I was shuffling through my CD collection looking for ones to rip into my Macbook so I could then copy a selection to my iPhone and I came across Suzanne Vega and realized that the last of her albums that I had was 99.9F. So I went to Amazon.com and found that that... WTF? Even her more recent ones are out of print except for her very latest? And her latest record label dropped her after one album?
This one is from her first, self-titled, album, which of course is out of print (of course!) but well worth listening to. She reminds me a bit of Leonard Cohen, in that the emphasis is upon the poetry of her words, not upon verbal gymnastics (like Cohen she doesn't vary much from a fairly narrow vocal range) or outrageous musicianship. She just hasn't been forgotten long enough to be rediscovered like Leonard was, I guess.
Why iTunes will rule the world: iTunes has no such out-of-print problem. All of her albums are still in print on iTunes. So I will get Beauty & Crime (her latest) on CDROM from Amazon.com, and get the other two albums that I don't have via iTunes. I guess the record companies are happy about that, since they get to collect revenue yet don't have to pay for printing and distributing media. Sigh. What a bunch of evil motherf**kers...
-- Badtux the Music Penguin
Ride that motorcycle up the road to Amoeba, you lazy penguin. They have EVERYTHING! Amoeba, and the North Beach Pizza hole-in-the-wall just around the corner from it, are what I miss most about S.F.
ReplyDeleteOh -- sorry -- I forgot you're gimping it at the moment. Never mind.
Yeah, the gimping thing pisses me off because it means I miss all the Chinese New Year festivities up in the City. Sigh!
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Gimpy Penguin