Time capsules

[altivo]

No, not the kind of time capsules that are buried under the courthouse steps. But the effect is similar, when you come right down to it. When we sold our city house and moved to the farm seven and half years ago, we packed a lot of stuff in a hurry. I mean, a LOT of stuff. Way too much stuff. Boxes full of it have been stored in the barns this whole time, occasionally disturbed by frenzied searches for some remembered book or item that eludes rediscovery more often than not. Gradually most of it has been unpacked, triaged, and sometimes discarded. There are dozens of boxes of books, now mostly labeled so we know more or less what's in each and can find things. There are dozens of boxes of recordings, mostly on vinyl, that are still unlabeled and many have never been unsealed. I was afraid that exposure to extreme heat and cold out there had probably ruined them all, but about a month ago we brought three boxes in that had come from my study. I was looking for one or two specific LPs that I hoped might still be playable, now that we have facilities to convert them to MP3 or CD formats.

It turned out they had been packed really well (not my doing, my mate and the help he got from friends did most of it, as I was working full time through it all) and all survived perfectly. A little musty, but not even dusty. Sorting through those recordings was a really nostalgic experience, and I picked out fully a third of them for possible transfer to more modern formats. That's a big job, though, because you have to clean each one carefully and then play it one or more times in real time in order to capture it, run the captured file through filters to remove clicks and noise, and then encode it as MP3 or DDA or whatever you're going to use. Still, the quality of the results is very good, much better than I ever expected. My records were handled carefully, and most have no scratches or wear to speak of, so they transfer well.

Anyway, Gay Pride having just been upon us, I dug into the gay singer songwriters. Most of you probably haven't heard of these guys. The recordings date to the early 70s and run through about 1980. I was very much interested in that particular musical scene, tiny as it was, and I have a solid collection. Listening to them again, probably for the first time in a decade or more, is both eerie and nostalgic.

For example, Michael Cohen, who recorded two albums on Folkways in 1973 and 1974, did a sort of folk blues style with guitar or piano and occasional other instruments, and though his style is as unpolished as early Bob Dylan, his lyrics are powerful. Here are the words to "Gone". Remember, folks, this was written before 1973. It is not about AIDS. Presumably, it is about a friend who committed suicide, but he doesn't say in the liner notes. Still, it's a hair-prickling prediction of what we were going to see ten years later. And now it has been more than 20 years since even then, 35 years since this was written:

O what a sad woodsmoked morning
to be hanging on to a dream
to a dark and still misty dawning
but something's been torn at the seams
at the seams

'Twas autumn and the leaves were burning
i dreamed i saw a lake and a lawn
i saw some leaves that were turning
the others were raked up and gone
up and gone

Gone like the friend who died
on this grey early morn
gone like the woman's sigh
as her babe was being born
do you think he led a wasted life my love?

Well i know that he longed for the living
and he'd hardly come out from his shed
but who'll be scorned, lord
who'll be forgiven
as a brother lays in his deathbed?
in his deathbed

Don't you go tell his mother
about all the pain that had come
just that the death shroud's descended
on her poor baby son
the chosen one

Gone is the friend who died
on this grey early morn
gone is the woman's sigh
as her babe was being born

O what a sad woodsmoked morning
to be hanging on to this dream
with my lover lying beside me
but something's been torn at the seams
at the seams

'Twas autumn and the leaves were burning
i dreamed i saw a lake and a lawn
i saw the leaves turning
the others were raked up and gone
up and gone

--Michael Cohen, 1974
Album title: What Did You Expect?
Folkways Records FS 8582

Comments

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

My last mate, Ebonlupus, fuddled around alot with ripping his vinyl recordings.

Vinyls sure seem sturdier than 8-tracks, casettes, CDs or flash memory.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

And PS, care to check out Meadows MUCK?

amber.org.uk port 7000

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Probably not. I can't afford to be stretched and rubbed raw the way I was on WS. If it attracts some of the same players, I'm much better off staying away.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

That's odd, I thought you liked the RP as I did.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I enjoy RP, yes. But WildSpirits in particular was more politics and nastiness (even setting aside Puma herself) than I care to deal with again.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

SFAIK, she's not on Meadows.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, I don't imagine Puma is there. But there are others I'd just as soon avoid as well.

[thespazkitty.livejournal.com]

Found this while searching for "Meadows MUCK" on Google, heh. Anyway, I'm the headwizard of Meadows (and a contributor on WikiFur as well; I recognize your name from there), and I'd also like to invite you. So far, I only know of Chibiabos and Calydor as the "main" Wild Spirits players who have found their way over, but I'd love to try and make Meadows as much a home for old WS players as I possibly can (well, the drama-free ones, at least ;D). Our one-year anniversary is coming up May 11th, and I expect a good amount of roleplay about.

Anyway, I'd appreciate even just a trial period from you, to sniff around and see if it's anything you might enjoy. If it's not, for whatever reason, no harm done. But there's a horse herd in the works, so perhaps you might see something you like.

- Mischief / Spaz Kitty
http://meadowsmuck.googlepages.com / amber.org.uk 7000

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The main problem is that these days I don't have time to sit around on a muck and RP. It's a slow process, as you no doubt know. I feel I don't do justice to my friends on FurryMuck any more, so taking on another site would really not be wise.

I'll look at your web page though, because I'm curious. Thanks for the invitation.

[thespazkitty.livejournal.com]

Altivo's been validated! ^^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks. I'm not sure when I can sign on again, but I will do so within a day or two.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Properly stored and handled, vinyls are certainly more durable than magnetic media of any sort. The jury isn't in on CDs, and there are many kinds of CD reproduction, not all of which will have the same shelf life.

Notably, though, every time a vinyl recording is played back, it incurs wear, while the CD or flash memory does not. And more importantly, the equipment to play back vinyl is getting scarce and costly. I'm converting because I want to listen to these things again, more than once. I'll continue to store the vinyl, but I can use a CD or other digital copy for practical listening and sharing.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, while I can't name anything Michael Cohen has made, the name does ring a bell, and I know I've heard several of his songs.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Probably not the same one. It's a fairly common name among Americans of Jewish descent. A quick Google search finds at least three other individuals who are songwriters or composers and one who is a film actor, but none are the same as this one, who recorded two albums for Folkways in the 70s and then dropped out of sight.

Checking on that was interesting. I sorta figured that these recordings had been forgotten, but apparently not. Here's a whole web page talking about them. I also have both of the Chris Robison albums mentioned there.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

That's a cool website. I'll have to look at it in more detail when I get home.

Michael Callen -- That's who I was thinking of when I read the name Michael Cohen (though I then thought "maybe not"). Definitely not the same guy.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You'd like the music I think.

It's very hard tracking down people with common names like that. His is the Jewish equivalent of "John Smith". I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he's dead, though. :(

It appears that he lived in New York City in 1972, because in his liner notes for the first album, he included a photograph of his NYC cab driver's license.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

We did the "way to fast pack" when we moved from the projects to
our nice house too. A month ago we /finally/ spent a week going
through every damn thing we own. So NOW WE KNOW! XD

Good for mate to pack things nice. I tend to agree with that
procedure in a "you may never pass this way again, do it
right the first time" way.

For ripping cassettes and vinyl I'd reccomend Total Recorder, its worked
well for me doing both jobs to get the goods on the 'puter;

http://www.highcriteria.com/

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I've been using Audacity and it works well. It looks exactly the same on both Linux and Windows, which is a nice plus from my point of view. It's a shame more software authors don't realize how easy it is to do that and support two operating systems if you plan for it from the start.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Audacity gets five stars too. Good work.

*gives you a cigar*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*tries to eat the cigar, gets dizzy and spits it out*

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

You'll be tasting that for weeks O.O

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right. Ick.

[kamodragon.livejournal.com]

My father has 38,ooo records in his collection. About 15K of them are LP 78's but he has some really neat oldser stuff and some one-off's from military speach recordings and some other rare things too. Personally? They should be put to use.