Bob Dylan says the quality of modern recordings is "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc.

"I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really," the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Dylan, who released eight studio albums in the past two decades, returns with his first recording in five years, "Modern Times," next Tuesday.

Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway."

"You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

Dylan said he does his best to fight technology, but it's a losing battle.

"Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it."

What a strange collection of statements. After reading them I'm not even really sure what he is actually saying. I could pick apart each statement he makes ..... but I don't think I could really be bothered.

What a strange old man Bob is.

Bob !!!!!! The times they are a changing ....

Sounds like an old fart rambling on. Sorry, but I never did get the 'appeal' of Bob Dylan. Six chords, max., atrocious vocals, that about sums him up for me.

"the answer my friends, is blowing in the wind! the answer is blowing in the wind"

Hi

BD = Grumpy Old Man.
Just ignore GOM's.

J�rgen

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The Unofficial YAMAHA Keyboard Resource Site

What I think he's saying is that newer recordings are "over processed" and certainly mastered too loud.

With the race to see who can be the loudest in most modern commercial releases, that leaves very little room for dynamics (amongst other things) and I think Bob is remembering a "gentler" time when music recordings were allowed to "breathe".

I actually have this Album (Modern Times) and it has only recently left our In-car CD player - it's a superb Album, which I'm tempted to give 5 stars....


(Oh and why is this quote only being posted now??? - this is from Last year!!!!!!!!!!!!)

No unkind words here �What Bob Dylan is saying is very clear � I hate the fact that you are taking the music I love, away. You are replacing something I love so dearly -- I�ve given my life to music.

If you can not understand his statement wait a while, if you truly love your music it will happen to you, the wheel must turn. My Sinatra is dead and so is my John Wayne, the guys replacing them are not the same.

Sorry I�m preaching here but it�s a subject I feel and understand, and many times saddens me � you see most of the music I love is now being played in elevators and even that�s changing.
Oh well, I guess I�m just venting.

IMHO, John C.

Although I was never a Bob Dylan fan and still aren't I share your opinion that more and more of the music I enjoy most is being played in elevators.


[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 05-16-2007).]

If your music is played in elevators it means that you've made it. Muzak is a multi-billion dollar business.

I find the following reply rather interesting especially since to me a record has that "something"special a digital recording doesn't have. Perhaps it's just nostalgia but, and I think I speak for others, just buying a record was an event.

""You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

Maybe Dylan is over-stating his point, but there is some truth to what he says in my opinion.

I find with modern recordings, that the soundstage is so locked into a central window that you don't get the raw feel that used to come when stereo was in its infancy. Maybe a lot of members here don't recall that far back, but I sure do. Perhaps stereo recording was a novelty that the recording engineers were experimenting with, but it just sounded more real 'back in the day'. Offtimes they use to direct specific instruments to a left speaker and another to the right and leave it locked there for the whole song. Yeah, you could localize the speaker, but it just seemed more real than this "definition of nothing" that Dylan speaks of......

Any thoughts?

brucek"

In the case of John "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" Wayne, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Whatever his screen accomplishments, I can't admire a self-admitted, first rate bigot. Remember, this guy was NOT a hero, he just played one on the screen.

chas

Surely this is one of the dumbest statements uttered since the dawn of mankind.

Clearly the man is in the dark with regard to digital technology.

Maybe Bob should smoke another Joint!

Posted by Cgiles:
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In the case of John "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" Wayne, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Whatever his screen accomplishments, I can't admire a self-admitted, first rate bigot. Remember, this guy was NOT a hero, he just played one on the screen.

chas
--------------------------------------------

I'll drink to that! I completely understand your position on this one man. That's why I also don't support some of the other well known musicians on this forum..., because they too were bigots. Elvis is an excellent example... He's loved on this forum, but Elvis over the years has said a lot of negative and racist things towards African Americans. I remember when I was younger I watched my mother throw an Elvis album in the trash. She didn't call it the devil's music, she said Elvis was a racist bastard and his music had no place in our home. Actually I wonder what year that album was now... Probably would have been worth something

I do however understand Bob's remarks. Music has really gone down the crapper lately. Who's really singing today without the aid of "pitch correction", and other vocal effects. There's a few good singers out there, but many voices are carried by effects, which often kills the vocals in the end.

Today they just want to market the look and sex appeal, and worry about the singing in the end. When they do this we end up with people like Britney Spears... Then you got the ones who have a set of pipes that will blow the windows out of a house who don't even get noticed and have to resort to showing their ass more on stage just to get noticed. Very sad indeed.


[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 05-16-2007).]

I know, off-topic, but I agree with Chas and Squeak. I have a problem with his movies since they glorify the genocide of the Native Americans. This is then called "entertainment" while "Holocaust" was meant to be "educational".

Sample John Wayne quotes....

"I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to the point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people."

"This may come as a surprise to you, but I wasn't alive when reservations were created - even if I do look that old. I have no idea what the best method of dealing with the Indians in the 1800's would have been. Our forefathers evidently thought they were doing the right thing."

"I'm not going to give you those I-was-a-poor-boy-and-I-pulled-myself-up-by-my- bootstraps-stories, but I've gone without a meal or two in my lifetime, and I still don't expect the Government to turn over any of it's territory to me. Hard times aren't something I can blame my fellow citizens for. Years ago, I didn't have all the opportunities, either. But you can't whine and bellyache 'cause somebody else got a good break and you didn't, like these Indians are. We'll all be on a reservation soon if the socialists keep subsidizing groups like them with our tax money."

"Look, I'm sure there have been inequalities. If those inequalities are presently affecting any of the Indians now alive, they have a right to a court hearing. But what happened one hundred years ago in out country can't be blamed on us today."

[Asked whether the Native American Indians should be allowed to camp on their land at Alcatraz] "Well, I don't know of anybody else who wants it. The fellas who were taken off it sure don't want to go back there, including the guards. So as far as I am concerned, I think we ought to make a deal with the Indians. They should pay as much for Alcatraz as we paid them for Manhattan. I hope they haven't been careless with their wampum."


"Have you ever heard of some fellows who first came over to this country? You know what they found? They found a howling wilderness, with summers too hot and winters freezing, and they also found some unpleasant little characters who painted their faces. Do you think these pioneers filled out form number X6277 and sent in a report saying the Indians were a little unreasonable? Did they have insurance for their old age, for their crops, for their homes? They did not! They looked at the land, and the forest, and the rivers. They looked at their wives, their kids and their houses, and then they looked up at the sky and they said, 'Thanks God, we'll take it from here.'"

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Sure, a lot of us "seniors" yearn for the 'good ol' days', but we have to remember that those times weren't all that great for a sizable number of our fellow citizens. Just keepin' it real.

chas

Sorry -- double post, I forgot to enter my reply.

I pulled the names Sinatra and Wayne off the top of my head � if you are into the people I mentioned and not what I was trying to say then you have lost the meaning of my post.

I know none of these people, but I can say that I enjoyed some of the movies that were made and I like the way song some of the songs were handled.

I so enjoyed singing and playing my guitar, songs like �Mist� and �How do you keep the music playing� � they were touching something inside of me.

John C.

Sorry John C, this was not an attack on you or your sentiments (in fact, I mostly agree with them), just your references. I guess I'm a little sensitive about who we tend to hold up as heroes.

chas

Chas, All is fine, when you get my age you not only get more sensitive you also get grumpy. Ha ha ha

John C.

Poor old Bob...I never got him.

The "good old days"(the 60's) were something...6 channel mono Shure Vocalmasters...no monitors...no compression...a reverb and maby an Echoplex...high impedance 585's were the standard. 2" tape and a 4 track board.

It was a step in the progression of an art form. To say that music went down the tubes is evidence of senility on old Bob's part. But, he's probably too rich to really give a damn. To discount the significance and talent of Foreplay, John Mayer, Corine Baliey Ray and a host of others is just stupid.

As far as recording technique and equipment goes, that's the state of the art today. It will be different next year. The thing is, music is changing and there's a new batch of real talent each year. At least that's the way I see it.

As far as biggotry...it's still there, but in
a less obvious form, sometimes. And that may be more dangerous and damaging.

Old Bob should be glad he was a product of the 60's folk era. He wouldn't have a shot today.

He has a bad case of "sour grapes".


Russ



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 05-16-2007).]

Even though Bob would like you to think things have changed radically since the 60s that is not the case at all. Mastering back then maximized the resulting recording in the analog world as it does now in the digital world. Effects and editing also prevailed in analog recording .... it is simply easier to do in the digital domain but the the result is the same.

Sure using pitch correction software is convenient but the result is no different from dropping in the vocal phrase 50+ times until the singer gets it right. The recording process in essence hasn't changed at all it's just got easier that's all.

I hear ya Nigel, but there's no denying that records are being mastered almost to the point of no return (loudness-wise) these days.

That's what he's talking about it seems to me - production, not somebody's Talent (Corinne Bailey Rae's or otherwise).

I really think that's the point he's trying to make.

Also, I for one (as a would-be songwriter - VERY would-be) wish I'd written half of what Dylan's written.

Btw, what did Elvis say racist wise??? (serious question!!!)

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis_not_racist.shtml

Urban myth???

hellboy44,

One comment Elvis made years ago about African Americans was that he said (in so many words) was basically "The only good a black man was to him was to shine his shoes". I remember hearing things from my parents, and other family over the years about Elvis's negative remarks towards blacks.

Actually how's this for irony.., I lived next door to Graceland as a child... I'm from Memphis myself. Used to get in trouble for playing on the the large stone wall that surrounded his property

I'd never heard about this side of Elvis before but, for me, the greatest thing to ever come out of Memphis was the whole Stax/Volt thing. That's my kind of music right there.

Well Squeak you were VERY lucky.

My wife and I are going to Memphis to renew our vows (in the Chapel) for our 10th Anniversary!

(2008 - October 10th)

That link is very interesting btw.
(an Excerpt)

"Many black artists have spoken out to honor the singer. From bluesman BB King to rapper Chuck D, these influential musicians are helping to change perceptions of Elvis.

Elvis couldn't do it himself.

Soon after the Sepia rumor started, Elvis broke his media silence for an exclusive interview in Jet, another magazine targeted at black readers.

Some said he made the remark while in Boston. Elvis had never been to Boston. Others said they heard it on Edward R. Murrow's CBS TV show Person to Person. But after Elvis' manager Col. Tom Parker demanded an appearance fee, CBS balked and Elvis didn't go on the show.

The Jet article of 1957 further confirmed what friends and associates knew about Elvis all along: He truly loved and respected black musicians.

"A lot of people seem to think I started this business," he told Jet. "But rock n roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that."

Musicologists scoff at talk of a racist Elvis. A dirt-poor outcast at segregated Humes High School, he wore pink shirts and pomaded hair like the folks he admired down on Beale Street.


He listened religiously to Memphis's black radio station WDIA and became friends with then-disc jockey BB King, who later defended him in Sepia: "What most people don't know is that this boy is serious about what he's doing. He's carried away by it. When I was in Memphis with my band, he used to stand in the wings and watch us perform. As for fading away, rock and roll is here to stay and so, I believe, is Elvis. He's been a shot in the arm to the business and all I can say is 'that's my man'"

Elvis attended black church services. Two early No. 1 hits - Don't Be Cruel and All Shook Up - were by black songwriter Otis Blackwell. "

Now, in balance - this is an Elvis Fan site (Elvis.com.au), but if even half of what is said there is true, Elvis being racist DOES seem to be much more of a myth than reality.

Make up your own mind......

(what the hell was this thread about again??? lol)