It’s hard to watch the “Glory Days” of the music I grew up with die. It’s not just the recent passing of such musical marvels as Natalie Cole, Glenn Frey, Maurice White, and David Bowie. It goes much deeper than that.
Casualties of The Digital Revolution
Like the industrial revolution of the Twentieth Century, the digital revolution of the new millennium has wiped out the entire music industry infrastructure of the past. As free downloads and music streaming services sent the CD the way of the buggy whip, in 2011 I had to close my three decade old music business information service “New On The Charts” (www.notc.com) as the record companies, music publishers, managers and producers I once serviced all went out of business. Meanwhile, digital home recording and major city gentrification, by the one percent Bernie Sanders rails against, has demolished such legendary recording facilities as The Record Plant, The Hit Factory, Media Sound and Sony Music Studios, to name only a few.
Recession-Proof Music Business
It was especially hard to watch the 2004 closing of New York’s Bottom Line Cabaret, reminiscing in my book “Sex, No Drugs & Rock’N’Roll: Memoirs Of A Music Junkie.” “On opening night Dr. John jammed with Johnny Winter and Stevie Wonder to an audience that included Mick Jagger, Bette Midler, Carly Simon, Rip Torn, Janis Ian, and Charles Mingus, to name only a few.” Or remembering the 1977 New York blackout when, “I sat in the dark at The Bottom Line. With flashlights taped to their mic stands, NRBQ played on unplugged, an allegory for the recession proof music business in the midst of the country’s financial depression.”
Who could ever have imagined then, that the ‘recession proof’ music business would actually collapse. (If interested see part of an interview I did with Bottom Line co-founder Allan Pepper.)
Another Casualty: The Magic Shop Closes
And now skyrocketing Manhattan real estate prices have forced old friend Steve Rosenthal to close The Magic Shop. Here’s an ad he ran in my publication back in 2000:
More than just another studio, Steve established a reputation in restoring old master tape recordings by the likes of Woodie Guthrie, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and the list goes on…and now Rosenthal can’t. Listen to his recent BBC interview, including mention of the secret David Bowie sessions: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03knxxy
The Price of Progress?
At the close of my book (and companion album) the final song called “Progress,” asks:
So this is the price of progress
Have we come so very far
From the days of horse and buggy
To the days of jets and cars?
And though everything of value
Must then surely have a cost
I cannot help but wonder
Have we won
More than we’ve lost?
