(Untitled)

[dreamlifeof]

I have a deeply-held belief that almost everything, culturally speaking, in the past was better than it is now. Music, vinyl records, musical instruments, movies, clothes, furniture, cars, industrial design, you name it. (Industrial designer was such a cool job in the 1950's that Eve Marie Saint was one in NORTH BY NORTHWEST.) Everything had more

Comments

[tugena13]

i tend to agree on some level, but not entirely. instruments, for example... my drums were made in 1963 and the shells are single ply maple. that's pretty much unheard of anymore, single ply. everyone who hears my snare wants to buy it from me. on the other hand, drum hardware is much better... better mechanics, better reaction, etc. and i think the manufacturing of drum heads and cymbals and sticks is more mechanized now, meaning these things are more evenly balanced.

i also think for the most part clothing and books were manufactured to last longer.

but here's one thing that wasn't better back then: recording technology.

[dreamlifeof]

There's this quote from Buddy Rich which I come back to again and again.

"I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way. There were so many individual styles thirty or forty years ago. Every drummer that had a name, had a name because of his individual playing. He didn't sound like anybody else, So everybody that I ever listened to, in some form, influenced my taste."

Can you imagine a young drummer today being capable of such a statement? Until drummers, and musicians in general, can again see and respect that kind of lineage we're in the hands of the motherfuckers.

[leeree]

i guess we have the ebnifit of hindsight. we can filter out all the rubbish and strife form the past and condense the goodness. at least we still have the good older things, and the fab new stuff, and quality caffine.

[dreamlifeof]

Nowadays we have to seek out the good stuff. In the old days it flowed abundantly.

Quality coffee is not to be sneezed at. Or into, for that matter.

[leeree]

did it though?mybe we just filtred out the bad stuff, and been left with quality. i think in years to come people willlook back at this era and only see whats good. not the pop idols or rubbishy new metal, but the things tahta re good,that do inspirean do matter.
and how great the coffee was. i'm aggreived as we only have decaf. my mother is a reformed caffine adict(damn you dr atkins!)

[dreamlifeof]

It flowed abundantly. Just thinking back to 1985, which was a golden year for music in my book. I avidly listened to as much music as I could back then, but even so I didn't get to hear half of the really good stuff that was happening at the time. Bands like the Shop Assistants were *on the freaking cover* of the NME or Melody Maker; bands like Jesus and Mary Chain were actual gods. There was an embarrassment of riches truly. REM were doing their best stuff; The Smiths released 'The Queen is Dead'; the British indie scene was in full flower, Creation records leading the vanguard; New Order were happening in a big way; I mean, need I go on? What do we have today which can even pretend to match that?

[dollunderglass]

Oh, come on. Your parents must have been in their 40s or 50s during the 60s.

[dreamlifeof]

haven't you got somewhere to be about now?

[fadedglamour]

I would kill for your wit and eloquence in any era.

xx

[dreamlifeof]

You are much too kind. I'd trade it all for a food stamp dollar and a wisp of creativity.