It Was 35 Years Ago Today...

February 1971
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…doesn’t have the same ring to it as the Beatles lyric from “Sgt. Pepper,” does it? Regardless, it really was 35 years ago this very month when these songs made their debut appearance on the music charts. In retrospect, it is fairly easy to discern how rock and roll had fragmented itself and started to polarize, but at the time, it all just sounded like a very diverse group of songs. Another factor that is obvious from a contemporary standpoint is how popular music had shifted from the optimism and brotherhood of sixties themes and toward ambiguity and confusion. The turmoil of the sixties kicked off one massive, national identity crisis, and these pop songs somehow convey that, if only indirectly.
Here are the songs that we feature in this week’s program;

1) Just My Imagination – The Temptations
2) Proud Mary – Ike and Tina Turner
3) Have You Ever Seen the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
4) Temptation Eyes – The Grass Roots
5) Father and Son – Cat Stevens (as an album track)
6) Paranoid – Black Sabbath (as an album track)
7) D.O.A. – Bloodrock (as a ‘Great Miss’)
8) What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye

Content/Copy Protection

I really wanted to pick up the Foo Fighters latest album, but decided not to because it has what RCA Records is calling Content/Copy Protection. Then I wanted to buy the Kings of Leon's latest album... same thing.

If you are unfamiliar, the Content/Copy Protection is designed to prevent you from making copies of the CDs you buy. That sounds like a reasonable thing to do, right? But if you dig a little deeper, it is a horribly bad idea. Record company executives have been turning to Content/Copy Protection schemes, otherwise called DRM (for digital rights management), because they are trying to fight off the freeloaders that use the file sharing systems. The executives have essentially been sold a bill of goods and they are too stupid to figure it out.

DRM will do nothing to stop file sharing. Nothing. The CDs will all be turned into MP3s and make it onto the file sharing networks. Here's why: all CDs are transformed from digital information into analog music at some point between the CD and your ear. You can't stop analog data from being copied and turned into MP3s.

So, why do the executives do it? Because they were told it would work. And, as I said before, they are stupid.

But, what does DRM mean for you as a consumer? What would happen if you bought the latest Foo Fighters CD? Well, think for a moment about how you listen to music. Do you have an MP3 player? Do you make mix CDs? Do you listen to music on your computer? Do you have an MP3 server connected to your stereo? Do you want to have a copy of your CD at work and home?

All of the above uses require you to make digital copies of the CD. You put the CD into your computer, rip it onto your drive, copy it to your iPod, etc. It works fine for a normal CD. But just try to do it on a DRM CD. It won't work. You will be in for a world of misery. The DRM will try to prevent you from making any copies.

My suggestion?

1. Don't buy the CDs. They are practically worthless anyway because you can't listen to them when you want on the music devices you want to use.
2. Send letters to the Artist. They want you to have their CD. They are smarter than the record executives and they can see that this hurts their business.
3. Send letters to the Record Company. Tell them how stupid their idea is, how it hurts record sales and ask them to justify it.

Today I sent a letter to Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon and RCA Records. The letter is below. Copy it and save it for your own use. Next time you see a CD you want to buy, but are foiled by DRM, send them the letter. Record executives are not the smartest bunch, but eventually they might be able to draw a correlation between declining sales and all those letters from people saying why they aren't buying CDs anymore.

The letter:

Hello.

I really want to buy the Kings of Leon's latest CD. I have enjoyed their previous albums and listen to them constantly. The latest CD has gotten some great reviews and I'm sure I will love it.

But I refuse to buy CDs that employ content/copy protection. So I won't be buying it.

Why must record companies make it so difficult? Why do you do it? I want this album. I am willing to pay for it. But not if I am going to be ripped off, denied the ability to use it how I choose, and treated as a suspected criminal. It isn't worth it.

I don't use file sharing programs. I don't want a free copy. I want to buy it. Maybe I'll burn it onto my own mix CDs, put it on my iPod, or, if I sell my iPod I might want to put it on another MP3 player. I'd like to rip it to my computer, keep it if I change computers, put it on a media player in my living room. But I know the content/copy protection will make all of that difficult or impossible.

Am I wrong? Shouldn't I be allowed to do those things? If I can't, the CD is worth a LOT less to me and I will never listen to it because I can't hear it when I want to on the devices I choose to use. With content protection, you have made the CD worthless to me.

Any thoughts?

[Insert Your Name Here]

We're Back to Our Usual Format!

October – November 1968
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What with the holidays and year-end specials, not to mention special guests, it’s been a while since we’ve been on format with ‘American Hit Radio.’ Well, today, we can put all of that behind us, and get back on track. Normally, this show covers songs from a specific time period, focusing on the best (and occasionally, the worst) that the time period had to offer, and today, that is exactly what we are going to do. Today’s show lands us smack dab in the middle of one of pop music’s most creative eras. 1968 was a banner year for music fans, because the ‘pop’ charts were bursting with creativity, while ‘Album Rock’ was taking on a life of its own. A few years on, there would be virtually no relation between ‘album rock’ and the pop charts, but in 1968, they were strange bedfellows, with each genre complimenting the other. How else could we explain a time period that welcomed Steppenwolf and Glen Campbell, or a Beatles album (a double album, no less) that contained absolutely no hit singles?
To paraphrase a much better writer than myself, late 1968 was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. An unpopular war caused social unrest and created a generational chasm, but music provided the younger generation with its best and most independent means for expression. Today’s show hopes to convey that mood as we feature songs from October and November 1968.

Songs featured in today’s show;

1) Love Child – Diana Ross & the Supremes
2) Magic Carpet Ride – Steppenwolf
3) Elenore – The Turtles
4) Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run) – The Kasenetz/Katz Singing Orchestra
(as a ‘Great Miss’)
5) Naturally Stoned – The Avant-Garde (as a ‘Great Miss’)
6) I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
7) Wichita Lineman – Glen Campbell
8) Burning of the Midnight Lamp – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (an album track)
9) Happiness Is a Warm Gun – The Beatles (as an album track)
10) Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey – The Beatles (as an album track)

Bob Ezrin, from 'A' to 'P'...

Bob Ezrin from 'A' to 'P'
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...Alice Cooper to Pink Floyd, that is. For today’s show, we figured we’d take a walk through the ‘70s, while focusing on the work of one specific record producer. Bob Ezrin rose to national prominence through his groundbreaking work with Alice Cooper. By the end of the decade, he was rock’s most in-demand record maker, supplying input (and his trademark orchestration) for Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” This show traces that path, while providing some insight to his methodology. You might be surprised by what you hear, so ‘shaddup and listen’, and we hope you have some fun!

Here’s a list of the songs covered in this week’s program;

1) 10 Minutes Before the Worm – Alice Cooper (w/o Bob Ezrin)
2) Under My Wheels – Alice Cooper
3) My Stars – Alice Cooper
4) Beth – Kiss
5) Pickin’ Up the Pieces – Poco (w/o Bob Ezrin)
6) Crazy Eyes – Poco
7) Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel
8) Sad Song – Lou Reed
9) Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
10) I’m Gonna Make You Love Me – The Jayhawks

A Few of Our Favorite Things - 2005 Version

…a Few of Our Favorite Things, Part 1

…a Few of Our Favorite Things, Part 2
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Everybody’s got to have their own year-end “Best Of” list, right? Music critics in particular must partake in this annual assemblage of personal opinions as a continuous rite of passage. I suppose we see it as a means of proving that we’re paying attention, and that we haven’t grown obsolete, but let’s be truthful here. I’ve been perusing a few of my own lists from previous years, and – a few years removed from the actual year when they were made – they just don’t seem to be adequate anymore. The reasons for this are numerous. First, it’s simply impossible to familiarize ourselves with everything that we hear. My own purchases for 2005 amount to a bit more than one CD per day, so it’s only logical that some releases that will get short shrift. Either they required more attention than I gave them, or I listened while in the wrong mood… or I simply missed some of it. Who can honestly claim that their ‘best of’ list is even remotely definitive? To complicate matters even further, 2005 happens to have been an incredibly active year for popular music. It seemed that wherever I turned, some good music came poking out of the corners.
For all of these reasons, we have abandoned the ‘best of’ list this year altogether. Instead, we are simply presenting ‘a few of our favorite things’ that were released in 2005. With such a big subject, and so much deserving material, this week’s entry exists in two parts, as follows;

A Few of Our Favorite Things, 2005 (Part 1)

1) Get the Mop – Henry ‘Red’ Allen – Oxford American Sampler 2005
2) Box Full of Git – Jimmy Lee Fautheree
3) Only a Dream – Neil Young
4) Woman King – Iron and Wine
5) Freedom Fries – Robert Plant
6) Mannequin’s Complaint – Guided By Voices
7) Your Heart Is an Empty Room – Death Cab for Cutie
8) I Lay Down – Zucchero & Co. (with John Lee Hooker)
9) Celtic New Year – Van Morrison

A Few of Our Favorite Things, 2005 (Part 2)

1) John Wayne Gacy Jr. – Sufjan Stevens
2) Que Onda Guero – Beck
3) Twin Cinema – The New Pornographers
4) Product of DK – The Blue Van
5) Wordless Chorus – My Morning Jacket
6) Take Take Take – White Stripes
7) Lyla – Oasis
8) Oh No, Not You Again – The Rolling Stones
9) It’s the Nighttime – Josh Rouse
10) Pencil Rot – Stephen Malkmus
11) Down to Zero – Bettye Lavette


Now, go out, pick up these CD’s and make your own list for 2005!!
Happy New Year, everyone.