Whale Blubber

Whale Blubber

“I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate—history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.”

— Brian Eno, in an interview with The Guardian, 2010

Does he mean vinyl and CDs or digital music too? You would think in this day and age of easy access to media at a time and place that is convinient to the user, that “recorded” music has a bigger and bigger role.

Whale blubber, some eskimo is probably deeply insulted by this!

Phil.

That’s the way of things. Progress.

Our nature is built for stagnancy as a mass, but individually I think we really want change. So you get little pockets like us.

My issue is that most mainstream music these days is live PA. I want it to return to the jam bands and real creation of the 60’s. My mom saw the Allman Brothers and Queen jam together for 6 hours when she was 18. We have very little like that anymore.

I love Brian Eno. Can’t buy enough of his records too, LOL!