (Its pod safe which is why you're getting the wole thing,)

   4. "J.S. Bach" , "Brandenburg Concertos No. 3" various years and recordings,

   5. "Amun Ra", "Bullet Train" 2005, off the album "A Thousand Ticking Clocks",

       (Its pod safe which is why you're getting the wole thing,)

   6. "The Art Of Noise", "Kiss Featuring Tom Jones 7" version", 1992, off the album "The Best Of The Art Of Noise (pink, 1992)"

   7. "Carl Orff", "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: O Fortuna", 1994, off of the album "Carmina Burana",

   8. "Count Basie & His Orchestra", "One O'clock Jump", 2007, off of the album "Basie's Best",

   9. "Cyndi Lauper", "Money Changes Everything" 1984, off of the album "She's So Unusual",

  10. "Me'Shell Ndegeocello", "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)" 1993, off the album "Plantation Lullabies",

  11. "The Monkees", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", 1983, off of the album "Then & Now...The Best Of The Monkees",

  12. "Nine Inch Nails", "Closer", 1994, off the album "The Downward Spiral",

  13. "Brigitte Fontaine", "Genre Humain", 2006, off of the album "Genre Humain",

  14. "Men Without Hats", "Messiahs Die Young", 1996, off the album "Folk of the 80's Part III",

  15. "Green Day", "Longview" 2001, off the album "International Superhits",

  16. "Hot Tuna", "Water Song", 1972, off of the album "Burgers"

  17. "Benny Goodman Orchestra", "Seven Come Eleven" 1991 off of the album "The Best Of The Big Bands (Disc 3)",

  18. "Maurice Ravel", "Bolero" 1993 off of the abum "Bolero",

  19. "Al DiMeola", "Short Tales Of The Black Forest" 1997 off of the abum "This Is Jazz 31",

  20. "Alanis Morissette", "Hand In My Pocket" 1995 off of the abum "Jagged Little Pill".

Let just say that this represents a tiny little piece of the sound track to my life.

I've been listening to music all my life.

I come by it honestly; from my family, some of which were musicians, as was I, through the albums which we used to play on the old "Stromberg-Carlson", to radio, which I was introduced to in 1960 (the first piece of English music I remember hearing in Ville LaSalle was "She Wore An Itsy, Bitsy, Teeny, Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini". Eeeeuuu!)

I have thousands of CDs, LPs, even 78s. I have thrown away, lost, or given away easily as many.

And I have an observation to add to the debate on media, the internet and podcasting from stored media.

The biggest problem with broadcasting, "a dollar, a holler", is that its is "not" a conversation and a conversation is what what was always required.

For most things, the lack of a feed back mechanism rankles.

Podcasting allow me to produce episodes, whenever, (but I try to keep to a schedule,) allows my audience to pick it up whenever, (days, months or years after I created the episode,) and enjoy.

The kind of asynchronous distribution enabled by RSS is a much better solution.

Its not the only solution. There "are" times when its necessary to get everybody to pay attention "right now," (but its still "verboten" to shout "fire" in a crowded theater.)

For most other things, RSS frees us from the tyranny of "being there".

Likewise, I wonder about the wisdom of the segmentation of content vertically by "genre" (all the way to distinguishing "swamp rock" ["Treat Her Right","Picture Of The Future" off the album "Tied To The Tracks"] and/or "twee", ["Polopop", "Princess of Twee" off the album "Pink"]) and attempting to coerce 'casters to adhere to these genres (when the audience is quite free to like whatever the Hell it wants, horizontally, "across genres".)

The use of any grid in programming presumes that music and/or audiences are divisible in such limited dimensionality and ignores the fact that any piece of music and that any audience member is in fact a cloud of associations.

On the other hand, back in the sixties and seventies, back when the recording industry had some "cohones", back when a DJ was more than just somebody who had to play off of a rotation while trying to sound enthousiastic, back when radio was trusted more as a content aggregator and could be counted on to discover* music as well as run some ads, that was the golden age of radio and it is being recaptured with podcasting.

*) I first heard music by an unknown band back in 1969, when a DJ who'd gone to England came back and played us music he'd discovered over there and played us their strangely titled album "Ummagumma". That band was "Pink Floyd". (The background music for this show is a fully accredited snippet [and therefore fair use] by "Pink Floyd", "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict (1994 Digital Remaster)" off the album "Ummagumma".)

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This constitutes my show notes and I'm now going to include so info about why this episode only features fragments of the twenty tunes.

Lamentably, I have to play by the rules and that means that the RIAA, being a litigious bunch of [expletive deleted] who would sue my ass right off of my butt if they get a chance.

This is how "Prince" managed to screw his record company right out of any money from the song "Sexy Mother Fucker" on the album "The Hits 2" which was an absolutely kick-ass piece of music, a palpable hit regardless of what medium it was played on, but the lyrics were so untouchable because of the prevailing FCC and Wall*Mart hypocrisy that he was in effect "poisoning the well."

Likewise, I respect his genius in setting the RIAA drones to attack a video which only had a snippet of his music playing in the background while some child was showing off his dancing, ahem, prowess.

The RIAA will have to actually "define fair use" before they can use that attack again on some unsuspecting schmuck.