Force 12

The current batch of young whipper snappers that listen to music are starting to lose sight of the CD and are opting instead for mp3 downloads and what not. It's another musical turn of the page. I remember 8-tracks, but I can't speak intelligently about them. I may not be able to discuss any of the rest of this intelligently either... but let's maintain a suspension of disbelief for another few minutes so we can all get through this. We've seen vinyl move to 8 tracks to cassettes to CD's and now to downloadable files.

Back in the days when LP's were going the way of the Zeppelin and CD's were going the opposite way of the Zeppelin, the "album" changed. The ol' compact disc opened up more room for more music than the other mediums. Eight songs or nine songs were not enough. Ten to twelve was more like it. Fourteen to fifteen was not unreasonable either. The quality changed... purists would say sound quality took a turn for the worse, but durability and consistency of sound was certainly improved. That's a classic argument when vinyl is brought up. But I think there was a darker side to the new technology. Bands that could put out a solid 8 song album on vinyl were soon compelled to put out at least 25% more music... and many didn't have it in them. I think music quality dropped as the music became watered down in a search for more volume (not the noisy kind, the voluminous kind, like full bodied hair or 3 liter Pepsi vs 2 liter Pepsi. You try to make a 3 liter Pepsi last and not be a flat syrupy mess, and you usually fail. You try to make a 2 liter album a 3 liter album... you usually fail). Just a thought.

The dear, dear band from my college days, Rush was around during this upheaval (still are, in fact). If I remember it correctly, their album Hold your Fire had only 9 songs and "required" another to make a viable CD. They wrote a song, somewhat on the spot (they are Rush, so that may mean they spent the next three months working on it) and came up with the song Force Ten. Here's where my theory falls apart. I'd say that Force Ten was their most popular song on that album (not necessarily saying much). So out of this abbreviated story/fable, the question here is, as I force out a twelfth post this month, have I watered down my entire body of work or have I come up with the masterpiece at the eleventh hour? Twelfth post I'm writin', eleventh hour postin', ten lords a leapin', and so forth and so on and things of this nature.

Back to muzak. The album concept is quickly fading away, like so many fading Zeppelins. Making this most recent change from album to mp3 quite impact-ful, I'd say. I'd rather not examine my feelings about it just now as my emotions are too raw, my nerves too frayed and my stomach too empty.

Another time... perhaps at the next eleventh hour.