When was the last time you listened to a phonograph record, a nice clean one without pops and scrapes? I hadn’t in years but the other day I dusted off my old turntable and put on my now antique Moody Blues, “Days of Future Passed” album. Some of you may recall it was one of the first that blended psychedelic rock with backing from a classical orchestra.
As the opening score of “Dawn is a Feeling” diffused through the room, I suddenly remembered why God gave us ears! The sound of the analog recording, with its rich textures, melodic undertones and overtones, its depth and the haunting strings punctuated by the brass… honest to goodness made me misty. “Cold hearted orb, that rules the night…”
The clarity, the smoothness, the absence of that over-produced tininess that accompanies all the stuff coming off Pandora, was jarring.
I thought to myself, “We’ve become so accustomed to the digital and systems-driven world we’ve forgotten how superior the analog one is!” The shortcomings of the digital world are manifest everywhere. Think of how good it is to actually reach a human being once you’ve gotten through voice-mail jail? Or how good a hamburger on the grill tastes compared with what you get from the drive-up window.
The Wall Street Journal had an op-ed the other day with the title “Why Are There Still Not Enough Paper Towels?” The crux of the answer is that systems and digital, just-in-time manufacturing results in the slimmest inventories of everything from paper towels to automobile parts. When there is a surge in demand, such as with the pandemic, manufacturing simply cannot keep up.
Alas, therein is the consequence of moving from an analog to digital society. Hyper efficiency and the quest to maximize profit results in bare shelves when a virus explodes demand for hand sanitizer and toilet paper.
Can or should we move back to a kindler, gentler world, one where we don’t try to extract maximum utility from every minute of every day using apps and robotic shelf stocking?
Regrettably, it ain’t gonna happen. Gen Z doesn’t know what an LP sounds like, and frankly, wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the original analog recording of “Nights in White Satin” and the compressed, 44k sampled digital version emanating from their ear buds.
From spraying artificial flowers with fake flower scent, which means you can make a philodendron smell like jasmine…to almond milk which tastes kind of like real milk, the virtual world is becoming the REAL WORLD.
“So what”, you say?
Well, find yourself a stereo turntable hooked up to a McIntosh tube amplifier and a pair of quality, vintage speakers, put on a pristine 33 1/3 LP of “Days of Future Passed”, sit back, close your eyes and listen.
THAT’S what.
