The Day the Music Burned

Subject: The Day the Music Burned
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 11:08 AM

Anybody know what music of interest to us might have gone?

NYT story about the 2008 fire

Subject: RE: The Day the Music Burned
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 11:38 AM

Thank you Jack...a fascinating read.
I learned a lot from it.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

For a similar subject...I highly recommend Susan Orlean's book, The Library Book, about the Los Angeles Public Library fire of 1986.

Subject: RE: The Day the Music Burned
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 11:40 AM

' However, The New York Times Magazine reports that a storehouse of master music recordings, the original recordings from which all subsequent copies are derived, was destroyed. Virtually all of Buddy Holly’s masters were lost in the fire, as well as work by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Chuck Berry, Burt Bacharach, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, Don Henley, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Eminem, and 50 Cent. “It was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business,” the newspaper reports. ' (thedailybeast) I was unable to access the article in the link, so my apologies if the quote is redundant.

Subject: RE: The Day the Music Burned
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Jun 19 - 02:09 AM

Jack Campin - "of interest to us"? You can't be serious. This is a tragic loss of cultural heritage. You might as well ask, if the Mona Lisa were to burn, if that should concern anyone who's not a portrait painter.

Subject: RE: The Day the Music Burned
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Jun 19 - 03:41 AM

The people named all had a long inventory of released recordings, and while there would be some loss of quality from not having the masters, losing that wouldn't be hugely important. But there was presumably more to it. Louis Armstrong might have had significant unreleased stuff, given the extraordinary amount of recording he did, but I just don't know.

Did they have much never-released trad-ish material?

Subject: RE: The Day the Music Burned
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 14 Jun 19 - 05:27 PM

Follow Up...

Los Angeles Times report on Friday, June 14 about pending lawsuits regarding the 2008 fire.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-umg-fire-recordings-lawsuits-universal-studios-20190613-story.html

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Nothing lasts forever...and accidents do happen...go for the "deep pockets.

Subject: RE: The Day the Music Burned
From: michaelr
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 08:39 PM

As the article explains, recording technology was decades ahead of playback technology, e.g. the recent re-mix of Sgt Pepper which thrilled with previously unheard detail, depth and clarity. The same is true for the 2018 re-mix of The Band's Big Pink. These achievements are only possible thanks to the latest digital technology. So it's crucial to be able to access the original masters.

Then there is an unknown quantity of unreleased material that was destroyed. We'll never know what it was, but I'm comfortable guessing that the mainstream US hit machine did not then concern itself much more with trad-ish material than it does now.