Musicology

Well, there hasn't been anything to do photowise in the last 2 days.. no surf, and today no sunrise. Sucks because I am actually so much more tired at school when I don't go down in the morning than if I do.. weird. Anyway, instead, I've just been cleaning my bookshelf (yep, fun stuff.. i'm cool like that) and found some CDs, books and records.. nice. So I pulled them out, nothing extraordinary, Phoenix, Let it Be, Sgt. peppers, Between dreams, Tea and sympathy.. well okay, they all are pretty good.. as well as this there were 5 books, and a few records. The last thing I found in this particular section was the unmistakeable bland white plastic card for $20 on iTunes (not a bad thing.. we'll get to that). It was this juxtaposition that started me thinking.. the Cd's, records & books up against the card. 

So this arvo I was in JBHIFI looking for an album when in the line, in front of me, a kid was buying a $50 iTunes recharge card. Now, that could have been a gift for a friend, fair enough.. but it could have very well possibly have been for himself, that he would be taking home, and spending up later that night on the itunes store. The thing is, whatever music he is into, he could have bought the CD right there, in the store. So like many others, I wonder what has happened (or happening) to the other aspects of music.. things like the album art, owning the physical CD, books and photography. I think in many ways, people have forgotten about many of theses things. For me, a band or artist isn't just about the songs, its their image, thier views and all in all how it is presented.. for example, I'm a bigggggg fan of John Lennon, well of the beatles but specifically Lennon. And if you like, I can recommend some good books, (I will due to lack of anything else to do & rain).

    

 I have a little collection of Lennon books.. yeah, it looks obsessive but really its nothing. The first one there (Pic right) is a biography of his life, a brief one at that though.. its a really good simple book that won't take long to read.. also, its not all about the Beatles, which is a nice break. The second "Memories of John Lennon" is a compilation of letters and interviews from famous figures such as Elton John and Yoko Ono that are reflecting on his life, and their experience with him. Great read.. its not the thing you read cover to cover in one hit, just occasionally with a cup of tea perhaps. The third "John Lennon" is just a biography.. haven't read all of that. The fourth, "Let Me Take You Down" is an interesting one, its the story of the months leading up to, and including Lennon's assination by Mark Chapman (thats the gunman btw, not the author.. haha (sorry that not really funny is it..)). I mean of course it was horrible, and its not like you'd want to read more about it, but it is interesting on this guys view of things.. basically he believed that Lennon was a hypocrite, spoke of love, peace and equality yet lived a rockstar lifestyle. Oh and the fifth is "Scar Tissue" auto biography of Anthony Kedis, lead vocalist of the RHCP.

Oo the other amazing book I found.. cuddled up with my Let it Be record (yes, record.) was the Get Back book which was a Photojournalistic piece that documented the making of the record. Its soo great, I love it to bits. Its just full of awesome full and half and mini size photos of all the band doing their thing, and even photos from the rooftop concert. It also has pages on pages of transcripts from interviews of when they were recording.. pretty epic stuff.

So anyway, what the hell's my point.. well, I think in some ways people are loosing or missing some great things to do with bands and the like. They seem to listen to the songs, and think nothing more of it. There's way more to it. So get rid of your itunes cards (itunes is a great thing though, viva la ipod touch) and go buy some albums, and records and photography books and books on the band. Don't be restrained to a little digital flip through library on a 2" x 3" screen. This doesn't apply to all music, course it doesn't, but for goldie oldies, get into it, I mean c'mon, who wants to read a biography about fucking Ke$ha. 

I talk to much.

Back to photos tomorrow.

Im going to drink some tea and flip through Get back whilst listening to the scratchy imperfections of Abbey Road on record. Wanna join me? K