Is this how far we've come, that we emphasize money over magic? I really don't give a shit who owns the original masters, but I do care about the original music. Never mind the heinous remixing done these days in an effort to modernize the albums of yore, ruining them in an effort to clean them up. What happens is over time the new version gets prioritized over the old, as a result of search engine algorithms, and the great is lost to the mediocre.
How can I explain this?
Well, let's start with the fact that fans know this music by heart, BY HEART! Can't anybody respect the fans instead of their wallets? Why doesn't everybody with a bad deal, even a good deal, go out and recut their past masters in a dash for cash. As a matter of fact, a bunch of aged rockers have done this, to absolutely ridiculous results, and the worst is people are fooled time and time again. I've even been caught myself, linking to a take from the sixties, not one I know extremely well, and I hear from fans that it's not the original, so don't tell me this is not a problem.
So, if you know these albums by heart, you can tell IMMEDIATELY that they're different. Just happened to me. I pulled up the new "Fifteen" and from the very first note, THE VERY FIRST NOTE, I could tell it was different. Compare them. It's obvious...IF YOU'RE A FAN, if you played these tracks incessantly, which I did, back when Taylor Swift was singing from her heart and still cowriting with someone who focused on songs instead of production, i.e. Liz Rose. Anybody can make a hit with Max Martin or Jack Antonoff... And I don't mean to criticize just Swift here, but people like the Weeknd too, who start off as individuals and then buy into the system to have hits, is this what we've come to, I thought it was about innovation, and believe me, the first two Taylor Swift albums were innovative, an honest teenage viewpoint in country music.
So what we've got is all these wanker writers lauding, genuflecting, kneeling in front of Taylor Swift...it's the worst of bandwagonism, no different from the ignorant following Trump, never mind the bozos in Congress, truth is out the window, as are facts, if we say it is so, it is, BUT IT'S NOT!
You can replicate digital items, but not human-made ones, they're always a bit different. But even worse, when you're consciously trying to replicate something it changes your mind-set, you become cautious, you're busy trying to get it right as opposed to channeling greatness, going into the great unknown on a journey of inspiration and excellence. HOW COME NOBODY WILL ACKNOWLEDGE THIS!
The truth is all these idiots writing about this remake album are not big enough fans to know they're different, they're talking about Swift today and someone else tomorrow, and you wonder why the public doesn't trust the news, this is just the problem, people who went to journalism school, focusing on the who, what, why, where, when and how when the truth is that paradigm is history in the internet world, there's an expert in every vertical, and every expert will tell you these albums are different, and that the magic has been excised. As my shrink says, you change one little thing and the whole picture changes. As Irving Azoff told me, when discussing Don Henley's need to get it exactly right, that's what makes him and the Eagles so great, that extra 1%, and no matter the scuttlebutt...PEOPLE CAN TELL!
Of course Swift fans will embrace and digest anything she does, it's fandom in the modern age, where you've got almost nothing else to hang on to. You believe in what you do, defend it even if it's inaccurate, and employ a scorched earth policy, burning all "haters."
Come on, while we're redoing "Fearless," why don't we redo the Declaration of Independence, make it more readable in this digital age.
And the faux pas in presidential speeches. Come on, we can get rid of the ums and ahhs. And I'm sure George Bush, every living president, would like to redo their speeches to make them better. But that's not how life works, it's one and done!
And that's what makes art so great, it's of a time, lightning was captured in a bottle, and you might get struck twice, the odds are extremely low, but it is never by the exact same bolt in the exact same place, never ever. Which is why true artists are always looking forward, not back, trying to push the envelope, capture the zeitgeist once again.
I truly don't care where the money goes, everybody in this picture has enough, both Taylor and the investment company owning the originals. That's not what it's truly about, but that's what it is about in a bizarre world where money triumphs in all angles, where no one accepts a loss, where no one can be hurt. Come on, bring it down to street level, you can't fire anybody today, even if they've done a bad job. And if a kid screws up in school...it's the school's fault!
So what we have here is one of the best albums of the century, preserved pristinely, but because of some supposed moral scuffle, which I don't even accept, it has to be redone and pushed aside. Not to mention...SWIFT STILL GETS PAID ROYALTIES ON THE ORIGINAL ALBUM(S)!
As for the blind followers who believe Swift was screwed... I hope they don't walk out the front door, because the entire world is caveat emptor, and at best you can file a lawsuit, and even if you win you probably won't be able to collect, assuming the cost to sue doesn't supersede the money in question to begin with. And let's not forget, Swift didn't sue...BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T HAVE A LEGAL LEG TO STAND ON!
But the public knows nothing about business. Otherwise, people would make much better financial decisions. But instead of listening to those in the know, they take their lead from Taylor Swift, who might know music and stardom but is in the backseat when it comes to money.
But this isn't about Swift either... It's about the writers writing about Swift, her remake album. We're gonna have to hear for another week how successful it is, and it will enter at number one, and the perception will be that Swift won.
But she didn't, she lost.
And you know who lost most?
The fans. They've been screwed by her just like they are by big corporations, their interests are not respected.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, tell you what it means to me? HONESTY, ORIGINALITY, ACCEPTANCE THAT LIFE IS CHIAROSCURO, THAT ART IS IMPERFECT, AS ARE DEALS. They call that being human on the planet, no one is unscathed, but we look to art to escape, but when money enters the equation...UGH!!!
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