I really want to buy Mojo Nixon’s “Bo-Day-Shus” album. The problem is that I think it is out of print. I was online a couple days ago to look at my options and I don’t really care for either of them.
Option #1 is to buy a used copy for $30 on CD. I don’t care for this option because I just don’t like paying over MSRP for music. It’s not like the artist is making all that extra profit. It’s just some dipshit that doesn’t realize he should be rocking out to his CDs rather than selling them.
Option #2 is to buy the whole album as an .mp3 download. I certainly cannot argue with the price at only $8. The other benefit is that I listen to my music collection about 99% of the time in the form of .mp3s anyway. I rip all my CDs to my computer and use that or my .mp3 player to play the songs.
But while Option #2 is convenient, I struggle with making the transaction. There is something about not physically possessing the CD that disturbs me. Why is that?
As I analyzed my fear of buying an album on .mp3 my first thought went to the CD packaging. I wouldn’t get the album cover. Nor would I get the liner notes and possibly the lyrics. I also wouldn’t get the satisfaction of sliding it into the CD rack with all its brothers and sisters that form the intimidating wall of rock in my living room.
But are any of those reason’s really good enough to pay $30 for a used CD when I could just spend $8 for the download?
Probably not.
What we have here is a case of me being an old man. I suspect that I’m going through the same moral dilemma the last generation went through when they were horrified to realize that some new releases would not come out on vinyl and they would have to buy it on CD. I think I’m just clinging to the old technology because that is what I’m familiar with and therefore it is very comfortable.
Because in the end, come on, am I ever going to actually play the physical CD once I rip it to .mp3? Am I ever going to look at the pictures more than once or refer to the liner notes when my first instinct when researching a band is the internet?
So why can’t I just push the button and buy the .mp3 album?
This is the part of getting old I don’t like. I can live with taking 4 or 5 times as long to recover from a hard night of drinking. I can take waking up every night to take a piss and then dribbling it everywhere because my urethra is played out. I can live with a metabolism that has all but ground to a complete halt. But I can’t handle the irrational notion that what I had in my past was the best just because it was from the “good old days”.
Alas, even though I see that is what’s happening it is still very hard to overcome. What a powerful force the “good old days” are. And if I can’t break out of this funk, I may as well just give in and start eating peanut brittle and watching re-runs of the Lawrence Welk show.
So I ask you to wish me luck, because there is only so long a sane man can go without listening to “Gin Guzzlin’ Frenzy”. Something will have to come to a head sooner rather than later.
The clock is ticking,
-David
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2 comments:
My sympathies on the hangover, urethra, and metabolism situation. Incidentally, I'm reminded of a joke Tony once told about a guy who goes to the doctor to find out what's wrong with his dick. After a very long setup, we find out that he wrings out every last drop of piss with both hands. Try to avoid that if you were the basis of that joke.
I've wondered this about the mp3's myself. I did just buy the Sweeney Todd soundtrack (Len Cariou version) off iTunes for $15 or something (double cd -- if that still has meaning). The first thing I did was immediately write it to a cd, which sometimes isn't worth what I paid for the blank. They don't always come out well. At any rate, I haven't listened to the "backups" that I burned.
Incidentally, I watched a Frontline about how the young people are so publicly documenting their lives on the internet and revealing all kinds of personal shit. 1) By watching a news program about young people immediately puts me in the "old" category. 2) But on the other hand, we're talking about our urethras and MRIs and nipple injections (see my latest entry) -- so take that you young fucks!
Okay, first off, I have vivid memories of deciding whether to buy the album or the CD, so I'm in the fucking generation before you. You young whippers of snaps with your urethra problems. At least you can still pee, I have to hop up and down until the urine comes out my mouth or butt.
I did recently buy my first mp3 download and immediately copied it onto a whole bunch of different computers so that I wouldn't lose it. I didn't enjoy the download at all. It was 80 cents, but inexplicably, I got it for free and it's still bothering me why.
Lou, by the way, I think buying the Sweeney Todd soundtrack and differentiating between the different incarnations of the musical puts you in the "old" category.
Oh, and I love that joke, I first heard Buddy Hackett tell it. "A man with a disfigured member..."
I LOVE "Gin Guzzlin.'" Thanks, Dave.
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