TubeLover

Well said, and very accurately so. But what Apple did expanded the scale massively, literally hundreds of millions of times. It made it legitimate, and so it was embraced by the general public. Napster was on the verge of being shutdown, to a significant degree, by record labels and the legal process and internet providers under pressure to do so. . Apple can also be blamed for staying with the garbage quality 128kb mp3's, and robbing the unknowing of nearly half the fidelity of a cd when they sold them music.They could have at least upgraded to 384k and been able to sleep at night! JC

Neither are many who were responsible for poor judgement, damaging great art and destroying things. But that doesn't overlook what they did in during their lifetime. JC

Neil honestly does deeply care about the sound quality of music. And to still be fighting the good fight, at his age, and given all he has been through is remarkable, and only underlines how serious he is about it. Despite the many hits he took for his Pono project, by far the greatest portion were not deserved.The Pono player was a exceptional music player in the one way that counted, sound quality. Pono was more or less derailed by Apple fueled (and probably funded) press that published ridiculous articles stating that people couldn't hear the difference between Hi Rez and the lowest grade of MP3. The company who operated the server farm utilized for Pono was also apparently sabotaged and undermined. And he is dead right to rail against Steve Jobs and Apple. They are to blame for the near absolute deterioration of the quality of available, recorded music. First for the ultimate evil that is iTunes, selling a generation of young listeners garbage audio quality music to make it fit into the pathetic storage capacity of their iPods. After all, profit is all that matters! They have further damaged the creation of music, globally, by creating a situation where the ADD addled generation just buy any singles they want, forget any thought of purchasing an actual "album". The album being the key format that endless bands have slaved over, for five or more decades. Their entire creative output has been intended to be listened to as a group of songs that make up an "album". JC

It can't be easy to be living in your mother's basement at forty, but these guys seem to have taken their interactions with others to a whole new level........ JC

Interesting article by Mikey Fremer talking about how the increase in sound quality of these remixed and remastered performances from the original tapes is "astonishing"! https://www.analogplanet.com/content/woodstock-back-garden-50th-anniversary-collection-full-surprises Might be time to reconsider things. JC

I understand, Josh, we are dealing with some of the greatest examples of musical art ever produced. Though, with Jimi Hendrix, it simply has to be Electric Ladyland. That was his zenith. And as for choosing between Who's Next, and Quadrophenia, a very difficult choice. Though I think Who's Next was a significantly more important work, historically, as much as I love Quadrophenia. As for Yes, I was fortunate enough to follow them from the beginning, and to see the Fragile, Close to The Edge and all later tours of significance. If you chose Fragile over Close, I would understand. JC

I saw that in the Hoffman Forum too, and then realized that I literally missed that $28.00 price by less than half an hour. Which, unfortunately, sums up a great deal of my life. JC

It wasn't absolute crap, but yes, certainly not remotely a high quality table and cartridge, heck, I was only 15! I did try to clean the discs though, based on someone telling me I should. JC

Well, thus far, you've been right in my wheelhouse, for the most part, since Hounds of Love, So, Surrealistic Pillow and the Crosby Stills and Nash debut album are all in my twenty five best rock era albums ever, and Aja isn't far behind. Things that immediately come to mind are Close To The Edge, by Yes, Electric Ladyland by Hendrix, Who's Next, and The Moody Blues, "Days of The Future Passed. I'll admit that your plans for Joni Mitchell's Blue have me very interested too. JC

I remember the day I bought that album, just after it was released, as though it was yesterday. I bought Deja Vu on the way to a weekend retreat with some monks that was sponsored by the Catholic School that I went to, for high school sophomores. Not only was that record the hit of the weekend, providing the musical soundtrack for the event, but even the monks got into it and kept asking me to replay it! JC

They will get my money too. The challenge here will be not double spending. I really want the cd boxed set to ensure I have the blu-ray, and the book. If the digital hi-res sound quality is really good, that means paying out for both JC

Any sentence including both iTunes and Hi-res must be completely disregarded. Its like saying healthy and cancer at the same time! JC

Josh, Another absolutely superb article. Thank you again for this superlative continuing series. Your taste as to which albums to write about is equally matchless. Each one has been one of what I consider to be amongst the finest achievements of their era, and all of rock history. JC

Don't tell me, yet another bootleg, firedog? And I only now just noted that the Blacckpool set from my other post is apart of this set. And almost certainly what you were referring to in your answer to my other question. JC

Thanks firedog, I was about 90% sure you would have information about this. I hadn't realized that bootlegs were now being marketed by "legitimate" companies like elusivedisc. Not necessarily a bad thing, just surprising. And also releasing limited editions too? Who knew. JC