Just One More Reason To Hate Steve Jobs

Leave aside the teacher bashing and his insistence on employing slave labor in China for a few dollars a day to make his ipads - he killed the radio star:

Jon Bon Jovi has blamed Steve Jobs for shooting the music business through the heart.

In an interview with London's Sunday Times magazine, the 49-year-old rocker lamented the fact that young listeners no longer can buy an album "based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like," because iTunes has supplanted the traditional record store.

"Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business," Bon Jovi said.

The "Shot Through the Heart" singer called the days of records a "magical, magical time."

"Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album," he said.

Apple declined to comment.

I'm showing my age, but the loss of records and record stoes around the city has hit me hard.

Remember when Bleeker Street was full of record stores?

Remember when you could go look for imports at the small record shops and snag that import only Siouxsie and the Banshees 12 inch?

Remember when you actually had to pay for music but you got an album with it and it had art and liner notes and sounded really, really good?

I remember those days.

Now we have ipods, which sound like shit, and bit torrent, where you can steal your music for free, and fewer and fewer music stores by the year so that as far as I can tell, J&R and a couple of stores in the Village are the only ones left.

Yes, Amazon is too blame too, and so am I for buying from Amazon.

But the biggest reason the record store has died is digital media.

Not completely the fault of Jobs, but he certainly shares some blame.

Ironic thing is, I can think of few things that make music sound shittier than an ipod.

Nothing like lossy music files of records that used to be 2 GBs but have now been compressed down to 125 mbs.

As for the rest of the evil Mr. Jobs does, I can only hope that when he finally leaves this mortal coil (and I hope that is a long time from now), he comes back in the next life as an Apple factory worker in China working 18 hours a day to make Apple ipads.

That would be universal justice.

POSTSCRIPT: Regarding Bon Jovi, I would prefer to NEVER hear anything by this particular artist, but if I HAVE to listen to a Bon Jovi song, I prefer it to be lossy.

That's one set of songs I would rather not hear crystal clear.

SMILE: Al Jardine Says Capitol Will Release "Smile" Material This Year

Taking a break from the horror that is the news these days (Libya, New Zealand, PCB's in NYCDOE Schools, etc.), here is SOMETHING that does put a smile on my face:

The musical treats for pop fans continue to roll out in conjunction with national Record Store Day on April 16, the annual event hosted by a consortium of independent record retailers to recognize merchants who still sell music from brick-and-mortar stores.

Capitol/EMI will put out a 78 rpm vinyl double disc set pairing two Beach Boys’ high watermark recordings, “Good Vibrations” and “Heroes and Villains,” both recorded after the “Pet Sounds” album during sessions for the highly anticipated “SMiLe” album that was eventually shelved. The Record Store Day set will include commercially released versions of both songs on the first disc, and early alternate takes of both on the second.

...

In addition to the “Good Vibrations/Heroes and Villains” vinyl news, Beach Boys founding member Al Jardine recently told an interviewer that the band’s longtime label would release some version of the “SMiLe” album this year in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the group’s formation.

Others close to the group have confirmed that there have been discussions with label officials about releasing more of the “SMiLe” material than has been previously available. Many of the songs recorded for the album were subsequently released on other Beach Boys collections, but out of whatever context “SMiLe” mastermind Brian Wilson had intended. A sequence of about 30 minutes' worth of the "SMiLe" sessions was included on the 1993 "Good Vibrations" box set.

Wilson put out his own latter-day version of “SMiLe” in 2004, which he completed, recorded and released, to considerable critical acclaim, 37 years after it was to have come out originally. He walked away from the project in 1967 after suffering a nervous breakdown amid heavy resistance from record company executives and other members of the group to the adventurous direction he was taking.

Now this is probably asking too much, but boy would it be nice to see some version of Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston tour in conjunction with the SMiLe release.

I saw Brian and Al play at the Beacon a few years ago with Brian's band and I can honestly say it was one of the more religious experiences I have had in my life.

But Brian always did say the music was meant to connect us with the spirit: