Friday, January 28, 2022

Neil Young: great Canadian musician. Whassup?

I love Neil Young's music.  Once upon a time he wrote a song called "The Needle and the Damage Done," observing the death of his bandmate.

I hit the city and I lost my band

I watched the needle take another man

Gone, gone, the damage done

I'm glad for his sake Young (apparently) hasn't lost friends to the COVID shot.  I hope none of them have been injured by it. I happen to know more people injured by the liability-free gene therapy injection than I know junkies.  

I'm wondering why Neil Young thought he needed to bully Spotify into cancelling Joe Rogan?  Didn't he know that Rogan is more popular now than Young ever was, even back in the day?

But maybe there was something else going on.  This AP article clues us in that Young actually had a secondary motive.  Years ago, I heard Young talk, in an interview, about his concern that the sound quality of electronic music, as compared to vinyl, was poor.  The range of frequencies was reduced.  I don't recall what else he said.  But the last sentence in the AP article, which I reproduce below, suggests that Young is simply moving his catalogue to another venue with preferable sound quality:

"An audiophile, Young said his fans now have the chance to listen to his music in places where it will sound better."

Was this an excuse to ease out of Spotify? 

I don't plan to stop listening to Neil Young.  He is a musical genius.  We don't have to make false choices like Young versus Rogan.  This is America.  Let's keep it that way. Keep on rockin' in the free world! 

9 comments:

Robert Auld said...

As far as I know, the audio quality provided by Spotify is about the same as other music streaming platforms, such as YouTube. Most of them use some form of digital audio data compression, which can sound quite good if encoded properly. Regardless, it is better to avoid such data compression, as there is the potential for audible degradation of the audio signal that is not completely predictable. That is the argument for using uncompressed digital formats for music playback.

As to the vinyl-vs-digital reproduction argument, my experience as an audio engineer is that vinyl records can sound very good a lot of the time, but have numerous flaws that can become very audible some of the time. Digital reproduction at the Compact Disk level or better can sound excellent, PROVIDED that everything is done right in the production process. Unfortunately, CDs are often subject to mastering techniques that degrade their inherent quality--a classic case of garbage-in, garbage-out. But this is a production problem, not a problem of the digital format itself.

Anonymous said...

Among other things, Neil Young is a race baiter. He tried to blame the Kent State shooting (in Ohio) on the southern man. Remember!?

Pogo said...

Excuse? It was a stroke of marketing genius. He’s got more free publicity than money can buy. Also, many passed fans of Rogan on Youtube have not yet signed up to Spotify and so this stunt could be seen as a reminder. Win, Win, Win.

Lneale62 said...

And now Joni Mitchell. 😢 These artists were the voices for freedom back in the 60’s. What has happened to them?! I’m sure they would not be making this stand if they understood the corruption involving our government agencies and big pharma. Stand strong Spotify!

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's personally hard to see the musical icons of my own youth, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, taking such misguided positions on the most important issue of the current time. They paved paradise and put up a walmart pharmacy...

Anonymous said...

Neil Who? Is he supposed to be famous?

Anonymous said...

‘I hope neil young will remember, a spotify man don’t need him around anyhow. Turn it up’ 😬

Aletho News said...


Very interesting background on Joni and Neil.

Listen to the interview:

https://alethonews.com/2018/11/13/inside-laurel-canyon-with-dave-mcgowan/

An article with more:

https://alethonews.com/2019/09/21/laurel-canyon-haven-of-peace-love-and-military-intelligence/

and read the book by Dave McGowan.

GOOGE ARCHIPELAGO said...

Loved that book! Raised many questions more than anything but his research skills were fine. So many rich factoids. Want to read more of McGowan's books like 'Derailing Democracy: the America the Media Don't Want You to See' and 'Programmed to Kill'