Is this the most boring and pretentious track ever on an album?

jimcjimc
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Fri Jul 26, 2013 11:07 am

I have hundreds of old record albums, mostly from the 70s. For many of my favorites, I also have a CD. But, I have lots of albums that I haven't listened to in ages.

One of my projects - although I may not have the patience for it - is to convert some of the albums to MP3.

I semi-randomly picked Simon and Garfunkle's Bookends as a test case.

I converted one side on a PC using audacity. I converted the other side on a MAC using GarageBand.

first a question - Does anyone have experience (and suggestions) for a conversion project like this? Which tool, any best practices?

First impressions - it is time consuming and I may not have the patience for it.

Anyway - to the question in the subject.

Bookends has some great tracks (America, Mrs Robinson), but is there a more boring, pretentious, artist-ego-driven track on any pop LP than "Voices of Old People" ???? - "Art Garfunkle recorded old people in various locations...."


wwright
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Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:08 pm

I tried a DAK product - http://www.dak.com/Reviews/2020Story.cfm
It was okay - not great, but time comsuming. I find that its easier just to purchase the songs I'm interested in from ITunes at 99 cents, with very little time invested.

I do use the DAK Wave and MP3 Editor Pro to time shift internet radio. I set up a timed recording for the shows I want to hear and record them as they stream on my computer. Then I save the file and copy it to my iPod to listen to later.


trix606
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Sun Aug 04, 2013 4:55 am

I don't use one, but there are USB turntables that allow you to create MP3s from albums. Here is a bunch ion Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1& ... 0turntable.
And you are right it does seem time consuming. Like wwright, I buy the albums again on iTunes or Amazon and keep the LP for the artwork.

As for the pretentiousness of the song, at first I thought surely that you would list some prog-rock behemoth (that I probably own). But no, I had not heard it so I tracked it down on YouTube and I am not sure. I guess it would have come off better if Paul had added some guitar underneath the voices. Their albums usually contain some head scratchers among the gems.
More pretentious even are the Simon and Garfunkel inspired Kings of Convenience IMHO. :)


cosmicmechanic
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Sun Aug 04, 2013 8:17 pm

Hi Jim,

To judge the track fairly, I have to take myself back to 1968 when it came out. Back then audio recordings weighed SO much more heavily in value than they do today.

This was also the time when the majority of the North American population was less than 30 years old, and the phrase "Don't trust anybody over 30" seemed a wise statement.

And if I remember correctly, that generation was heavily into the "Age of Aquarius" ... B) It was a very wild period in recent history.

Since the recordings were 33 rpm vinyl, we generally let whole album sides play back then, and didn't want to bother having to get up to reposition the turntable's needle arm just to skip a short track and also risk adding even more scratches to the record.

Which leads me to think that this recording was "only a bit" daring, since an too-long bad track might screw up the whole dynamic of that side of the album (for example "... number 9 ... number 9 ...").

So since S&G kept it short, I feel that "Voices of Old People" was an acceptable track.

The listener would probably have kept that album playing, with a thought for those "untrustables" who were much older than 30,
and that might have incited whatever reflections came about ... like about aging, values, or just "get out of my hair" ...

Interesting question, Jim ... remember when ? :side:

Pierre


jimcjimc
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Mon Aug 05, 2013 7:26 pm

thanks to wwright and trix606 fot the suggestions. I haven't attempted to record any more albums since the first one. you probably are both correct - just buy the tracks I want - in any case, I will try to listen to some of the albums I have but I haven't listened to in ages.

Thanks, Pierre for your thoughtful posting. I am trying to recall those days in 1968 and beyond listening to this album. The track in question is smack dab in the middle of side one - I suppose it is meant to be a lead-in to the song "OLd friends"

I can't recall if I got up and manually skipped the track each time or not.

By the way, I am currently on a driving vacation: Lake Tahoe, Mt Lassen, Crater Lake, Rogue River, and currently Ashland. the drive through Oregon reminds me of my drive last summer to PSGW and fun times meeting you guys!!


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