[Slowhand] Standing at the Crossroads

[Ken Norris]

Let me start by reminding everyone that, in recent interview, Bob Dylan said that nothing recorded in the past twenty years
SOUNDS any good. 

So our liberating technology may be ruining our ears, and ruining our music. 

I have EC bootlegs from the early 90s that sound very good indeed, especially those recorded at the RAH or at the Budokan.

What I want to know is if something like dimeadozen is ruining the music? It's compressing it, isn't it? It's turning it all into
mp3s. As is iTunes. 

A large part of me thinks that, while Almighty Geetarz was on vacation, the quality battle was lost. We shifted over from a trading
community to a dissemination community, and what we disseminate, if I understand the terminology, is "lossy" recordings (forgive
me, I'm a technopeasant, and couldn't do any of the heavy audiophile lifting if you explained it to me as if I were a child).

What iTunes and dimeadozen give us is access. On the other hand, what they give us is an inferior product. And there is a trade-off
involved, isn't there? I used to spend a lot of money BUYING EC boots back in the early 90s. Then I entered the trading community,
and the trades were variable. Sometimes they were pristine, other times they had the two second gaps, and sometimes they were
mere Aud2 and fairly unlistenable. The stuff that's been circulating since Cream Maximum hit dimeadozen is listenable mp3 
quality, I believe. And 90% of us can't tell the difference. 

I have very mixed feelings about all of this. I, too, like pristine recordings, and obviously prefer them. But when you can get a copy
of a recording of a Cream show three days after it happens, well, you have to praise the technology, don't you?

I don't really know where any of this is going. All I know is that we are standing at the crossroads. And have been for a while. 

Best,

Ken