Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2017 15:58:00 -0400
From: Joseph Brennan <brennan@columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: More Bee Gees out of boredom
Salvatore Compoccia via Words wrote:
> I've come to realize that songwriting credits (like official credit for
> many creative works) is a very imprecise and often arbitrary process. The
> Gibbs were apparently no exception.
Yeah. There are financial and legal implications for a credit, which can
result in credits at variance with the truth of who wrote the song.
Sometimes it's pressure from important people, like somebody's manager
getting credit, and sometimes it's a nice gesture.
If we seek accurate credits... well good luck with that. I am suspicious of
any album where all the songs are BR&M, and much less so where the credits
vary. But what is truth? The brothers have spoken of sitting together
writing songs, so BR&M is believable, and maybe for a whole album. We're
not going to know.
Barry may well have played Don't Wanna Live, complete, on guitar and asked
to hear it on piano.
> I read somewhere that on a standard vinyl disc, the running time on each
> side should optimally be 18 to 22 minutes. With 18-19 being preferred. I
> forgot the exact reason why this is so.
It's because the rotational speed is constant but the linear speed
decreases as you move inward. Let me think... diameter times pi... in first
groove on the disk you travel about 36 inches in one rotation, but near the
label you travel maybe 13 inches. So there's less and less room for data in
each rotation and fidelity gradually decreases. So a good cut would be
under 20 minutes and with a wide blank space around the label.
"In the Now" is 54 minutes as 12 songs, and very interestingly it's an
almost identical 27 minutes per 6-song "side", as if someone rather old
school took that into consideration! But 27-minute sides would reduce
fidelity.
The sound on CD looks like it's been compressed into a narrow range and set
to maximum volume. What passes for normal now in the recording world. It's
not a "brick" at least. I wouldn't expect it to sound better on LP.
Joe Brennan
Back to topDate: Wed, 5 Jul 2017 20:02:53 +0000 (UTC)
From: Marty Hogan <martyhogan@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: More Bee Gees out of boredom
Hi Joe:
The vinyl does sound slightly better to my ears than the CD, but even brand new, there are some consistent scratches (very minor) and little insignificant pops.
Your story about rotation lengths and how many minutes per LP side was interesting.
Marty From SLC
From: Joseph Brennan
To: Words List Member
Sent: Wednesday, July 5, 2017 1:58 PM
Subject: [Words] More Bee Gees out of boredom
Salvatore Compoccia via Words wrote:
> I've come to realize that songwriting credits (like official credit for
> many creative works) is a very imprecise and often arbitrary process. The
> Gibbs were apparently no exception.
Yeah. There are financial and legal implications for a credit, which can
result in credits at variance with the truth of who wrote the song.
Sometimes it's pressure from important people, like somebody's manager
getting credit, and sometimes it's a nice gesture.
If we seek accurate credits... well good luck with that. I am suspicious of
any album where all the songs are BR&M, and much less so where the credits
vary. But what is truth? The brothers have spoken of sitting together
writing songs, so BR&M is believable, and maybe for a whole album. We're
not going to know.
Barry may well have played Don't Wanna Live, complete, on guitar and asked
to hear it on piano.
> I read somewhere that on a standard vinyl disc, the running time on each
> side should optimally be 18 to 22 minutes. With 18-19 being preferred. I
> forgot the exact reason why this is so.
It's because the rotational speed is constant but the linear speed
decreases as you move inward. Let me think... diameter times pi... in first
groove on the disk you travel about 36 inches in one rotation, but near the
label you travel maybe 13 inches. So there's less and less room for data in
each rotation and fidelity gradually decreases. So a good cut would be
under 20 minutes and with a wide blank space around the label.
"In the Now" is 54 minutes as 12 songs, and very interestingly it's an
almost identical 27 minutes per 6-song "side", as if someone rather old
school took that into consideration! But 27-minute sides would reduce
fidelity.
The sound on CD looks like it's been compressed into a narrow range and set
to maximum volume. What passes for normal now in the recording world. It's
not a "brick" at least. I wouldn't expect it to sound better on LP.
Joe Brennan
"Words & Music", Fans Of The Brothers Gibb ( Bee Gees )
http://www.brothersgibb.com
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End Words@brothersgibb.com message digest 07/05/2017 21:01 (#2017-413)