Handle With Care

I found irony tonight in the shopping cart while wandering through the Bullseye Boutique.

Right along side my son's I-tunes card sat my prized purchase -- the remastered and repackaged Traveling Wilburys collection, complete with DVD and four bonus tracks. Though I already own Volume 1 and Volume 3, and I was drawn to new releases by my all-time favorites Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, this was a priority purchase.

If you value the art of record-making, run (do not walk) to your favorite CD outlet/department store and fork up $25. You'll be glad you did if only for the glimpse into how a group of rock and roll stars managed to place friendship above egos to produce such wonderful music. The voice of Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison, may he rest in peace) is worth the purchase price all by itself. Add Charlie T. Jr. (Petty), Lucky Wilbury (Bob Dylan), Otis Wilbury (Jeff Lynne) and ringleader Nelson Wilbury (George Harrison) and you'll be doing the "Wilbury Twist."

We weren't even to the grocery section when I began to lament how I-tunes, in my view, has destroyed the art of record-making. Anyone, as American Idol has demonstrated all too well, can make a hit song. But a complete album that leaves your toes tapping from start to finish, seems to be a lost art (except for the aforementioned Springsteen and Petty).

What saddens me most is how accepting consumers are to this shift in the industry. Why buy the album (for lack of a better word) when I only want one song? Because, I demand, one song shouldn't be all there is. Green Day's "American Idiot" and Counting Crows' "August and Everything After" come to mind as examples that all hope is not lost.

But that I-tunes card really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not so old fashioned that I still own a turntable, but I haven't felt compelled to enter the I-pod world either. Am I the only one who still reads liner notes?

I quote Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press:

It's hard to imagine, 20 years later, that these records sold millions. They are way too spontaneous and organic, even with the polish of producer Lynne's glossy sheen. This is the sound of the authentic rock `n' roll as practiced by Orbison and the teenage pre-folkie Dylan, revered by Harrison and Lynne, and revisited by Petty.

It may, it seems, never die, as long as there is someone to remember just how great it can make you feel.