Home Taping Is Killing Music And It’s Illegal.

I found this on the back of a recently bought vinyl copy of “Before The Flood” by Bob (The most bootleged artist in history) Dylan & The Band. I don’t think it appears on the backs of any of the other LPs I own…

I seem to remember similar ads in the 1980′s which threatened JAIL TIME if you taped music from the radio! When I go to the cinema these days and they run an anti-piracy advert before the film, it only serves to remind me of the films that I need to illegally download because they’re not commercially available to buy. If they are available, they’re watered down cuts of the film or edited for violence or something silly like that.

Bob Dylan & The Band’s “Before The Flood” is a live recording from 1974 and it really is amazing! A great companion piece to the record would either be the 1974 bootleg soundboard recordings “Paint the Daytime Black” or “Oakland Flood”, but if you want those you’ll have to download them in an illegal fashion. Here’s the artwork so you know what you’re looking for…

…And from Wikipedia, here’s a copy and paste job (A theft if you will) about “Home Taping Is Killing Music”…

“Home Taping Is Killing Music” was the slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright infringement campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder popularity, the BPI feared that people being able to record music from the radio onto cassettes would cause a decline in record sales. The logo, consisting of a Jolly Roger formed from the silhouette of a compact cassette, also included the words And It’s Illegal.

The campaign has in recent years had its revival, as the Norwegian branch of IFPI launched a new campaign named Piracy Kills Music. The campaign has exactly the same message, same name and even very similar logos. The campaign won the Norwegian 2008 Gulltaggen award for “Best Internet Strategy” with much controversy.

An early ‘proponent’ of home taping was Malcolm McLaren who was at the time managing the British band Bow Wow Wow. In 1980 the band released their cassette single ”C30, C60, C90 Go” on a cassette that featured a blank other side that the buyer could record their own music on. The band’s record label, EMI, dropped the group shortly afterwards because the single allegedly promoted home taping.

The Soundtrack To My Life. 09/11/2012.

Record: Lonerisim. (2012).
Artist: Tame Impala.
My Advice To You… I got ‘Lonerism’ after hearing the excellent taster single ‘Elephant’ a couple of months ago and honestly, the album is not nearly as good as that single.

I found myself just counting down the songs and minutes until ‘Elephant’ which is track 9.

Record: Addams Family Values. (2012).
Artist: Battery Face.
My Advice To You…This album is free so why the hell not?

Free music is always a good thing my friends!
It seems to be the way to do it these days. “Have my music for free just now and later, if you want to, buy it!”
- I really like that approach.

I read about Battery Face in some magazine. I liked their name and I liked the idea of an album called Addams Family Values but this has almost nothing to do with The Addams Family. A good way to get people to hear your music if a little sneaky.

Don’t expect creepy, kooky, spooky music. Expect noise. Loud noise! I like noise and I like my noise loud and I took the time to listen to this record but in the end it just didn’t do it for me.

Being a member of Battery Face is probably hugely satisfying but I’m not and so, “Addams Family Values” just sounds like a long, direction-less band jam in a garage which is locked off to the likes of me.

Record: Sally Can’t Dance. (1974).
Artist: Lou Reed.
My Advice To You… I like to take a chance and buy a record simply because I like the album cover. Okay, I know and love a lot of Lou Reed’s music but sometimes he can churn out downright rubbish so buying “Sally Can’t Dance” was a gamble for me. But it definitely paid off. I especially liked this number:

Record: Roseland NYC Live. (1998).
Artist: Portishead.
Why You Should Get It…I really wish I’d seen Portishead live. They were fucking mesmerisingly special!

Record: Louis Armstrong: Volume I & II. (Compilation).
Artist: Louis Armstrong.
Why You Should Get It…It’s Louis Armstrong. Just get it. You need it. Everybody does!

Record: Seed Of A Memory. (1976).
Artist: Terry Reid.
Why You Should Get It… Rob Zombie introduced me to this guy. Not personally of course but through his soundtrack for “The Devil’s Rejects” which doesn’t contain a bad song. It’s early days but so far, so far this is my favourite track from ‘Seed of Memory’:

Record: Raging Bull (OST). (1980).
Artist: Various.
Why You Should Get It… Martin Scorsese has exquisite taste in music and the “Raging Bull” main title theme is the icing on the cake of the films’ beautiful opening credits…

Record: 40/40. (2009).
Artist: The Carpenters.
Why You Should Get It… 

Record: The Sophtware Slump (Deluxe Edition). (2011)
Artist: Grandaddy.
Why You Should Get It… The acoustic Demo for ‘Hewlett’s Daughter’ is worth the price of this Deluxe Edition alone.

Record: Re-Ac-Tor. (1981).
Artist: Neil Young & Crazy Horse.
Why You Should Get It… Like a lot of Neil’s records, Re-Ac-Tor is underappreciated…

Record: The Original Rumble. (1958).
Artist: Link Wray.
Why You Should Get It… One of the very first rock records. Not Rock & Roll, ROCK!

Even ol’ Jimmy Page loves ‘Rumble’!

The Soundtrack To My Life. 16/08/2012.

“The Deer Hunter” (OST). (1978).
Artist: Various Artists.

An utterly heartbreaking soundtrack from one of the greatest films ever made!
It’s nothing short of a pleasure to listen to this record.

“Different Class” (1995).
Artist: PULP.

This takes me right back to the 1990′s. Back to the days when I was jumping over fences at festivals, watching bands from the top of police car roofs and generally smoking and trying to fuck anything and everything I could get my hands on. Them were the days!

Unlike myself, “Different Class” holds up very well today.
Here, have some E’s And Wizz…

“I Just Started Hating Some People Today” (EP). (2012).
Artist: Beck.

This is Beck’s debut for Third Man Records who also have Jack White and Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three on their books and eh, I dunno about it. It’s Beck doing Hank Williams for a couple of minutes and then doing something FAR MORE INTERESTING and sinister for the outro.

Hear for yourselves:

“Blood On The Tapes” (Bootleg). (1974).
Artist: Bob Dylan.

“Blood On The Tapes” is far and away the best Bob Dylan Bootleg record that I’ve ever heard and I get a lot more from it that the officially released “Blood On The Tracks” album.

What you’re getting here is basically up, close and personal, crystal clear alternate recordings of the songs that would eventually make up “Blood On The Tracks”. The quality of the sound is incredible and a lot of the songs just seem to feature Dylan on his own with a guitar.

Some of the cuts from “Blood On The Tapes” would appear in many other bootleg titles over the years and that is what I’m going to have to let you hear as an example because I can’t find a decent link to “Blood On The Tapes”.

Check out this alternate take of “Tangled Up In Blue” for starters…

“The Rainbow Children”. (2001).
Artist: Prince.

From the late 1990′s till right now, buying a new Prince album can be a gamble but the thing is, it’s almost always worth it. “The Rainbow Children” is a seriously funky and under appreciated record and here’s why: Because the songs deal with his then recent conversion to the the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. That said, it could be under appreciated because of the sssssssslowed down, deep vocals from Prince and…ah…who the hell caes why it’s under appreciated. All you need to know is that it contains some downright fonky shit okay?

Like this:

“Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts”. ( 1978).
Artist: The Adverts:

Well, I’d never heard about The Adverts at all until I read about them. To be honest, it’s nothing I haven’t heard The Buzzcocks do 100 times better but I enjoyed listening to “Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts” all the same.

“Remain In Light”. (1978).
Artist: Talking Heads.

…Aye, 1978 was a good year for music!
Here’s a video of Talking Heads performing ‘Once In A Lifetime’ on German T.V. in 1980:

“DARE!” (1981).
Artist: The Human League.

It suddenly struck me that I’d never really heard any music by The Human League apart from “Don’t You Want Me” (Which I liked) so I went out and bought their album “DARE!” …and became COMPLETELY ADDICTED!

I especially latched on to the track “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of” and played it to death.
I recommend listening to it whilst you’re on a train and as always, crank the volume up to 11:

“Grace”. (1994).
Artist: Jeff Buckley.

Jeff Buckley’s voice is working it’s magic on me all over again these days. “Grace” still sounds as fresh as it did when it came out and as you’re about to see, Jeff Buckley could sing like a fucking ANGEL…

“As Time Goes By …The Complete Schmilsson In The Night”. (1973).
Artist: Harry Nilsson.

…Speaking of angels, I bought some Harry Nilsson on vinyl a couple of weeks ago.
This is probably THEE Harry Nilsson record to get if you’re gonna get one.

It’s a lovely, lazy, live recording of Harry effortlessly singing his way through a few 20th Century classic standards such as “Lazy Moon”, “Over The Rainbow” and of course, “As Time Goes By” backed by an orchestra and it’s perfect midnight listening.

The original vinyl recording was titled “A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night” and was later expanded and cleaned up for a finally complete 1996 CD release.

You can watch the entire recording on Youtube starting right here:

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* The Soundtrack To My Life. 07/06/2012
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The Soundtrack To My Life. 15/04/2012.

“A Night To Remember” (Audio Book). (2010).
Artist: Written by Walter Lord. Read by Martin Jarvis.
Why You Should Get It: This is a complete and compelling moment by moment account of The RMS Titanic disaster as told by the survivors themselves.

I bust my audio book cherry with “A Night To Remember” last week and it has left me completely stunned.
Highly recommended!

“Cape Fear” (Original Score). (1991).
Artist: Bernard Herrmann & Elmer Bernstein.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

Ah, Bernard Herrmann. I’ve listened to his work every week ever since I got the “Taxi Driver” soundtrack last year! Did Herrmann ever write something that wasn’t completely brilliant? I can’t find any evidence if he did.

This is of course the soundtrack to the 1991 Martin Scorsese film “Cape Fear” and not the original 1961 film of the same name and so, what we have here is Bernard Herrmann’s original score adapted and arranged by Elmer Bernstein.

And it works!
It’s gloriously ominous.

“Left My Blues In San Francisco”. (1967).
Artist: Buddy Guy.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

“A Wasteland Companion”. (2012).
Artist: M. Ward.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I had to get M. Ward’s “A Wasteland Companion” because last month he supported the brilliant Leslie Feist in Glasgow all by himself and I thought he carried it all off well. When he opened for Feist, Ward only used an acoustic guitar and (I think) a loop pedal and it was really great y’know? He’s a magical guitar player with really interesting and unusual chord patterns.

“A Wasteland Companion” is a very nice album but it’s mostly full-on band material instead of the stripped down bare bones I saw at the Feist gig. It’s probably one of those albums which I’ll listen to a few times before forgetting BUT!
- As I was typing this, I asked my pal Sean if he’d ever heard M. Ward’s material and he said that he has his first two albums which are bare and stripped down so maybe I should go and dig those up before I go any further with M. Ward.

“Grinderman”. (2007).
Artist: “Grinderman”.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I like Grinderman much more than I like Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and despite what everybody I know told me, I thought that “Murder Ballads” was a fucking terrible album.
SO THERE YOU GO!

“Romeo And Juliet”. (2001).
Artist: Sergei Prokofiev.
Why You Should Get It: Just click HERE.

“Deja Vu”. (1970).
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

“Deja Vu” (or as I’ve come to call it, “Davie Who?”) is a complete classic of an album and I guess now is as good a time as any to explain how I have an almost mint condition vinyl copy in my house.
Basically, I stole it.

Way back in the mid 1990′s my girlfriend’s Dad had “Deja Vu”  on vinyl and he never played it. It was such a hard to find album back then and I could not wait to hear it. I couldn’t even believe that he had a copy nevermind a mint conditioned vinyl copy.

I constantly asked him for a loan of the album or if he could even see his way to playing the album for me. Just once. It wasn’t a lot to ask but he wouldn’t do it so one day I just removed it from his house and moved it into mine. I still have it and I play it all the time but I am sorry that I stole it.
No really, I am!

“The SInking Of The Titanic / Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”. (1975).
Artist: Gavin Bryars.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I don’t really have any words to describe how great and profound this music is. If I think of any, I’ll come back and write them down.

“The Godfather PART II” (Original Score & Soundtrack). (1974).
Artist: Nino Rota.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

“L.A. Woman” (40th Anniversary Edition). (2012).
Artist: The Doors.
Why You Should Get It: Click HERE.

I’ve always loved the “L.A. Woman” album and I’ve always loved The Doors. I think every single song on the album is a belter and the remastered 40th Anniversary version sounds AMAZINGLY clear.

Jim Morrison recorded his vocals for this album in a bathroom and you can really hear it in this version. Matter of fact, unless you have “L.A. Woman” on vinyl, you should pick up a copy of the 40th Anniversary Edition.

- But make sure you get the correct edition because strangely, this is the second 40th Anniversary Mix of this album. It was first remixed, remastered and released in 2007. Weird eh? I really don’t know why that was.

The version I’m recommending to you contains 2 discs and was released in 2012.

You May Also Be Interested In:

The Soundtrack To My Life. 13/03/2012.
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Balls & Noise.

The Soundtrack To My Life. 13/03/2012.

“Bone Machine”. (1992).
Artist: Tom Waits.
Why You Should Get It: Track 3: ‘Such A Scream’.

I’m a bit of a newcomer to the work of Tom Waits (Thanks Sean!) but so far, I have four albums and…
(a) I already know that he’s a genius.
(b) I already know that I HAVE to investigate his entire discography.
With some people, you just have to don’t you?
So that’s-a-what-I’m-a-gonna-do.

Trivia: “Bone Machine” was recorded in an old cement celler and the album cover photograph was taken by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan’s son.

“Orange” (Single). (2006).
Artist: Fireband Boy.
Why You Should Get It:  8-Bit Nintendo Gameboy Chiptunes that will make you so deliriously happy that you’ll want to dance yourself silly all night and then jump all the way home whilst making Super Mario Bros. coin noises to yourself! …Also, you can get it for FREE right HERE!

I once caught a Firebrand Boy gig by sheer chance at the 13th Note in Glasgow because I was already at the bar when he started playing and I had a BALL!

This isn’t the gig but it’s pretty much what went down at the one I was at:

“Electric Mud”. (1968).
Artist: Muddy Waters.
Why You Should Get It: A concept album by Muddy Waters? – You betcha!

…And it’s a strange and funky beautiful thing!
Muddy gets a psychedelic makeover! Classics like ‘Mannish Boy’ and ‘I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man’ are here but they’re wildly different to the original versions. Expect backwards vocals and upside down guitars etc…and a whole lotta FONK!
Not funk.
- FONK!

“Electric Mud” was an experimental album in sound (Old meets New) and it’s cool y’know! It works! I dunno why but it really works. ‘Mannish Boy’ sounds like it could’ve been produced by a Sgt. Pepper suited Lennon & McCartney and Muddy’s take on The Stones’  ”Let’s Spend The Night Together” made me walk down the street with a 1970′s Harlem swagger that could get me a severe doing around these parts.

“Wrecking Ball”. (2012).
Artist: Bruce Springsteen.
Why You Should Get It: Well. I loved Springsteen’s “Working On A Dream” album and if you did too, you should take a listen to “Wrecking Ball”.

Just like with Tom Waits, I’m a bit of a Springsteen newcomer.
I didn’t get “Born To Run” until I was 27 but I started collecting his records straight away from there on.

I like his newer stuff better than his older records and like I say, I really loved “Working On A Dream”. It was so…American? Is that the right thing to say? Almost all of the tracks on that album had me punching the air and what the hell, I even liked “Queen Of The Supermarket”. I appreciate the odd bit of corn.

Most of my pals love Springsteen and so far they all seem to agree with each other that “Wrecking Ball” is a better album but I dunno about that. It’s definitely as good as “Working On A Dream” but I never measure albums against one another.
I just like them if they sound good and this does.

To me, this record kind of feels like “Working On A Dream: Part II” meets “The Departed” Soundtrack. Turn it up and let me know what you think of it.

“LIE: The Love And Terror Cult”. (1970).
Artist:  Charles Manson.
Why You Should Get It: You probably don’t need this. I’ve been reading a book about Charlie and I just got it out of curiosity.

It is a curious album right enough.
Neil Young briefly knew Manson and he’s said that Manson had a nice voice and some decent songs. He even tried (With no luck) to land Charlie a recording contract and I get what he means. Charlie’s songs are all delivered with passion but…well, y’know, it’s hard not to think of his insane plot to wipe out everyone on the planet when you listen to the songs these days.

Guns ‘N’ Roses once covered Manson’s “Look At Your Game Girl” and that really is a pretty song  A few of the other songs on this album are repetitive twangy out of tune hippie busker rants and well, I’m alright with that. Interestingly enough, ‘Cease To Exist’ was renamed ‘Never Learn Not To Love’, altered and covered by The Beach Boys. You can find it on their album “20/20″.

Ol’ Charlie should’ve really stuck with songwriting.

“Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings”. (1990).
Artist: Robert Johnson.
Why You Should Get It: Even if your entire record collection only consisted of the small amount of music Robert Johnson recorded in his short and mysterious life, you’d have one amazing record collection!

“Blue Monday” (12″ Single). (1983).
Artist: New Order.
Why You Should Get It: Because it sounds like THIS.